The Texas JPML on Wednesday granted consolidation request for 16 opioid lawsuits by the defendants Purdue Pharma, McKesson Corp. and other opioid makers and distributors from Texas counties.
Considering the common ground for all these cases, the panel decided that a single pretrial judge should take charge of these 16 cases and any tag-along cases that may follow against all defendants.
More than 400 opioid-related lawsuits are centralized as a part of a multidistrict litigation, MDL No. 2804 (In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation) in the Northern District of Ohio before U.S. District Judge Dan A. Polster. The first state court trial against Opioid Big Pharma industry and its affiliates is slated to begin in May 2019 in Oklahoma.
