As the Taxotere litigation convened its status conference on July 18, a joint status report was submitted a day prior highlighting the case progress so far. Lawsuits involving the chemotherapy drug' s alleged hair loss is underway in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, overlooked by MDL Judge Jane Triche Milazzo (MDL No.2740; In Re: Taxotere (Docetaxel) Products Liability Litigation).
The status report indicates about 9,100 Taxotere lawsuits are centralized for pretrial proceedings in Louisiana, and in state courts of California, Illinois, New Jersey, and Delaware, though most of these have been moved to federal court. Discovery of defendants and trial case is still in the progress. The report states, "Plaintiffs have served merits discovery on Sanofi, and the Sanofi Defendants have begun the process of producing responsive documents. Plaintiffs have also served merits discovery on Accord Healthcare, Inc., the Hospira/Pfizer Defendants, and Sandoz Inc. and have begun to receive productions. The parties have met and conferred multiple times about this discovery served by the Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs and Defendants are also conducting depositions in the cases selected for trial. The parties are generally addressing discovery disputes with Magistrate Judge North.”
Taxotere bellwether trials are slated to begin on May 13-24, 2019, and additional trials would be held on September 16, 2019; January 27, 2020; May 11, 2020; and September 14, 2020.
