According to the letter sent by Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPI) defendant attorneys on June 12, Judge Cecchi was requested to remove 13 pending cases in the MDL No. 2789 that involve gastric cancer or stomach cancer injuries, as they do not involve kidney injuries for which this MDL was established.
The complaints about failure to warn on the effects of Prilosec, Nexium, Prevacid, and heartburn medications continue to grow; the drug manufacturers indicated that the gastric cancer lawsuits should not be centralized together with other claims and to handle cases differently as it involves different science, different experts, different testimony and argue that the claims involving stomach and gastric cancer should be handled separately as gastric cancer lawsuits will distract the parties and the MDL Court’s resources from the pending kidney claims.
Currently, there are more than 12,300 Prilosec, Protonix, Nexium, Prevacid lawsuits, and other claims brought by plaintiffs indicating that they developed chronic kidney disease, acute kidney injury, and other renal complications.
Judge Cecchi established a bellwether process where a small group of representative cases involving kidney injury is being prepared for early trial dates according to the schedule provided by the court. The first bellwether trial is expected to begin on September 21, 2020.
Lawsuits over PPIs are filed across the U.S., which are centralized as a part of multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 2789; In Re: Proton-Pump Inhibitor Products Liability Litigation |LS|No. II|RS|) in the District of New Jersey before Judge Claire C. Cecchi for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.
