According to the court order, on December 10, 2021, the parties used the Microsoft Randomizer to randomly select eight percent of the bellwether pool for each cancer type.
The selected plaintiffs shall produce signed authorizations and a list of medical providers. The parties will then begin the process of records collections to vet the initial discovery pool. The parties will agree on the eligibility criteria by March 1, 2022.
By August 1, 2022, the parties will submit to the court the initial discovery pool of plaintiffs whose claims satisfy the eligibility criteria. This will constitute the final discovery pool.
Judge Rosenberg indicated that the parties will be ready to commence the first bellwether trial in the summer of 2023, “if not sooner.”
Parties In Zantac Lawsuit Determine Guidelines For Selecting Bellwether Pool
In a pretrial order filed November 19, 2021, Judge Robin L. Rosenberg outlined the procedures to prepare for the selection of the cases that will proceed to bellwether trials, currently scheduled the begin in the summer of 2023.
As of the date of the order, over 1,800 Zantac lawsuits were pending in the MDL court. For the initial discovery pool, the parties have agreed that only plaintiffs residing in the state of Florida will be considered.
The reasons for this are:
The court has subpoena power over witnesses with case-specific information about Florida plaintiffs.
The parties agree that Florida plaintiffs are similar to other plaintiffs nationwide.
The parties agree that Florida state law is “kind of in the middle” when it comes to various state laws concerning this type of case, which should be helpful from the standpoint of formulating settlement values.
The parties have also disclosed the types of cancer that they intend to litigate in this MDL. These include:
First State Level Zantac Lawsuits To Proceed Earlier In CA
The first federal bellwether Zantac trials are expected to begin in 2023, but the first lawsuits to be litigated are expected to occur earlier at the state level in California, KHTS reports.
The first official Zantac trial is set for October 10, 2022, in the Alameda County Superior Court, to be presided over by Judge Evelio Grillo.
More than 150,000 people have filed injury claims against manufacturers of Zantac, including Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim. Zantac was recalled from the marketplace in 2020 after testing by the FDA and the independent pharmacy, Valisure, detected NDMA, a potentially cancer-causing contaminant in the drug.
Defendants of these lawsuits are accused of failing to warn users about the possible breakdown of ranitidine into NDMA and the compound’s associated increased risk of cancer.
California’s version of the MDL process is known as the Judicial Council Coordinated Proceedings, or JCCP. In both the federal MDL and California JCCP, the lawsuits are consolidated as one issue rather than having each individual case addressed as a separate trial matter.
Plaintiffs who have developed either bladder, liver, pancreatic, stomach or esophageal cancer after taking Zantac are still eligible to file a lawsuit.
Generic Zantac, also known as ranitidine, will not be covered in either the MDL or the California JCCP. Only brand name Zantac claims are being considered. Generic makers of Zantac, including Teva Pharmaceuticals, were cleared of liability in 2021 when Judge Rosenberg ruled that federal law prevented them from facing litigation.
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