Lawsuit Update Center

Numerous women have brought lawsuits concerning vaginal mesh against multiple medical device firms due to injuries stemming from flawed transvaginal mesh implants. This article aims to outline the issues linked with vaginal mesh implants and their role in precipitating one of the most substantial mass litigation cases in history. Additionally, it will provide updates on the ongoing vaginal mesh class action lawsuit and offer insights into potential eligibility for individuals considering initiating their own legal action concerning vaginal mesh complications.

About Vaginal Mesh Implants

Vaginal mesh, also known as transvaginal mesh, represents a specific type of surgical mesh implant utilized to reinforce and bolster weakened or injured tissue during surgical procedures. These mesh products are tailored for female pelvic reconstructive surgeries, commonly performed to address pelvic organ prolapse and/or stress urinary incontinence. These conditions arise due to the weakening of pelvic muscles, allowing organs such as the uterus, bladder, or rectum to descend into the vaginal area. Surgical intervention aims to repair and fortify these weakened pelvic muscles.

Recent studies have established that prolonged use or exposure to the industrial herbicide paraquat (Grameoxone) can lead to the development of early-onset Parkinson’s disease. Now thousands of agriculture workers are filing paraquat lawsuits alleging that they developed Parkinson’s due to occupational exposure to paraquat.

The paraquat cases have been consolidated into a “class action” MDL which should eventually results in a global settlement with payments to all claimants. This post will look at how much settlement compensation paraquat plaintiffs might reasonably expect to get.

Related Paraquat Posts

Warfarin is an anticoagulant medication commonly used to prevent blood clots and stroke in individuals with certain medical conditions such as atrial fibrillation, heart valve replacement, and deep vein thrombosis. It works by blocking the production of certain clotting factors in the blood. Warfarin is one of the most widely prescribed anticoagulants and has been in use for over 60 years.

This page looks at Warfarin side effects and litigation that has surrounded this medication.

• Eliquis side effects

Our lawyers are investigating toxic baby food autism lawsuits.

What triggered our involvement in these cases was a congressional investigation last year that revealed that many popular brands of baby foods in the U.S. contain dangerously high levels of toxic heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and arsenic. Scientific evidence and studies have shown that consumption of these metals during infancy and early childhood can cause neurologic damage and autism.

Product liability lawsuits are now being filed nationwide against baby food manufacturers. These baby food autism lawsuits allege that the manufacturers knowingly sold their products with unsafe levels of toxic metals and that the plaintiffs developed autism spectrum disorders from consuming them in their baby foods.

Nexium, or esomeprazole, is a drug that is used to treat heartburn and excessive amounts of acid in the stomach. Specifically, it is used to treat duodenal and gastric ulcers, esophagitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Nexium is a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) that decreases the amount of acid produced in the stomach. Other drugs that are in the same class as Nexium include Prevacid and Prilosec. Approximately 15 million Americans use PPIs that are sold both as prescription and over-the-counter. Nexium sales exceed $3 billion a year.

Nexium Class Action Lawsuit Updates 

October 2023: AstraZeneca agreed to a $425 million settlement to resolve approximately 11,000 lawsuits related to Nexium and Prilosec. This settlement addresses claims that long-term use of these proton pump inhibitors led to kidney injuries, including chronic kidney disease and renal failure. The settlement was announced shortly before the first bellwether trial was scheduled to begin on October 10, 2023.

March 2023: The bellwether trial in the Nexium PPI litigation that was supposed to get started this month has now been postponed to June 5, 2023. Two additional bellwether trials will follow in July and September. No explanation for the postponement was given, but many believe that was done because the parties are close to a settlement. 

August 2022:  Defendants in the PPI MDL had moved to dismiss all failure to warn claims in the PPI class action lawsuit because they are preempted. The argument, and it is a weak one, is that because the FDA (a federal agency) approved the warning labels, state law claims cannot be brought. 

Our lawyers talked about this in the last update in June – this motion is crucial because the crux of this class action lawsuit is that you knew of this problem with kidney injuries yet you did not change their product, instructions, guidelines, or, most importantly, warn doctors of the risk. 

The Special Master in the MDL likely put this issue to bed in the Prilosec-Nexium class action lawsuit. issued a report to the MDL Judge recommending that this argument be rejected because the defendants cannot show that the FDA would have rejected proposals for stronger warnings about kidney damage. The first bellwether trial in the MDL is set for November.

June 2022: The defendants in the Nexium-Prilosec PPI class action MDL have filed motions for summary judgment in the upcoming bellwether test trials. The primary legal argument in this motion is based on a doctrine called federal preemption. The preemption doctrine holds that victims are blocked from bringing tort lawsuits under state law if there is a federal law that protects the defendants from liability. The Special Master in the MDL recently allowed both parties to submit additional briefing to address how a recently decided case on the preemption issue (In re Fosamax Alendronate Prod. Liab. Lit.) could potentially impact the issues in the Nexium-Prilosec cases. Our lawyers have read the Fosamax case (which rules in favor of defendants on a preemption argument), and in our opinion, it is not applicable to the issues in the PPI cases.

April 2022: There are around 13,500 lawsuits pending in the Nexium-Prilosec PPI class action MDL.  The first trial will be in October.  The hope is that a few trials will set settlement amounts for Nexium kidney lawsuits. But many class action lawsuits – at least lately – have had trials, and the parties still could not agree on a settlement amount for the victims.  So the judge, in this case, wants to keep the pressure on the lawyers.  So if a global settlement is not reached, the MDL Judge has identified a group of 200 cases that the parties will be preparing for trial over the next 16 months.

• These drugs have had a troubled history.  Zantac, which was long considered a great and safe drug, has now been associated with cancer.

Problems with Nexium

Nexium is a controversial drug.  At one point, bone fracture lawsuits were all the rage because there was data suggesting Nexium, particularly the long-term use of Nexium, would cause bone fractures and breaks.  Our lawyers believed many of these lawsuits were meritorious.  But the litigation did not get very far.

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The Gardasil HPV vaccine was developed by Merck & Co. and pushed onto the market in 2006. Since then, the Gardasil vaccine has been administered to millions of adolescent girls in the U.S. Recent research has established that the Gardasil HPV vaccine can induce a host of autoimmune disorders including Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), Orthostatic Intolerance (OI), and many other conditions. These women are now bringing Gardasil vaccine lawsuits against Merck.

February 2023 Gardasil Lawsuit News

This week, Merck filed a motion seeking dismissal of all Gardasil claims based on design defect theories. Design defect claims against vaccine manufacturers are barred under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. If granted, the relief sought in this motion would significantly narrow the scope of the claims in the Gardasil MDL.