Defective Drug Lawyers in 2026: Active MDLs & Settlements

Current pharmaceutical and medical device litigation our firm handles:

• Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and other GLP-1 agonists: gastroparesis, severe bowel obstruction, ileus, gallbladder disease. MDL 3094, E.D. Pa., Judge Karen Marston.
• Chemical hair relaxers and straighteners: uterine cancer, endometrial cancer, ovarian cancer linked to long-term use of L'Oreal, SoftSheen-Carson, Strength of Nature, and other products. MDL 3060, N.D. Ill., Judge Mary Rowland.
• Suboxone (buprenorphine/naloxone) tooth decay: severe dental injuries, tooth loss, and oral infections from sublingual film. MDL 3092, N.D. Ohio.
• Paragard IUD: device breakage during removal, migration, perforation, hysterectomy. MDL 2974, N.D. Ga., Judge Leigh May.
• Bard PowerPort implanted port catheter: implanted vascular access port fracture, migration, infection, thrombosis. MDL 3081, D. Ariz.
• AFFF firefighting foam: PFAS exposure linked to kidney cancer, testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease. MDL 2873, D.S.C., Judge Richard Gergel.
• Philips CPAP, BiPAP, and ventilator recall: degraded polyester-based polyurethane (PE-PUR) sound abatement foam, respiratory injury, cancer. MDL 3014, W.D. Pa., Judge Joy Conti.
• Tylenol acetaminophen autism-ADHD: in-utero exposure claims. MDL 3043; federal cases substantially dismissed by Judge Cote (S.D.N.Y.) in 2023, state-court litigation continues.
• Paraquat herbicide: Parkinson's disease from agricultural exposure. MDL 3004, S.D. Ill.
• Hernia mesh: Bard, Atrium C-QUR, Covidien, Ethicon Physiomesh. Multiple MDLs and state-court inventories. Bard global settlement reached late 2024 (~$184M+).
• Talc / Johnson & Johnson baby powder: ovarian cancer and mesothelioma from cosmetic talc contaminated with asbestos. LTL Management bankruptcy posture; cases proceeding through state courts.
• Zantac (ranitidine): NDMA contamination linked to bladder, stomach, esophageal, liver, and pancreatic cancers. Federal MDL 2924 dismissed December 2022 (Daubert); state-court cases continue, particularly in Delaware and California.

Other recent and historic mass-tort drug recoveries our attorneys have worked on or monitored include Vioxx, Yaz/Yasmin, Risperdal, Pradaxa, Xarelto, 3M Combat Arms earplugs, Singulair (montelukast), Belviq, and Roundup.

If your drug or device is not listed, we still want to hear from you. Active MDLs are added regularly, and many viable claims proceed individually in state court.

Pharmaceutical and medical device claims arise under three product liability theories:

• Failure to warn (warning defect): The manufacturer knew or should have known of a risk and failed to adequately disclose it. Most modern drug cases proceed under this theory. The warning must be adequate to the prescribing physician under the learned intermediary doctrine. Examples: failure to warn of Ozempic gastroparesis risk, Suboxone tooth decay, Paragard breakage on removal.
• Design defect: The drug or device as designed is unreasonably dangerous, and a safer alternative design existed. Courts apply either the consumer-expectations test, the risk-utility test, or a combined test depending on state. Examples: Vioxx COX-2 inhibitor cardiovascular risk profile; hernia mesh polypropylene migration.
• Manufacturing defect: The specific unit deviated from the design specifications, making it unreasonably dangerous. Less common in drug cases but central to contamination cases. Examples: Zantac NDMA contamination, NECC compounded steroid contamination meningitis outbreak.

Plaintiffs may plead all three theories in the alternative. Discovery often shifts the strongest theory as internal documents emerge.

Case value depends on the injury severity, the strength of causation evidence, your jurisdiction, the MDL's settlement matrix or point system, and the defendant's insurance and corporate solvency. Drug and device cases historically resolve in tiered ranges:

• Minor or short-term injuries: $10,000 to $75,000.
• Moderate, surgical, or hospitalized injuries: $75,000 to $250,000.
• Severe, permanent, or catastrophic injuries: $250,000 to $1 million.
• Death, cancer, or life-altering disability: $1 million to $10 million-plus.

Historic public-record drug and device recoveries:

• Vioxx (Merck): $4.85 billion global settlement (2007).
• Yaz / Yasmin (Bayer): over $2 billion across thousands of blood-clot cases (2012 to 2014).
• Risperdal (Janssen / Johnson & Johnson): $76 million Pledger verdict (PA 2016, later reduced); thousands of additional gynecomastia claims resolved.
• Pradaxa (Boehringer Ingelheim): $650 million (2014).
• Xarelto (Bayer / Johnson & Johnson): $775 million (2019).
• Roundup (Bayer / Monsanto): $10.9 billion aggregate settlement (2020).
• 3M Combat Arms earplugs: $6 billion settlement (August 2023).
• Johnson & Johnson talc / baby powder: $2.1 billion Missouri ovarian cancer judgment upheld by Missouri Court of Appeals.
• Philips CPAP: $479 million economic-loss class action settlement (2023), with personal-injury cases proceeding separately.
• Bard hernia mesh: $184+ million global settlement reached late 2024.

Damages recoverable include past and future medical expenses, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, pain and suffering, loss of consortium, and, in cases where the manufacturer's concealment is provable, punitive damages.

Most states allow 2 to 4 years to file a defective drug or device lawsuit, measured from the date of injury or from the date the patient discovered (or reasonably should have discovered) the connection between the drug and the injury. The discovery rule is critical in latent-injury cases such as cancer, organ damage, and neurological injury, where symptoms may appear years after exposure.

General state ranges for personal-injury statutes of limitations applicable to product liability:

• 1 year: Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee.
• 2 years: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia.
• 3 years: Arkansas, D.C., Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin.
• 4 years: Florida, Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming.
• 5 years: Missouri.
• 6 years: Maine, North Dakota.

Many states also impose a statute of repose, an absolute outer deadline measured from the date of sale or first use, regardless of discovery. Wrongful death claims run on a separate clock from the date of death. MDL deadlines and individual state-court deadlines may differ. Minors typically get tolling until the age of majority.

If you are within the deadline today, you may not be tomorrow. The window in latent-injury drug cases can close before symptoms peak.

Multidistrict litigation (MDL) is the federal procedure that consolidates similar cases from multiple districts for coordinated pretrial proceedings under 28 U.S.C. 1407. MDL is not a class action. Each plaintiff retains an individual case and an individual settlement, but discovery, motion practice, and bellwether trials are coordinated centrally.

Typical MDL process:

• JPML transfer order: The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation evaluates a motion to consolidate and selects a transferee district and judge.
• Master complaint: Plaintiff leadership files a master long-form complaint consolidating the common claims.
• Short-form complaint: Individual plaintiffs join the MDL by filing a short-form complaint adopting the master allegations.
• Plaintiff fact sheet (PFS) and defendant fact sheet (DFS): Required information exchange about each plaintiff's injuries, exposure, prescriptions, and medical history.
• Discovery: Coordinated document production, depositions of company executives and corporate witnesses, common expert disclosures.
• Lone Pine orders: Court orders requiring early proof of causation; can dismiss weak cases.
• Bellwether trials: A small set of representative cases tried first to inform settlement value.
• Global settlement matrix: If bellwethers produce settlement leverage, the parties negotiate a settlement framework with tiered values based on injury type, severity, and supporting evidence.
• Common benefit fund: A percentage withheld from each recovery to compensate plaintiff leadership for centralized work.
• Remand or final resolution: Unresolved cases may be remanded to the original district for trial.

The lead plaintiff leadership group (Plaintiffs' Steering Committee, PSC) is appointed by the transferee judge from among experienced mass-tort firms. The PSC drives strategy across the entire docket.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves and regulates prescription and over-the-counter drugs (21 CFR 314), biologics (21 CFR 600), and medical devices. FDA approval does not bar a state-law product liability claim and does not establish that a drug is safe; it establishes that the agency concluded the benefits outweighed known risks based on the data available at approval. Regulatory entities and concepts that recur in drug litigation:

• FAERS (FDA Adverse Event Reporting System): The post-market database where adverse events are reported. FAERS data drives many drug injury cases.
• MedWatch: The FDA's voluntary reporting program for adverse events. Patient and physician reports feed FAERS.
• Black Box Warning: The strongest warning the FDA can require, indicating serious or life-threatening risk.
• REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy): Required risk management plans for drugs with serious safety concerns.
• Class I, II, III recalls: Class I (reasonable probability of serious adverse health consequences or death), Class II (temporary or reversible health consequences), Class III (unlikely to cause adverse health consequences).
• FDA Warning Letter and Form 483: Inspection findings against manufacturers; frequently surface during discovery as evidence of regulatory noncompliance.
• 510(k) clearance vs. PMA (Premarket Approval): Two device pathways. PMA devices face stronger federal preemption defenses under Riegel v. Medtronic.
• Hatch-Waxman Act: The 1984 statute governing generic-drug approval. Generic manufacturers must use the brand-name label, which underpins the PLIVA v. Mensing preemption rule.

Federal preemption is the most common defense pharmaceutical and device manufacturers raise. Four Supreme Court rulings set the framework:

• Wyeth v. Levine (2009): State-law failure-to-warn claims against brand-name drug manufacturers are not preempted by FDA approval, because brand manufacturers can unilaterally strengthen labels under the FDA's Changes Being Effected (CBE) regulation.
• PLIVA v. Mensing (2011): State-law failure-to-warn claims against generic drug manufacturers are preempted, because generics must use the brand-name label and cannot unilaterally change warnings. This rule eliminates most failure-to-warn claims against generics.
• Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. v. Bartlett (2013): Extends generic preemption to design-defect claims; generic manufacturers cannot redesign a drug without losing generic equivalence.
• Riegel v. Medtronic (2008): Class III medical devices approved through the Premarket Approval (PMA) pathway receive express federal preemption under the Medical Device Amendments. Parallel claims tracking federal requirements may survive.

The result: brand-name drug failure-to-warn cases generally survive. Generic-drug claims face an uphill fight. PMA device claims are limited to parallel-claim theories. 510(k)-cleared devices face less preemption and remain viable.

Identifying which preemption regime applies to your specific drug or device is the first analysis we run. The wrong preemption posture can kill a viable case at the motion-to-dismiss stage.

What we need to evaluate your defective drug or device case:

• Drug name, dosage, strength, and approximate use dates
• Pharmacy prescription records (we can pull these with a signed authorization)
• Prescribing physician name and contact information
• Medical records documenting the injury and diagnosis
• Hospital records, surgical reports, and discharge summaries
• Photos of the pill bottle, packaging, or device packaging if available
• Any MedWatch report you or your physician filed
• For implanted devices: device card, manufacturer, lot number, model number, surgery date

Filing process:

• Free consultation: We review your drug, injury, dates, and medical history. No fee. No obligation.
• Sign on contingency: Zero up front. Zero costs out of pocket. Attorney fees come from recovery only.
• Records collection: We pull pharmacy and medical records under HIPAA-compliant authorization.
• Causation and preemption analysis: Match your facts to the controlling MDL and applicable preemption rules.
• File the case: File directly into the relevant MDL via short-form complaint, or in state court for products not consolidated federally.
• Plaintiff fact sheet: Complete the required PFS within the MDL's deadline.
• Settlement matrix evaluation or trial preparation: Most resolved cases pay through the settlement matrix. Cases that opt out or fall outside the matrix may proceed to individual trial.

If your medical condition prevents travel, we come to you. Evaluations can be done by phone, video, or in person at home or in the hospital.