Publication Source Archive: Law360

Johnson & Johnson  disclosed that it’s offering up to $5 billion to end a nationwide torrent of litigation accusing it of contributing significantly to America’s opioid addiction crisis, a 25% increase on an earlier settlement proposal. The tentative deal is $1 billion larger than a global resolution that J&J floated nearly one year ago, and…Read the article

Pharmacies have no justification for their request that the Sixth Circuit review a judge’s ruling allowing two Ohio counties’ opioid claims to go forward, other than that they disagree with the ruling, the counties said Tuesday. “The chain pharmacies are rehashing a losing, and almost laughable argument,” Hunter J. Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik PLLC, one of…Read the article

A group of Ohio cities and counties asked the federal judge overseeing the opioid multidistrict litigation to sanction Teva and Allergan for the “willful” failure to produce an audit report over suspicious orders of opioids during discovery. “It was quite a surprise to see that Allergan and Teva withheld this highly relevant evidence which clearly…Read the article

The National Black Farmers Association hit Monsanto with a lawsuit Wednesday in Missouri federal court, seeking to get the Bayer AG unit to stop selling its Roundup brand products, which the group says have been linked to cancer and other ailments. Christopher L. Schnieders of Napoli Shkolnik PLLC, who represents NBFA, told Law360 on Wednesday…Read the article

U.S. District Judge Dan Poster concluded that pharmacies have an obligation on the corporate-level to design and implement policies and procedures to identify red flag prescriptions of opioids, according to the pharmacies. “This is just another example of the chain pharmacy defendants going on hands and knees begging to be relieved of their obligations to…Read the article

The (opioid) trial is expected to test allegations from New York and Suffolk and Nassau counties against major drug manufacturers and distributors. The so-called Frye hearings in the suit are used to determine the admissibility of scientific evidence. “Would it be fair to say that you determined there were departures from the appropriate standards of…Read the article

The Ohio federal judge overseeing opioid multidistrict litigation has refused to toss two Ohio counties’ bellwether cases against pharmacies, allowing their public nuisance claims over the dispensing and distribution of opioids to move forward. “We were confident in the strength of the case against the national chain pharmacies like CVS, Rite Aid, Walmart, Walgreens and…Read the article

“By withdrawing the motion seeking class certification, proposed class counsel recognized the legal infirmities the proposed class suffered,” Hunter J. Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik PLLC, representing the plaintiffs opposed to the Ramirez deal, told Law360 on Wednesday. “Now maybe Monsanto will properly compensate the victims of Roundup.”Read the article

A California federal judge has refused to postpone a hearing on a proposed $1.25 billion class action settlement seeking to resolve potential claims from users of Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller who haven’t sued the company or developed cancer yet, saying there’s no reason to delay when the court is already “skeptical” that the settlement is fair.…Read the article

Two Ohio counties urged a federal judge to shut down requests by pharmacy chains to toss claims that they created a public nuisance by failing to monitor suspicious opioid orders that helped fuel an epidemic of painkiller addiction, saying the state’s public nuisance law fits their claims.  Read the article