Actavis Digitek Recall Has Resulted in 130 Lawsuits Consolidated in MDL

An additional 23 Digitek lawsuits filed against Actavis Totowa and their distributors in various federal district courts throughout the United States, have been transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, where they will be consolidated with at least 107 other cases that are being coordinated during pretrial proceedings as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation.

It has only been a little more than one year since Actavis Totawa issued a Digitek recall in April 2008, after discovering that some tablets of the heart medication they distributed have up to double the amount of digoxin that they are supposed to contain.

Receiving tablets that contain higher levels of the active pharmaceutical ingredient substantially increased the risk that a user would be unable to process the medication out of their body. A build up could lead to Digitek poisoning, which is associated with the development of cardiac instability, low blood pressure, slow heartbeat and even death.

Following the recall, the FDA was flooded with adverse event reports, including at least 667 deaths that were reportedly linked to the use of Digitek.

Lawsuits over Digitek poisoning have been filed in various state and federal courts throughout the country. All federal cases are consolidated in an MDL before U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin in the Western District of Virginia, where the cases are being coordinated for pretrial litigation.

According to a Conditional Transfer Order issued by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on May 8, 2009, an additional 23 lawsuits filed in 12 different districts will be transferred to the MDL. This brings the combined total number of cases before Judge Goodwin to 130.

Over the next 12 months, the number of lawsuits pending in the MDL is expected to expand further, as Digitek lawyers are continuing to gather records and document cases that have not yet been filed. In addition, many states have a two year statute of limitations, which will require that any complaint be filed by April 2010.