Federal Digitek Lawsuits Consolidated in Southern District of West Virginia

The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has ordered that all Digitek lawsuits filed as a result of allegedly defective and double strength digoxin tablets, be transferred to the Southern District of West Virginia for consolidation through pretrial litigation.

Digitek tablets are a generic form of digoxin, which is prescribed to treat irregular heartbeats or heart failure. In April 2008, Actavis Totowa, LLC. Issued a Digitek recall for all lots of the drug after it was discovered that tablets were commercially released which were twice as thick as they were supposed to be, and potentially contained double the appropriate amount of medication.

A Digitek overdose can cause a serious and potentially fatal illness known as digitalis toxicity. A large number of reports have surfaced of users who died or suffered from a digoxin overdose after receiving the Digitek tablets. Some of the reports date back to injuries which occurred up to two years ago.

According to the court order, at least 60 Digitek lawsuits have already been filed in various federal courts throughout the country. Defendants include Actavis Totowa, LLC, Actavis, Inc., Actavis Elizabeth, LLC, Actavis US, Mylan, Inc., Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Mylan Laboratories, Inc., Mylan Bertek Pharmaceuticals and UDL Laboratories, Inc.

All of the federal Digitek lawsuits will be transferred to Judge Joseph R. Goodwin, in the Southern District of West Virginia, under a procedure rule known as Multidistrict Litigation, or MDL. It is common for the Judicial Panel to form an MDL where there are many lawsuits filed with common underlying facts, especially in complex product liability or pharmaceutical litigation.

In an MDL, the cases are consolidated for pretrial proceedings to eliminate duplicative discovery, avoid inconsistent pretrial rulings and to conserve the resources of the court, the parties and their attorneys. Although people tend to draw comparisons between an MDL and how a Digitek class action lawsuit would be handled, they do remain separate cases. If they do not resolve during the pre-trial proceedings, they will be returned back to the original jurisdictions where they were filed for an individual trial.

“On the basis of the papers filed and the hearing session held, we find that the actions in this litigation involve common questions of fact, and centralization… in the Southern District of West Virginia will serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and promote the just and efficient conduct of the litigation,” wrote Judge John G. Heyburn II, chairman of the Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, in the order. “All actions share factual questions relating to the manufacture and sale by defendants of allegedly adulterated Digitek, which was recalled in April 2008.”

The Panel selected the Southern District of West Virginia, since it is the principal place of business for one of the defendants, Mylan. In addition, seventeen of the pending federal Digitek lawsuits are already filed in the district or in the adjacent West Virginia district.

A number of Digitek overdose lawsuits are also currently pending in West Virginia state court. In June 2008, a motion was filed by lawyers in the state court cases asking that those cases be consolidated before one judge. Digitek recall lawyers have estimated that there will likely be thousands of digoxin overdose lawsuits filed against the makers of Digitek in West Virginia state court.