First Tepezza Hearing Loss Lawsuit Set To Go Before Jury in June 2026

MDL Judge has granted a two-month extension on deadlines leading up to the first bellwether trial, which will be closely watched to gauge how juries may respond to evidence about the link between Tepezza and hearing loss.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all federal Tepezza lawsuits has pushed back the start of the first bellwether trial by 60 days, as lawyers continue to prepare for the presentation of evidence and testimony that could be repeated throughout hundreds of claims over permanent hearing loss side effects linked to the eye injection.

Tepezza (teprotumumab-trbw) was introduced in 2020, as the first drug approved for the treatment of thyroid eye disease, which is caused by hyperthyroidism and linked to Grave’s disease. The condition can lead to inflammation of eye muscles, eyelids, tear glands and fatty tissue behind the eyes.

However, shortly after Tepezza was released, a growing number of individuals began reporting hearing loss and tinnitus side effects, which were not disclosed on the original warning label.

By July 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required Horizon Therapeutics to update the Tepezza warning label, adding new information about the risk of irreversible hearing damage, and providing doctors with important instructions to monitor patients’ hearing before and during treatment.

As a result of the drug makers’ failure to disclose these problems earlier, more than 230 former users are now pursuing Tepezza hearing loss lawsuits in the federal court system, each raising similar claims that they were left with hearing damage or ringing in the ears, known as tinnitus.

Given common questions of fact and law likely to apply throughout the litigation, cases brought in federal courts nationwide have been consolidated into a Tepezza hearing loss MDL (multidistrict litigation), with cases centralized before U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin in the Northern District of Illinois, for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Judge Durkin has established a Tepezza “bellwether” program, where a group of four hearing damage and tinnitus lawsuits are being prepared for early trial dates, to help the parties gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout the claims. 

The judge originally scheduled the first bellwether trial to begin on April 6, 2026, followed by a second trial on June 1, a third starting on July 27 and the fourth set to start on September 21 of that year.

However, according to a case management order (PDF) issued by the judge on July 7, plaintiffs sought two more months to get the cases ready for trial. Judge Durkin granted the request, announcing that the first bellwether trial will now begin on June 8, 2026, followed by a second on August 3, 2026, a third slated for September 28, 2026, and a fourth trial scheduled to begin on November 30, 2026.

Each trial is expected to last about three to four weeks, and begins affecting the trial schedule immediately, with plaintiff expert depositions originally scheduled from mid-June until mid-July now rescheduled to the weeks of August 25 through September 19.

The order noted that defendants did not oppose the 60-day extension request.

While the outcome of these early bellwether trials will not have any binding impact on other claims presented in the litigation, they are being closely watched by lawyers involved in the litigation, as the average Tepezza lawsuit payouts awarded by juries are likely to have a large impact on settlement negotiations between the parties.

Leading up to the start of the first trial, lawyers have been directed to participate in Tepezza settlement negotiations at least once every three months, as part of an effort to seek a resolution that will not require the court to remand hundreds of individual cases back to U.S. District Courts nationwide for separate trial dates in the coming years.