Tepezza Bellwether Deadlines Stricken, Raising Speculation of Hearing Loss Settlement

Lawyers were previously expected to prepare a group of four Tepezza hearing loss lawsuits for a series of early test trials, set to begin in June 2026.

The federal judge overseeing all Tepezza hearing loss lawsuits has removed all deadlines associated with the upcoming bellwether trials, and instructed lawyers to meet with the Court for a status conference in early January 2026, raising speculation that the parties are nearing a global settlement that may resolve the litigation.

Tepezza (teprotumumab-trbw) is an infusion approved in 2020 for the treatment of thyroid eye disease. However, users began reporting Tepezza hearing loss and tinnitus side effects shortly after the drug hit the market, which were conditions not included in the label warnings.

As a result, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required Tepezza to begin carrying hearing damage label warnings in July 2023. Additionally, the manufacturer, Horizon Therapeutics Inc., began providing doctors with important instructions to monitor patients’ hearing before and during treatment.

Horizon Therapeutics now faces more than 270 product liability lawsuits filed by former users, each raising similar allegations that they could have avoided Tepezza hearing loss problems if the drug maker had adequately researched the potential side effects of the treatment and provided earlier warnings to users and the medical community.

All federal Tepezza lawsuits have been consolidated as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the Northern District of Illinois, where U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin led the parties through coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings over the past few years.

In November 2023, Judge Durkin established a Tepezza bellwether program, directing the parties to prepare a group of four lawsuits involving hearing damage and tinnitus injuries for early trial dates. These bellwether trials were meant to help the parties gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that would likely be repeated throughout the litigation.

While trial preparations were underway, Judge Durkin ordered the parties to participate in Tepezza settlement negotiations at least once every three months over the past year, in hopes of avoiding the need for hundreds of individual cases to be set for trial in the future.

The first of the federal Tepezza bellwether trial was scheduled to begin on June 8, 2026, with a series of pretrial deadlines approaching over the next six months.

However, in a docket entry (PDF) published on October 1, Chief Magistrate Judge M. David Weisman announced that he had an off the record conversation with counsel representing both plaintiffs and defendants. As a result, he indicated that “all dates related to upcoming Bellwether cases are stricken.”

The move has raised speculation that the parties have reached a Tepezza hearing loss settlement agreement, though no official announcement has yet been made. The most likely reason for such a cancellation would be that the parties and the Court feel the bellwether trials no longer need to be held, and since neither side’s claims have been dismissed, a settlement, though not yet confirmed, is the most likely outcome.

The docket entry indicates Judge Weissman has scheduled the next status hearing for January 8, for case management purposes.