Tepezza Hearing Loss Trial Date Pushed Back to Aug. 2026

Judge presiding over hundreds of Tepezza lawsuits involving irreversible hearing loss granted a 45-day extension on key deadlines, as lawyers work to prepare the first bellwether cases for trial.

As lawyers continue to work to prepare a series of Tepezza hearing loss lawsuits to go before juries next year, the U.S. District Judge presiding over the litigation has granted a request to extend certain deadlines, which will delay the start of the first trial until at least August 2026.

Tepezza (teprotumumab-trbw) is an infusion treatment for thyroid eye disease, also known as “bulging eye disease,” which was approved in 2020. However, shortly after it was introduced, users began experiencing hearing loss and tinnitus side effects from Tepezza, which was not disclosed as a potential side effect on the original warning label.

In 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 hearing damage, and the drug maker began providing doctors with important instructions to monitor patients’ hearing before and during treatment.

However, there are now at least 260 product liability lawsuits being pursued 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.

Since common questions of fact and law have been raised in Tepezza hearing loss lawsuits brought throughout the federal court system, the cases have all been consolidated as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL) before U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin in the Northern District of Illinois, where the parties have been engaging in coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings over the past few years.

To help promote potential settlement negotiations, Judge Durkin established a Tepezza bellwether program in November 2023, directing the parties to prepare a group of four hearing damage and tinnitus lawsuits for early trial dates, to help the parties gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout the litigation.

Tepezza Hearing Loss Bellwether Trial Dates

Originally, the judge scheduled the first bellwether trial to begin on April 6, 2026. However, that date was later pushed back to June 8, 2026.

In a court order (PDF) issued on August 12, Judge Durkin announced he was pushing back the first trial date yet again, to an August 3, 2026, start date. The new date comes after the Court granted the parties a 45-day extension for key deadlines to ensure that the bellwether claims are trial-ready.

The order also schedules the second bellwether trial to begin on September 28, 2026, the third on November 30, 2026, and the fourth and final bellwether trial to begin on February 1, 2027. Each trial is expected to last about three to four weeks.

The extension takes effect immediately, pushing back full-day depositions of Plaintiffs’ experts from the weeks of August 25, 2025, through September 19, 2025, to the weeks of October 6 through October 31, 2025. The effect cascades through the other deadlines leading up to the bellwether trials.

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.

While trial preparations continue, Judge Durkin has ordered the parties 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.