Valsartan Settlement Masters Appointed To Advance Negotiations in MDL

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all valsartan lawsuits filed throughout the federal court system has appointed two former judges as settlement counsel, in order to advance negotiations in the ongoing litigation over contaminated versions of the generic blood pressure pills that have been linked to hundreds of reports of cancer.

Following changes to the generic drug manufacturing process, a series of valsartan recalls have been issued since late 2018, after it was discovered that pills distributed throughout the U.S. in prior years were contaminated with high levels of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) and other chemical byproducts known to increase the risk of stomach cancer, liver cancer, esophageal cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and other injuries.

There are already more than 1,000 product liability lawsuits pending nationwide against manufacturers and distributors of the contaminated valsartan pills, and the parties are preparing a small group of representative cases for early “bellwether” trials, which are designed to help gauge how juries are likely to respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout hundreds of claims.

Given common questions of fact and law raised in complaints filed in U.S. District Courts nationwide, the federal litigation has been centralized for pretrial proceedings before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler in the District of New Jersey, as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL), where the parties have been engaging in common discovery that applies to all claims.

In a case management order (PDF) issued on March 3, Judge Kugler appointed retired U.S. District Judges Gregory M. Sleet and Lawrence F. Stengel as settlement special masters, whose job it will be to conduct advanced settlement negotiations in an effort to resolve the litigation without the need for hundreds of cases to go to trial.

The special masters were nominated by both parties, and have the authority to formally appoint valsartan settlement counsel to represent each party.

If the parties fail to make progress toward a resolution for the litigation or valsartan cancer settlements program, it is expected that Judge Kugler will move forward with a series of “bellwether” trials, and then consider remanding large numbers of claims back to U.S. District Courts nationwide for separate trial dates in the future.