A U.S. District Court judge last week established a series of ground rules for the consolidated discovery phase of hundreds of lawsuits filed on behalf of patients who claim to have developed nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) after receiving gadolinium MRI contrast media.
Judge Dan Polster of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio presided over a hearing on September 24 that discussed some of the rules for moving forward in the case. Pretrial proceedings such as discovery for hundreds of federal NSF lawsuits were centralized in Polster's court earlier this year in an effort to speed up the legal process. Once the consolidated discovery phase is over, the cases will be turned over to the local jurisdictions in which they were originally filed for trial.
According to legal documents filed with the court, as of September 24 there were 287 NSF lawsuits under Polster's jurisdiction, filed by individuals who allege that they developed NSF after receiving a gadolinium scan. Another 104 lawsuits have been filed in various state courts throughout the U.S.
The case cites manufacturers Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals of Wayne, NJ; Bracco Diagnostics of Princeton, NJ; GE Healthcare of Chalfont St. Giles, U.K.; and Mallinckrodt, a division of Covidien of Hamilton, Bermuda, as the defendants.
For the next conference, among other directives, Polster has asked lawyers for product identification in approximately 75% of the cases where a plaintiff fact sheet has been exchanged prior to October 1 before the case can be designated for an early trial pool.
Counsel for both the plaintiffs and defendants also have been asked to choose 10 cases each by November to undergo discovery. The 20 cases will be narrowed to half that total by May 2009 for the court to begin case-specific expert discovery.
By January 23, plaintiffs also are required to submit expert reports limited to any generic experts they may call in the initial trials.
Related Reading
Gadolinium/NSF lawsuits centralized in Ohio federal court, March 21, 2008
Contrast firms hit with another NSF lawsuit, March 18, 2008
ECR NSF studies raise as many questions as answers, March 7, 2008
Study offers more evidence that multiple factors up NSF risk, January 24, 2008
'Uniquely higher' relaxivity rates give gadobenate an edge, January 23, 2008
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