U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV, who is handling the first bellwether in the MDL that relates to Zofran, has announced the date of October 18th as the potential start of the trial. Plaintiffs allege that Zofran, a drug manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline to ease pregnancy-related morning sickness, was the cause of birth defects.
The litigation was originally scheduled for May 2020 but had to be put on hold given the Covid 19 outbreak and the related capacity restrictions of the courtroom.
The Zofran MDL was consolidated in Massachusetts in 2015. Plaintiffs claim that Zofran promoted the drug for pregnancy-related nausea, when in fact, they had done no research on potential risks and had only received FDA approval for its usage for cancer and surgery-related nausea.
Before this trial can start, there are some GSK motions being addressed that might put an end to the litigation; in these motions the company argues that the FDA had denied their request to add a warning label to the medication.