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On March 22, 2023, plaintiff Kimberly Eaton filed a brief with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) seeking to consolidate and transfer all currently filed Tepezza litigation to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. According to the complaint, there are currently “at least 18 Tepezza litigation actions pending in five different judicial districts in the United States alleging similar wrongful conduct on the part of Defendant that resulted in similar injuries.”
Tepezza was developed by pharmaceutical manufacturer Horizon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Horizon Therapeutics PLC, to treat thyroid eye disease and was introduced in January 2020 after limited testing on patents in clinical trials. Plaintiffs allege that the drug can cause permanent hearing damage and loss, side effects for which the manufacturer failed to adequately test. Plaintiffs further contend that the company aggressively marketed the drug, despite receiving reports of adverse side effects from patients and doctors.
Horizon has responded that it did list possible reactions to the drug on the label and further stated that it warned physicians prescribing the drug that tinnitus, hearing loss or impairment were possible side effects.
Although a similar request to consolidate Tepezza cases had been filed in December 2022 seeking to have the cases filed at that time to be transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the request was opposed by Horizon who claimed that the cases presented facts sufficiently different to preclude coordinated pretrial proceedings.
The current motion is scheduled to be heard at the next JPML hearing in Philadelphia on May 25, 2023.
