Product Liability

Recent trial successes

• As lead trial counsel, secured a defense verdict on behalf of a global healthcare company in a product liability litigation pending in Harris County Civil District Court in Houston, Texas involving the Bair Hugger Patient Warming System.
• As lead trial counsel, secured a defense verdict on behalf of Monsanto Bayer in the Roundup products liability litigation in Cody v. Monsanto, a wrongful death lawsuit pending in the Circuit Court of Conway County, Arkansas.
• As co-trial counsel, secured a defense verdict following a five-week jury trial on behalf of B. Braun in Glass et al. v. B. Braun Medical Inc. et al., a wrongful death lawsuit pending in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas exposure to ethylene oxide (EtO), and was one of approximately 100 toxic tort lawsuits.
• As lead trial counsel, secured defense verdicts on behalf of a US healthcare company as both trial counsel in the MDL, and co-lead trial counsel in the state court case involving the company’s medical device, which plaintiffs’ allege caused them to develop severe infections.
• As lead trial counsel, obtained early summary judgment as lead trial counsel in a case pending in the Northern District of Georgia on behalf of an American healthcare company involving their medical device, in which plaintiffs’ allege they developed severe infections from the device.

Pharmaceuticals

• Serve as co-national counsel for Sanofi in a federal MDL and related proceedings in matter alleging Zantac caused plaintiffs to develop cancer as a result of contamination with NDMA. Most recently, secured a landmark summary judgment victory in Delaware Superior Court that effectively ends one of the largest mass tort proceedings in U.S. history.
• Serve as co-national counsel for Sanofi, we secured motion to exclude plaintiffs’ expert, and granted summary judgment on behalf of Sanofi, which resulted in the dismissal of more than 50,000 claims in the Zantac litigation, and is the largest Daubert victory for the pharmaceutical industry in history.
• Serve as co-national counsel for Sanofi, secured a rare unanimous en banc opinion from the Delaware Supreme Court on behalf of Sanofi, reversing the Superior Court’s decision denying defendants’ Rule 702 challenges. This decision will have major implications for the makers of Zantac and far-reaching implications for litigating the admissibility of expert testimony under Delaware Rule of Evidence 702.
• Secured dismissal of plaintiffs’ warranty claims and nearly all of their negligence claims on behalf of Pfizer in 17 putative consumer class action lawsuits concerning Chantix. The cases were filed nationwide and consolidated into a multidistrict litigation in New York federal court.
• Achieved a significant Daubert victory as national counsel for Pfizer, effectively ending the more than 800-plaintiff product liability MDL in which plaintiffs claimed that erectile dysfunction medications, including Viagra, are associated with the progression of melanoma.
• Affirmed summary judgment, effectively ending the litigations, on behalf of Novo Nordisk in a federal MDL and state court coordinated litigation involving allegations that Victoza, as well as other incretin-based therapies approved for treatment of Type 2 diabetes, caused plaintiffs to develop pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis. DLA Piper served as national coordinating counsel and trial counsel.
• Secured dismissal on behalf of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Pfizer when the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a series of multi-district litigation (MDL) court orders on federal preemption grounds and rejected the plaintiffs’ jurisdictional arguments, effectively terminating the litigation. DLA Piper served as national counsel in this litigation relating to the anticoagulant medication Eliquis.
• Obtained an order dismissing all claims against Pfizer on the basis of impossibility preemption. DLA Piper served as national counsel for Pfizer, Pharmacia and Upjohn in thousands of cases, which concerned cardiovascular injuries purportedly associated with testosterone replacement therapy use.
• Developed Pfizer’s scientific defenses and Daubert strategy to help extricate the company from a mass tort litigation involving claims by more than 2,000 plaintiffs who alleged that Lipitor—an important medication that lowers cholesterol—caused them to develop type 2 diabetes and other conditions. In a series of rulings, DLA Piper obtained rulings excluding all of Plaintiffs’ causation experts, resulting in summary judgment for Pfizer and dismissal of the entire MDL. The MDL court’s ruling was affirmed on appeal to the Fourth Circuit.
• Secured favorable resolution of almost 10,000 lawsuits on behalf of Wyeth in nationwide product liability litigation, consumer class action litigation and attorney generals’ cases involving Premarin and Prempro. Working collaboratively with other major firms, the DLA Piper team helped the company develop a new MDL and defense strategy, revise the company’s trial and appellate strategies and create a resolution plan. DLA Piper served as national counsel for Wyeth.
• Served as national counsel to Pfizer and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in their high-profile litigation involving the prescription proton-pump inhibitor product Protonix (pantoprazole). Plaintiffs alleged various kidney-related injuries, including acute-interstitial nephritis and chronic kidney disease as a result of taking PPIs.
• Serve as national trial and global coordinating counsel for Novo Nordisk regarding litigation and regulatory issues related to its diabetes and obesity medications: Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus.

Medical Devices

• Serve as global coordinating counsel for Bayer involving the Essure permanent birth control device. This device was the subject of a mass tort litigation involving 33,000 plaintiffs in the US, which DLA Piper successfully resolved.. Since that time, DLA Piper’s role has expanded into global coordinating counsel across twelve countries, resulting in a 100% success rate with more than 150 favorable outcomes from trial and appellate courts in Australia, France, Brazil, Spain, and Canada. In December 2024, the team won a victory in Australia by defeating a class action lawsuit following a 3-month trial in the Supreme Court of Victoria, the highest court in Melbourne, with the judge rejecting the 1,400 plaintiff claims that the female contraceptive device caused major health problems.
• Secured, in part, motion to dismiss on behalf of Bayer in a putative California class action alleging that the intrauterine contraceptive Mirena causes a significantly elevated risk of breast cancer.
• Serve as national counsel for leading medical device manufacturer Medtronic’s Covidien subsidiary in litigation involving its hernia mesh products in multi-district litigation.

Consumer Products

• Secured motion to dismiss MDL in its entirety on behalf of Bayer in a series of approximately 100 class action consumer class actions challenging manufacturers’ use of phenylephrine in decongestant medications.
• Serve as lead the defense of Nurture, LLC in numerous product liability lawsuits consolidated in a multi-district litigation (MDL) in the Northern District of California, in which plaintiffs allege their ingestion of various baby food products cause autism and ADHD. Secured when court granted the Defendants’ motions to exclude all of the Plaintiffs’ general causation expert witnesses. Without testimony from those experts, Plaintiffs cannot establish general causation, and their claims cannot proceed.

Chemicals

• Serve as lead counsel on behalf of a global chemical company in the largest ongoing multidistrict litigation suit in the US related to PFAS exposure, involving more than 10,000 plaintiffs spanning across over 10 states.
• Serve as trial counsel to a multinational industrials conglomerate in one of the country’s largest MDLs involving allegations that a product from various manufacturers and distributors contains PFAS chemicals that led to water contamination and various personal injuries.
• Serve as lead counsel on behalf of a global chemical company in product liability litigation in a set of multi-plaintiff cases in Illinois State and federal courts, involving negligence, public nuisance, and strict liability claims related to alleged ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions.
• Serve as co-Settlement Masters to address claims that contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp LeJeune between 1953–1987 caused severe illness and death among military personnel and their families, one of the largest environmental mass torts in U.S. history.

Automotive

• Advising an automobile and motorbike manufacturer in product liability and warranty infringement proceedings with hundreds of cases in numerous states.
• Representing a leading international automotive group in a mass litigation for warranty and damage claims relating to the specified exhaust gas values for diesel vehicles.

Product Safety and Compliance

• Provided coordinated advice from jurisdictions all over the globe in response to a request for assistance from a global FMCG organization in relation to its COVID-19 protocols. This included advice on a wide range of measures including review of the systems and procedures it implemented at factories and offices in order to ensure to safety of the workforce and so that it could continue to place its consumers goods, approach to testing for COVID-19, and vaccinations. The purpose of this was to ensure that the client could continue to manufacture and place its goods on the market.
• Advised an international food manufacturer on local law requirements across 36 countries, and risk management in relation to the presence of ethylene oxide in a food additive. The client requested advice on notification and recall obligations for products where the maximum residue level of ethylene oxide was above the level set at law in various countries, but there was no safety issue.
• Advised on product safety requirements in relation to alarms systems, as well as any local law licensing requirements to sell specified products.
• Advised a high-end perfume manufacturer on product compliance laws, specifically in relation to labelling and safety requirements, in a range of jurisdictions specifically in relation to toys, textiles and clothing. The advice included client sought advice on labelling requirements as well as safety requirements.
• Advising a consumer electronics and household appliances company based in Seoul on a product safety issue and possible product recall for electronic devices. Coordinated strategy vis-à-vis authorities in almost all member states of the European Union and coordinated the global strategy.
• Advising a German car manufacturer on the permissibility under product law of a new light system for vehicles in 88 jurisdictions worldwide.
• Advising a technology company on product safety issues, in particular on notification obligations and actions to be taken as a result of a relevant risk in relation to a fitness tracker. Coordinating numerous other jurisdictions in Europe, Asia and South America.