The JPML has denied centralization of the litigation accusing a drug maker of fraudulently promoting and allegedly misrepresenting the safety of 11 prescription drugs including Viagra
and Zoloft.  In re: Pfizer Inc. Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, MDL Number 2115.

The Panel said that these actions do, on their face, share some allegations that defendants engaged in a fraudulent scheme to promote different prescription drugs: Geodon, Zyvox, Lyrica, Aricept, Lipitor, Norvasc, Relpax, Viagra, Zithromax, Zoloft, and Zyrtec. According to
plaintiffs, the company (1) promoted the drugs to physicians by offering them inducements, (2) promoted the drugs at doses or for durations of use that were not medically safe or efficacious, (3) made false representations about the safety and efficacy of the drugs, and (4) promoted certain of the drugs for non-indicated “off-label” uses.

But, the named plaintiffs allege that they themselves each took only one of those eleven drugs, and that they did not take the same drugs.  Given that each of the eleven drugs necessarily has a different clinical, regulatory, medical, and promotional history, and that it is at least questionable whether a plaintiff can prosecute claims regarding drugs that he or she never actually took, the Panel was not convinced that centralization under Section 1407 was appropriate.

The cases thus seemed to fall in that category of litigation which the Panel may be less likely to centralize because the underlying actions raise primarily individual, not common, issues, as when they involve many different defendants, diverse plaintiffs, or different modes of exposure to the allegedly offending products.