An initial status conference will be held on December 8 to discuss and organize the newly centralized fluoroquinolone MDL. U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, who is overseeing the Minnesota District litigation, will likely want to appoint lawyers from both sides to leadership roles and begin the discovery process.
Fluoroquinolones (FLQs), a family of broad-spectrum antibiotics, drew attention recently when a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel voted to recommend that manufacturers strengthen the warning labels on their drugs. FLQ antibiotics had already been linked to both tendon rupture and severe nerve damage, or peripheral neuropathy, but hearings this month brought into question the risk–benefit ratio of the drugs when used in certain treatments.
Federal Levaquin lawsuits, Avelox lawsuits, and Cipro lawsuits began piling up after a 2013 announcement from the FDA that fluoroquinolones may pose a higher risk of peripheral neuropathy than previously thought. Plaintiffs claim that the manufacturers of these drugs failed to properly warn doctors and patients about the health risks they pose. As a result, dozens of patients suffered nerve or tendon damage after taking FLQs for mild infections that may have been treatable with other drugs.
In August of this year, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation centralized all pending fluoroquinolone lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. While only 20 lawsuits were initially included in the MDL, that number has since grown to over 200, and lawyers expect it will ultimately reach into the thousands.
Tell your doctor if you have any concerns about the medications you are taking. If you or someone close to you was injured after receiving fluoroquinolone antibiotics, contact the pharmaceutical attorneys at Lopez McHugh today for a free consultation. You may be eligible to receive compensation in a fluoroquinolone lawsuit.
