On May 16, 2016, the Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation issued another Conditional Transfer Order, sending a recently-filed Zofran birth defect lawsuit to join more than 200 lawsuits already pending in Massachusetts. The cases, which have been “consolidated” for pre-trial proceedings, are being presided over by the Honorable F. Dennis Saylor IV, a federal district judge in Boston.
In this newest lawsuit, filed initially in the US District Court of Florida, Jacksonville, a couple from Ponte Vedra Beach says prenatal exposure to Zofran caused their daughter KT’s multiple congenital heart defects. Their child, the parents write, was exposed to Zofran during the first trimester of pregnancy, when fetal cardiac tissues are being formed. She was born in 1998 with a large atrial septal defect, a hole in the wall between her heart’s upper chambers. Now 18 years old, KT has endured numerous procedures and costly medical evaluations, including a surgical operation to repair the hole in her heart.
The family’s case was originally logged as case number 3:16-cv-00510-TJC-MCR. Still pending transfer to the US District Court of Massachusetts, it has not yet been assigned a new case number. A copy of the couple’s complaint is available on ZofranLegal.com. The transfer of a second lawsuit, filed in Minnesota, was ordered, but opposed by its Plaintiffs.
Each lawsuit claims that GlaxoSmithKline’s anti-nausea drug, oft-prescribed during early pregnancy, causes major birth defects. While many life-altering conditions have been named in these cases, the vast majority involve congenital heart defects, with cleft palate also making up a large proportion. Several major studies have linked the drug to an increased risk for these congenital malformations, though Plaintiffs claim GlaxoSmithKline failed to warn the public adequately of the risks.
More information is available here, at ZofranLegal.com, a site sponsored by Monheit Law. Our experienced pharmaceutical lawyers are currently offering free legal consultations to families interested in learning about their rights and options.
2 Comments
Sue
New research out of UCLA says a reduction in losses with zofran, increase in live births, and no evidence of link in birth defects and zofran. The study is a peer reviewed publication of over 1000 pregnancies. The study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27151373
Michael Monheit
Thank you Sue. Yes, there are a number of studies that show that there is a causal link and now this one study that appears to show there is not. However, the numbers in this study are relatively small.
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