Case Notes

Bellwether Bone Loss Drug Case Settles

One of only two cases to go to trial in New Jersey in litigation involving the bone loss drug Zometa has been settled on unknown terms just before a state appeals court was scheduled to issue a ruling.

The three-judge Appellate Division panel that had been expected to decide on April 9 whether to affirm or reverse the no-cause verdict won by Novartis against plaintiff Beverly Meng instead announced that day that “the issues in the dispute have been amicably resolved.” Attorneys on both sides declined to discuss the settlement terms in Meng v. Novartis, or the fate of the 119 Zometa/Aredia cases that remained in New Jersey as of April 1.

The plaintiffs claim that the bisphosphonate drugs Aredia and Zometa, made by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., of East Hanover, NJ, which are used to treat osteoporosis, caused osteonecrosis of the jaw, or “bone death,” according to court documents. Similar allegations have been made about another bisphosphonate, Fosamax, which is manufactured by Merck. New Jersey's Fosamax litigation ' comprising 3,158 cases as of April 6 ' is also centralized in Middlesex County, NJ, before the same judge handling the Zometa/Aredia litigation, Jessica Mayer.

In the recently settled Zometa case, Meng sued in 2007, alleging that, except for about six months in mid-2006, she had monthly intravenous infusions of Zometa from July 2002 until November 2006, according to court documents. It was prescribed to control bone metastases from breast cancer that had spread to her spine, court documents said. She stopped the Zometa in November 2006 around the time her dentist noticed exposed bone in her mouth. Osteonecrosis was diagnosed in February 2007.

Before Meng's case went to trial in the spring of 2013 on a claim of failure to provide an adequate warning, Mayer dismissed other counts ' for strict liability, design defect, breach of express warranty and consumer fraud ' on a motion for summary judgment.

Despite surviving summary judgment, Meng's failure-to-warn claim did not convince a jury. Novartis likewise prevailed at the first and only other Zometa trial in New Jersey, where the jury, by a 7-2 vote, answered “no” to the same question on Oct. 6, 2010.

There, plaintiff Jane Bessemer, also a breast cancer patient with bone metastases, was treated intravenously with Aredia and Zometa from May 1999 to April 2004, to reduce the chance of spinal fracture and degeneration and also to alleviate bone pain, according to court documents.

She alleged that a June 2000 tooth extraction triggered osteonecrosis and that dentists and oral surgeons who tried to help her only made it worse because they were unaware of the nature and cause of that type of jaw bone disease, court documents said. Bessemer sued under New Jersey's Product Liability and Consumer Fraud Acts.

There have been no New Jersey trials since Meng's and none are presently scheduled. ' Mary Pat Gallagher, New Jersey Law Journal

BIO HERE

Bellwether Bone Loss Drug Case Settles

One of only two cases to go to trial in New Jersey in litigation involving the bone loss drug Zometa has been settled on unknown terms just before a state appeals court was scheduled to issue a ruling.

The three-judge Appellate Division panel that had been expected to decide on April 9 whether to affirm or reverse the no-cause verdict won by Novartis against plaintiff Beverly Meng instead announced that day that “the issues in the dispute have been amicably resolved.” Attorneys on both sides declined to discuss the settlement terms in Meng v. Novartis, or the fate of the 119 Zometa/Aredia cases that remained in New Jersey as of April 1.

The plaintiffs claim that the bisphosphonate drugs Aredia and Zometa, made by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., of East Hanover, NJ, which are used to treat osteoporosis, caused osteonecrosis of the jaw, or “bone death,” according to court documents. Similar allegations have been made about another bisphosphonate, Fosamax, which is manufactured by Merck. New Jersey's Fosamax litigation ' comprising 3,158 cases as of April 6 ' is also centralized in Middlesex County, NJ, before the same judge handling the Zometa/Aredia litigation, Jessica Mayer.

In the recently settled Zometa case, Meng sued in 2007, alleging that, except for about six months in mid-2006, she had monthly intravenous infusions of Zometa from July 2002 until November 2006, according to court documents. It was prescribed to control bone metastases from breast cancer that had spread to her spine, court documents said. She stopped the Zometa in November 2006 around the time her dentist noticed exposed bone in her mouth. Osteonecrosis was diagnosed in February 2007.

Before Meng's case went to trial in the spring of 2013 on a claim of failure to provide an adequate warning, Mayer dismissed other counts ' for strict liability, design defect, breach of express warranty and consumer fraud ' on a motion for summary judgment.

Despite surviving summary judgment, Meng's failure-to-warn claim did not convince a jury. Novartis likewise prevailed at the first and only other Zometa trial in New Jersey, where the jury, by a 7-2 vote, answered “no” to the same question on Oct. 6, 2010.

There, plaintiff Jane Bessemer, also a breast cancer patient with bone metastases, was treated intravenously with Aredia and Zometa from May 1999 to April 2004, to reduce the chance of spinal fracture and degeneration and also to alleviate bone pain, according to court documents.

She alleged that a June 2000 tooth extraction triggered osteonecrosis and that dentists and oral surgeons who tried to help her only made it worse because they were unaware of the nature and cause of that type of jaw bone disease, court documents said. Bessemer sued under New Jersey's Product Liability and Consumer Fraud Acts.

There have been no New Jersey trials since Meng's and none are presently scheduled. ' Mary Pat Gallagher, New Jersey Law Journal

BIO HERE