Judicial Panel Grants Plaintiffs’ Request for Pretrial Coordination of Class Action Lawsuits Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1407, Unopposed by Responding Defendants, and Agrees with Defendants that District of New Jersey is Appropriate Transferee Court
Thirty-three (33) class actions lawsuits were filed in 17 federal district courts against numerous defendants, including various Merck and Schering-Plough entities, arising out of the use and/or marketing of the drugs Vytorin and/or Zetia. In re Vytorin/Zetia Marketing, Sales Practices & Products Liab. Litig., ___ F.Supp.2d ___ (Jud.Pan.Mult.Lit. April 8, 2008) [Slip Opn., at 1-2]. (An additional 67 class actions were filed, and were treated as tag-along cases by the court. _Id._, at 1-2 n.3.) Plaintiffs’ lawyers in 11 of the class actions filed 5 separate motions with the Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) requesting centralization of the class actions pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1407, but they did not agree on the appropriate transferee court; when the recommendations of responding class action plaintiffs also were considered, the plaintiffs in the various class actions had proposed 10 different districts. _Id._, at 1. Defense attorneys for the responding Merck and Schering-Plough defendants did not oppose centralization, but argued for the District of New Jersey, where 12 of the class actions already were pending, as the appropriate transferee court, _id._ The Judicial Panel granted the motion to centralize the class action lawsuits and agreed that the District of New Jersey was the appropriate transferee court because Merck and Schering-Plough are headquartered in that district and because transfer of the class actions to that district was supported by the responding defendants and by several of the class action plaintiffs. _Id._, at 2.
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