Master Complaint Outlines Allegations in Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro Lawsuits in MDL

Plaintiffs pursuing Ozempic lawsuits, Wegovy lawsuits, Mounjaro lawsuits and other injury claims against the makers of popular GLP-1 drugs have filed a “Master Complaint,” outlining all of the common allegations raised in the litigation, including how defendants failed to adequately warn about the risk of stomach paralysis, intestinal obstruction and other gastrointestinal injuries linked to the diabetes and weight loss medications.

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly currently face more than 1,200 product liability lawsuits involving Ozempic, Wegovy, Reybelsus, Trulicity, Mounjaro and Zepbound, which are all part of a class of medications known as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s).

Each of the individual complaints raises similar allegations, indicating the drug makers knew or should have known about the risk of serious gastrointestinal side effects, but placed a desire for profits before consumer safety.

Given the widespread use of the medications in recent years, it is widely expected that the litigation may end up including tens of thousands of additional cases, as former users learn that their injuries could have been prevented with better warnings and instructions by the drug makers.

Due to common questions of fact and law raised throughout all of the complaints, all federal GLP-1 lawsuits have been consolidated before U.S. District Judge Karen S. Marston, as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation, which is centralized in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

As part of the pretrial process in such complex product liability lawsuits, where large numbers of individuals are pursuing similar claims, it is common for the court to approve a Master and Short Form Complaint. The Master Complaint outlines all of the allegations raised in the litigation, and future lawsuits can then be filed using a Short Form Complaint, where they adopt common allegations and add in any case-specific information.

The adoption of a Master and Short Form Complaint also help the parties and the court address common issues and allegations that may impact large  groups of lawsuits, and identify claims that may be the most representative of other lawsuits in the litigation for future bellwether trials.

On November 13, Plaintiffs counsel filed their Master Complaint (PDF) in the MDL, laying out the claims against Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, Wegovy, Rybelsus, Victoza and Saxenda, as well as Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, Zepbound and Trulicity. According to the complaint, plaintiffs’ injuries at the hands of these drugs may include:

• Gastroparesis
• Ischemic Bowel
• Necrotizing Pancreatitis
• Gallblader Disease
• Deep Vein Thrombosis
• Pulmonary Embolism
• Micronutrient Deficiencies
• Wernicke’s Encephalopathy
• Aspiration of Gastric Contents

The Master Complaint asserts claims for failure to warn, breach of warranty, fraudulent concealment/fraud by omission, fraudulent/intentional misrepresentation, unfair trade practices, negligent marketing misrepresentation, strict product liability marketing misrepresentation, innocent misrepresentation/marketing, negligent design, strict liability design defect, negligence, negligent undertaking, wrongful death, loss of consortium and survival action.

Not all complaints will include each of these charges however. Plaintiffs will select the specific drugs, injuries and claims that apply to them in a Short Form Complaint, the template of which will be submitted to the Court separately.

Once the MDL addresses a number of “cross cutting” issues, such as general causation and what diagnostic testing evidence is needed to establish specific injuries, it is expected that Judge Marston will establish a “bellwether” process, where a small group of representative claims will be prepared for early trial dates to help gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be presented throughout other cases.

While the outcomes of such bellwether trials are not binding on other claims, they will be watched closely, as the results could help the parties facilitate GLP-1 lawsuit settlement negotiations that would avoid the need for each individual case to be sent for trial in the future.