MDL Sought For Suboxone Lawsuits Over Tooth Loss, Dental Decay and Erosion Problems

A panel of federal judges has been asked to establish a multidistrict litigation (MDL) for all Suboxone lawsuits filed over tooth loss and dental erosion problems linked to the opioid addiction treatment, indicating that claims brought throughout the federal court system should be centralized before one U.S. District Judge for discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Suboxone (buprenorphine and naloxone) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2002, for treatment of recovering opioid addicts; helping them avoid withdrawal symptoms while undergoing therapy to help them break their addiction. While originally sold as a tablet, the drug makers subsequently introduced Suboxone film, which users place beneath the tongue until it is dissolved.

A growing number of lawsuits are now being filed against the manufacturers, alleging that Suboxone film have caused users to experience devastating dental injuries, including decay, erosion and tooth loss. However, it was not until early 2022 that Suboxone tooth loss warnings were added to the medication, after the FDA identified more than 300 cases of dental erosion problems reported to the agency.

Given similar questions of fact and law raised in complaints filed in U.S. District Courts nationwide, several plaintiffs filed a motion to transfer (PDF) with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) on November 14, calling for all Suboxone lawsuits to be transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio for pretrial proceedings, as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL).

The motion indicates there are currently at least 15 Suboxone lawsuits pending in five different federal district courts nationwide. However, with thousands of individuals nationwide known to have experienced Suboxone tooth loss side effects, lawyers expect that the size and scope of the litigation will increase dramatically in the coming months.

“The actions share the same basic factual allegations that Defendants designed, manufactured, marketed, and sold a defective drug—Suboxone film—without revealing the serious risk of dental decay it posed,” plaintiffs’ motion states. “All Suboxone film actions also share the same basic legal theory of liability. Specifically, that Defendants failed to warn adequately physicians and consumers about the risk of dental decay and erosion caused by Suboxone film, that Defendants failed to adequately test Suboxone film to fully elucidate the risk of permanent dental damage, that Defendants failed to provide proper instructions on the safe use of Suboxone film to avoid serious dental damage, and that Defendants defectively designed Suboxone film.”

In complex pharmaceutical litigation, where large numbers of claims are brought by users of the same medication or medical product, each experiencing the same or similar injuries, it is common for the U.S. JPML to centralize the litigation to reduce duplicative discovery into common issues that will arise in all claims, avoid conflicting pretrial rulings and to serve the convenience of certain witnesses and parties who will be required to testify in each of the lawsuits.

As Suboxone tooth decay lawyers continue to review and file claims for individuals who experienced dental erosion after receiving the opioid addiction treatment, it is ultimately expected that hundreds of claims will be brought throughout the federal court system. If an MDL is established, each individual claim may later be remanded back to the U.S. District Court where it was originally filed for trial, if the parties fail to negotiate Suboxone settlements or another resolution for the claims.