Suboxone Lawyers To Seek Leadership Roles in Recently Formed MDL Over Dental Injuries

The U.S. District Judge recently appointed to preside over all Suboxone injury lawsuits being pursued throughout the federal court system has given plaintiffs’ lawyers until March 1 to apply for various leadership positions, which will take actions that benefit all individuals pursuing damages for dental erosion and tooth decay.

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 or inside their cheek. However, thousands of users have reported experiencing devastating tooth decay from Suboxone film, often resulting in broken on extracted teeth, and complaints are being pursued against the drug makers for failing to disclose the risks to users and the medical community.

It was not until early 2022 that Suboxone tooth decay warnings were added to the medication, after the FDA identified more than 300 cases of dental damage reported to the agency. Plaintiffs each raise similar allegations indicating that they may have avoided permanent tooth decay problems if they had been warned about the risks and instructed to take certain steps to avoid erosion of enamel and tooth loss.

Given similar questions of fact and law raised in complaints filed in U.S. District Courts nationwide, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) recently centralized Suboxone lawsuits before U.S. District Judge Philip Calabrese in the Northern District of Ohio, as part of an MDL or multidistrict litigation.

Suboxone Lawsuit Leadership Attorney Applications

With an initial status conference set for March 7, Judge Calabrese issued the first case management order (PDF) on February 7. However, Judge Calabrese indicates he seeks to appoint certain plaintiffs’ attorneys to leadership positions before the litigation gets underway in earnest, calling for applications for such positions to be provided by March 1.

“The Court will only consider attorneys who have filed a civil action or an appearance in this litigation,” the order states. “Important selection criteria will include: (1) ability to work cooperatively with others and solve novel or complex problems practically, efficiently, and creatively; (2) willingness and ability to commit to a lengthy and time consuming process; (3) professional experience in this type of litigation; and (4) access to sufficient resources to advance the litigation in a timely manner.”

The lawyers selected for leadership positions will be tasked with coordinating status updates for the court, arguing certain pretrial motions, conducting discovery and depositions into common issues that impact all claims, and potentially negotiating a framework for Suboxone tooth decay settlements that may help resolve large numbers of claims. However, each individual plaintiff will still retain their own lawyer to meet various deadlines and establish that they meet the criteria for Suboxone injury lawsuit payout.

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.

Following coordinated discovery and any bellwether trials in the Suboxone MDL, if the parties are unable to agree to tooth decay settlements or another resolution for the dental injury claims, each individual claim would later be remanded back to the U.S. District Court where it was originally filed for trial.