Run-Down Of Upcoming Merck Fosamax® MDL and NJ Trial Dates (From Latest SEC Form 10-Q)

Just to keep the "significant product liability trials" table well-set, here. . .

Here are all the known upcoming trial dates related to Merck's Fosamax^® ONJ or femur fracture claims, from page 20 of the SEC Form 10-Q.

. . . .[USDC NJ Trial] Judge Pisano set a May 5, 2014, trial date for the bellwether trial of a case where the alleged injury took place after January 31, 2011. The case to be tried on May 5, 2014, is expected to be identified in December 2013.

In addition, Judge Pisano entered an order in August 2013 requiring plaintiffs in the Fosamax Femur Fracture MDL to show cause why those cases asserting claims for a femure fracture injury that took place prior to September 14, 2010, should not be dismissed based on the court’s preemption decision in the Glynn case. Plaintiffs filed their responses to the show cause order at the end of September 2013 and Merck filed its reply to those responses on October 30, 2013.

As of September 30, 2013, approximately 2,520 cases alleging Femur Fractures have been filed in New Jersey state court and are pending before Judge Higbee in Atlantic County Superior Court. The parties have selected an initial group of 30 cases to be reviewed through fact discovery. The first trial of the New Jersey state Femur Fracture cases, Su v. Merck, began on March 11, 2013, but a mistrial was declared on March 28, 2013, after the plaintiff suffered a serious medical issue unrelated to her use of Fosamax that prevented her from proceeding with the trial. The next trial, Unanski v. Merck, was set to be tried beginning November 4, 2013, but was continued and is now set for trial, potentially along with one or two other cases (Love v. Merck and Caravello v. Merck), beginning on March 10, 2014. . . .

As ever, we will keep you informed. As a final note, and reminder of where this all sits, recall that the very able Judge John F. Keenan, in Manhattan's USDC, is now returning batches of Fosamax ONJ cases to their home districts around the nation, for trial, on a staggered schedule -- running through late Q1 of 2014.