Additional "Request(s) To Admit" Scheduling Dates -- In Propecia®/Proscar® MDL -- Entered In Federal Court, In Brooklyn Yesterday

Just about 24 hours after we reported that "not much was new," in the SEC Form 10-Q, on the federal Propecia^® MDL scheduling front -- it turns out that the able Magistrate Judge Kuo was almost simultaneously entering orders designed to move the whole process forward, closer to trial dates -- in Brooklyn.

In fact, on Tuesday, she ordered that Merck be required to answer up to 60 so-called "requests to admit," all as propounded by the plaintiffs' steering committee lawyers. Essentially, the 60 requests are designed to avoid spending time at trial "proving up" factual matters that Merck does not intend to dispute. For example, Merck isn't likely to dispute that it manufactured finasteride, or that copies of ads with wavy hair in its Propecia^® logo were designed or adopted by it. That sort of thing.

So here is my update to the update -- and the full text of the minute order of yesterday, via PACER:

. . . .Minute Order for proceedings held before Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo.

Status Conference held on 8/9/2016. Attorneys Tim Becker and Trent Miracle for Plaintiffs. Attorneys Chip Morrow and Michael Guerra for the Merck Defendants.

Plaintiffs' Motion [325] is granted with the limitations stated on the record. Plaintiffs may propound 60 Requests for Admissions. The deadline for the requests is October 10, 2016.

The deadline for Defendants' responses is December 9, 2016. Any disputes that cannot be resolved by the parties are to be raised via simultaneous filings by January 17, 2017.

For the reasons stated on the record, Defendants' Motion [324] regarding the use of internal Merck documents is granted in part and denied in part.

The parties are to submit by August 12, 2016 a letter proposing 2-3 dates and times for the next status conference. . . .

Now you know. And. . . isn't summer-time just a grand season? With fresh, juicy, and darkly-ripened Michigan cherries to be devoured from the pop-up farmstands throughout the Loop? I certainly think so. . . grinning ear-to-ear. We need not live high, to live. . . well.