QUESTION
What is the Latest Update on Viagra Litigation Over Melanoma Skin Cancer?
ANSWER
A growing number of product liability lawsuits continue to be filed by men throughout the United States who were diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer allegedly caused by Viagra.
While it appears likely that thousands of men may have been impacted by Pfizer’s failure to warn about this risk, the Viagra litigation remains in its early stages.
In April 2016, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation determined that a sufficient number of claims have been filed, or will likely be filed in the near future, to justify establishing coordinated pretrial proceedings, where the cases will be centralized before one judge in a manner similar to a Viagra class action.
Cases filed throughout the federal court system are being litigated before U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in the Northern District of California to reduce duplicative discovery into common issues in the cases, avoid conflicting pretrial and evidentiary rulings from different courts and to serve the convenience of the parties, witnesses and the judicial system.
Throughout 2017, discovery is expected to continue into issues common to all cases. However, it is expected that a small group of cases will be selected for a “bellwether” process, which will be prepared for early trial dates to help determine how juries may resond to certain evidence and testimony that is likely to be repeated throughout the litigation.
While the outcomes of these trials will not be binding on other claims, they may influence eventual negotiations to settle Viagra melanoma cases without the need for hundreds of individual cases to go before juries.
Allegations Raised in Viagra Skin Cancer Litigation
The Viagra litigation has emerged since the publication of a study in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine in June 2014, after an early on-line release in April 2014.
The study found that men taking Viagra may be 84% more likely to be diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer than men who do not use the drug, suggesting that the medication may impact the body’s ability to fight off skin cancer.
Find Out If You May Be Eligible to Join the Viagra Melanoma Litigation
Although it appears that Pfizer knew or should have known about the potential link between Viagra and melanoma skin cancer, information about the risk has been withheld from consumers and the medication community, preventing men from monitoring for signs or symptoms of skin cancer on Viagra, which may have allowed men to detect and treat melanoma before it progressed to an advanced stage.
Pfizer introduced Viagra in 1998 for treatment of erectile dysfunction, and it has been aggressively marketed as a sexual aid. At its height in 2012, the “little blue pill” was prescribed about 8 million times, and brought in more than $2 billion annually.
Given the wide-spread marketing and use of the drug, as well as the documented risk associated with use of the drug, it is ultimately expected that the Viagra melanoma litigation will include lawsuits filed in courts throughout the United States.
Find Out If You Have a Viagra Melanoma Case
The Viagra skin cancer lawyers at Saiontz & Kirk, P.A. provide free consultations and case evaluations for men diagnosed with melanoma, to help determine what the legal options are and whether financial compensation may be available.
Given the substantial discovery and work that remains to be done in the litigation, including the review of what will likely be millions of pages of internal Pfizer documents on the development and marketing of Viagra, and a substantial number of depositions of common fact witnesses with information relevant to all cases, the Viagra melanoma litigation is likely to be on-going for several years. However, each case does have a deadline or statute of limitations, which requires that a Viagra lawsuit be filed within a certain amount of time.
If it is suspected that you, a friend or family member may be eligible to participate in the litigation, it is important to review your case as early as possible.
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