You will listen to the Suboxone lawsuit related to dental complications. We will discuss the Suboxone lawsuit claim that this drug is used to treat opioid disorders, which are the reason for severe dental injuries like oral infections, tooth decay, tooth loss, and cavities.
According to the plaintiff, the manufacturers did not disclose the risks of using this drug. Therefore, they want compensation for the costs of dental repairs and treatment.
Defendants in Suboxone Lawsuit
In this lawsuit, the defendant is Indivior Inc., a pharmaceutical company that makes and sells Suboxone. It focuses on developing and selling drugs used to treat opioid dependency. Indivior is a division of the British pharmaceutical company Reckitt Benckiser. In the Suboxone lawsuit, Indivior, Reckitt, and some other US operating entities are used as defendants.
Overview of Suboxone Tooth Decay Lawsuit
Massive suboxone lawsuits were filed worldwide, alleging that the manufacturers of Suboxone are engaged in wrongful acts in developing design, testing, labeling, packaging, promoting, marketing, advertising, distribution, and selling of Suboxone. It alleges that the manufacturers should have known that Suboxone causes harmful damage to the teeth because of buprenorphine’s acidity.
Furthermore, the plaintiffs allege that the defendants (manufacturers) sold the products without warning about tooth decay risks. The FDA issued a public drug safety communication warning in January 2022, which discussed the risks of tooth decay associated with Suboxone. After this notice, makers revised the warning label for the drug and warned about the risk of tooth decay.
The legal landscape surrounding the Suboxone lawsuit has seen significant developments in the early months of 2023. Numerous Suboxone product liability lawsuits have been filed, each alleging that Suboxone causes tooth decay.
In January 2024, the tooth decay litigation took a significant turn. The multidistrict litigation judges decided to consolidate these cases, with Judge J Philip Calabrese in the Northern District of Ohio overseeing all matters related to the Suboxone lawsuit. This centralization into multidistrict litigation is intended to streamline the legal proceedings, including hearings, discoveries, and other processes.
During this phase in Ohio’s District, a new Suboxone lawsuit will be added, and evidence will be gathered and shared among the involved parties. These cases are known as bellwether, for which test trials will be conducted. These would gauge how future trials might unfold using the strategic approach to facilitating a potential global Suboxone settlement. The outcomes of these trials are critical and influence the resolution of hundreds or thousands of similar tooth decay lawsuits.
Developments of Suboxone Lawsuit 2023
In October 2023, these cases were in the early stages, and lawyers were investigating accusations and accepting clients for a new Suboxone lawsuit. No settlement or trials have happened yet for tooth damage or dental injuries like tooth decay Suboxone.
A month ago, in September 2023, David Sorensen filed a lawsuit against the parent company, Reckitt Benckiser, claiming that Suboxone caused permanent tooth damage.
Indivior agreed to pay a $30 million Suboxone settlement with health insurance companies in August 2023.
The Federal Trade Commission paid some consumers who missed the original deadline in April 2023. Before 2023, the previous year, in 2022, the FDA announced that Suboxone and similar drugs can cause dental injuries like severe tooth decay.
The Federal Trade Commission reached a $60 million settlement with the parent company Reckitt Benckiser Group in May 2021. The companies schemed to block cheaper generic alternatives from the market, and the consumers were allegedly overcharged.
Latest Updates of Suboxone Lawsuit 2024
We discussed the scenario for a Suboxone lawsuit and will now provide you with the latest developments. Here are some of the latest updates on Toot Decay Suboxone lawsuits. The Northern District of Ohio MDL reported almost 205 pending lawsuits related to tooth decay on 1st May 2024. The judges of multidistrict litigation decided to resolve these cases in January 2024.
Development on 28th July 2024
Defendant manufacturer Indinavir files an answer to the plaintiff’s complaint in Suboxone tooth decay. The Indivior filed a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. Indivior will lose their personal jurisdiction argument.
Indivior is domiciled in the United Kingdom and Wales, and its products are sold in the United States. They denied every allegation raised by the plaintiffs. Defendants have no incentive to admit any factual allegations to prove every count through the process of discovery.
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Development on 1st August 2024
Defendants for Suboxone filed for a partial dismissal of the Suboxone lawsuits based on the doctrine of federal preemption. The indivior filed a motion for partial dismissal. Let’s know the reasons for their motion.
- Design Defect Preemption
Defendants argue on the design and say any change to Suboxone’s design would require FDA approval. Therefore, it is impossible to comply with federal and state law. - Failure to warn of preemption
The defendants claim that federal law failed to answer two significant methods.
First, The FDA determined the safety and efficacy of Suboxone on approved drugs at the time of approval. The plaintiffs claim the initial labeling because FDa’s approval process is the exclusive judge of a drug’s safety based on available information.
The second is post-approval after the June 2022 label change. FDA-mandated label change happened in June 2022, and they argue that no newly acquired information would justify label change under the FDA’s changes being affected. - Claims Against Non-NDA Holders
The federal law prohibits non-NDA holders from changing the drug label. Only NDA holders can change it, so they can claim against the non-NDA holder to change the label. - Inadequate Allegations
These plaintiffs’ allegations are insufficient to state a claim against certain defendants because there is no specific allegation that these entities manufactured, marketed, and sold Suboxone film.
The motion seeks to dismiss the claims, which means they can not be refiled as they believe federal law overrides the state law claims. These cases take years; therefore, all the necessary information would be available. The best way to know about these is by checking with a lawyer handling suboxone cases.