Lawyers & Settlements.com reports that the Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation will entertain a renewed request in January to make the United States District Court, D. Minn., the “transferee court” for lawsuits arising out of “shoulder pain pumps” and an apparently painful condition alleged to be associated with these devices: chondrolysis.
This renewed request came just weeks after an FDA report reiterated that it had never approved “any infusion devices with an indication for use in intra-articular infusion of local anesthetics” (insertion of catheters into the joint space). The agency also said that new safety warnings for pain pumps and the anesthetics that go in them will be required.
Minnesota already plays host to nine MDLs: Baycol, Guidant, Levaquin, Medtronic-Fidelis, Mirapex, St. Jude, Viagra, Wholesale Foods, Zurn Pex. The District has certain advantages over other alternatives: it is centrally located in the country, at an airport hub, with a lighter docket than some other major urban districts. The threshold question, however, is whether these shoulder pain pump cases are of a volume and have basic prerequisites of relative uniformity to justify the MDL procedure.