TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) - Class actions against Pfizer over the quit-smoking drug Chantix are on hold, as they might soon be consolidated into a multidistrict litigation proceeding in federal court.
Judge Michael Shipp, of the District of New Jersey, issued a stay on a lawsuit brought by Monmouth County as the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation considers whether to consolidate it with other similar cases.
"(T)he court finds that considerations of judicial economy favor a stay," Shipp wrote. "A short stay may avoid unnecessary motion practice in this court, as a consolidation of the matters would likely result in discovery motions being disposed of by a single forum should the JPML consolidate the other federal cases.
"It would be a waste of judicial resources for this court to consider the merits of the motions in this action while the JPML is considering whether transfer and centralization is appropriate."
Pfizer’s pending motion to dismiss argues the FDA’s guidance on nitrosamine proves a 110-pound woman who consumed the FDA’s threshold for dangerous amounts of N-nitroso-varenicline would have a 1 in 100,000 change of developing cancer.
“In contrast, smoking cause one in three cancer deaths,” the motion says.
David Magagna of Levin Sedran & Berman in Philadelphia is representing Monmouth County, along with two colleagues at the firm and New Jersey lawyer Michael Fitzgerald.
“Nowhere does the complaint allege (nor could it) that Plaintiff is in a special or fiduciary relationship with Pfizer,” the motion to dismiss says.
“Nor does the complaint plausibly allege that Pfizer had knowledge that Chantix was contaminated, or that Pfizer made a prior or partial statement ‘that was rendered false or misleading by any omission.’