Drug maker Johnson & Johnson settles with 845 Levaquin plaintiffs

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Drug maker Johnson & Johnson has settled approximately 845 product liability suits brought by individuals who claim they suffered tendon damage as a result of taking the antibiotic Levaquin.

The settlements were revealed in an Oct. 30 status conference before Judge John R. Tunheim, the federal judge in Minnesota overseeing Levaquin multidistrict litigation.

Approximately 845 plaintiffs represented by a small number of firms reached a settlement in September, according to court records. The financial terms were not revealed and the parties reported that they were currently in the process of finalizing the details of those settlements.

Levaquin is made by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical. Plaintiffs allege the popular antibiotic causes tendonitis, tendinopathy and tendon ruptures, often involving the Achilles tendon, and that the drug maker failed to warn about those risks. In 2008, the Food and Drug Administration required Johnson & Johnson to include “black box” warnings on the risks of tendon injuries.

The drug maker reported at last month’s court hearing that there were 1,923 Levaquin cases pending in the multidistrict litigation, 1,509 cases pending in a mass tort action proceeding in New Jersey state court, and another two Levaquin cases in Illinois state court.

Johnson & Johnson has won two of the three bellwether cases to go to trial in the multidistrict litigation. In the first Levaquin bellwether trial held in 2010, a federal jury in Minneapolis awarded $1.8 million to an elderly man who claimed his Achilles tendons ruptured in 2005 after he had taken the drug for three days for treatment of bronchitis. Johnson & Johnson won its first state case in October 2011, when a New Jersey jury rejected the Levaquin claims of two plaintiffs.

At last month’s status conference, the parties reported that another 190 plaintiffs are currently in settlement discussions.