Depo-Provera Lawsuits Face Early Hurdle as Pfizer Looks to Knock Out Key Claims
Nearly a year after the first cases were filed, hundreds of pending Depo-Provera lawsuits are facing a key hurdle.
Pfizer, which manufactures the popular birth control injection, filed a motion for summary judgment on Friday in the court where these cases have been grouped together. Summary judgment is a legal procedure where one side asks for the judge to rule in its favor on key issues without holding a trial.
For Pfizer, the stakes are high. There are already more than 900 cases pending in federal court over claims that Depo-Provera use is tied to the development of meningiomas, a type of brain tumor. Cases are active across numerous state courts as well, along with more than 9,000 cases that have not yet been filed.
The summary judgment motion applies to five pilot cases that were selected to represent the overall litigation. But the outcome of that motion will be a key factor in the future of virtually all of these growing lawsuits.
Pfizer Claims Depo Lawsuits Are Preempted by FDA Decision
Pfizer’s motion for summary judgment is based on a concept called federal preemption, which means that federal law can overrule or supersede contradictory state laws.
One of the central issues in the Depo-Provera litigation is whether Pfizer failed to warn its customers of a potentially heightened risk of developing tumors from using their product. Pfizer argues that these claims cannot stand because a meningioma warning was already rejected at the federal level.
The company reported that, in 2023, it became aware of new research establishing an association between Depo usage and meningiomas. Pfizer then requested approval from the Food & Drug Administration to update the Depo-Provera label with a meningioma warning.
Further research followed, with a 2024 study published in the BMJ uncovering an increased risk of meningioma in Depo-Provera users.
The FDA, however, opted not to approve that label update. Now, Pfizer claims these lawsuits cannot stand since the FDA has already rejected the new label.
“This is a clear preemption case because FDA expressly barred Pfizer from adding a warning about meningioma risk, which Plaintiffs say state law required,” Pfizer said in its motion.
Next Steps for the Depo-Provera Lawsuits
The lawyers representing people who have filed Depo-Provera lawsuits are set to file an opposition to the summary judgment motion within the next month. A decision from the judge overseeing these cases should come sometime after.
If the judge were to side with Pfizer, it could be devastating to the Depo lawsuits and knock out some of the central claims at the heart of this litigation. The company has said that, if its summary judgment motion is successful for the pilot cases, it will attempt to take down hundreds of other pending lawsuits on the same claims.
But the success of Pfizer’s motion is far from a guarantee. Historically, there is a high bar for a judge to award summary judgment. Additionally, plaintiffs’ representatives say there are other key issues at hand, including claims that Pfizer had evidence for decades of Depo’s potential ties to brain tumors and did not act.
