Watson Fentanyl Patch Overdose Death Lawsuits MDL Announced

As a Texas Fentanyl Pain Patch Wrongful Death and Dallas Personal Injury Attorney, I am providing this Fentanyl patch update. The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML), ruled that all federal fentanyl patch fatal injury lawsuits against Watson Pharmaceuticals will be transferred for coordinated pre-trial proceedings.

The fatal injury and wrongful death claims from Watson fentanyl patch will be consolidated before U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly in the Northern District of Illinois, as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation.

What is Fentanyl?

Fentanyl is a narcotic painkiller that is about 100 times more powerful than morphine. The patches are designed to release the fentanyl gel through a membrane that is placed on the skin.

Problems with the Watson Fentanyl Patch

According to experts, the Watson pain patches has a defective reservoir design, which can leak fentanyl gel directly onto the skin of users and cause fentanyl overdose deaths.

Allegedly the problems could have been prevented by a matrix design and that Watson knew about the safer alternative design, but did not do so, in order to save money.

FDA Warnings and Safety Complaints

The FDA has received hundreds of adverse event reports involving fentanyl overdoses and deaths associated with the use of fentanyl pain patches.

What is a MDL?

Consolidating the cases for pretrial proceedings will eliminate duplicative discovery, prevent inconsistent pretrial rulings.
The Watson fentanyl patch MDL refers to that all lawsuits filed in federal court will be consolidated for pre-trial proceedings. If the parties fail to reach a settlement, the cases will be remanded back to their original districts and tried.

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