Belviq lawsuits have been filed after the Belviq recall last year in response to fears it may cause cancer.
The defendants in the Belviq lawsuits, Arena Pharmaceuticals and Eisai, Inc., have recently filed motions to dismiss in many of these cases.
Last week we saw the first ruling in one of these motions to dismiss. Although the judge dismissed some of the plaintiff’s claims in the case, he declined to dismiss the lawsuits outright. Plaintiff’s most significant tort claims were untouched.
Belviq Lawsuit
Belviq is a prescription weight-control drug that was first approved for use in the United States back in 2012.
When it first came out, Belviq was viewed as a groundbreaking new diet drug for the treatment of obesity. Eventually, we will get weight-loss drug that works. But how many diet drugs have been successful?
There were hidden concerns about the safety of Belviq from the very start. The FDA eventually approved the drug despite studies during clinical trials showing Belviq caused cancer in laboratory rats.
Belviq Recall
In February 2020, the weight loss drug Belviq was recalled from the market after new evidence was presented to the FDA which confirmed the early initial concerns that Belviq increased the risk of certain cancers. The new evidence was based on follow-up data from the initial Belviq approval trials. This follow-up study found that Belviq users had significantly higher rates of colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and lung cancer.
The Belviq recall prompted many former Belviq users who had been diagnosed with cancer to file product liability lawsuits against Arena and Eisai. The pace of Belviq Class Action Lawsuit was slowed down somewhat by the timing of the recall. Belviq was recalled just weeks before the start of the COVID-19 shutdowns in March 2020. As a result, the number of Belviq lawsuits filed in 2020 was comparatively low.
The low number of cases led the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to deny a request to consolidate the pending Belviq lawsuits into a new MDL. Since then, however, the pace of Belviq cancer lawsuits has increased significantly. The JPML may revisit the issue of consolidation into an MDL if this trend continues.
Damages in Belviq Lawsuits
The damages available in a Belviq lawsuit will depend on a variety of factors, and the litigation is too new for there to be sufficient data to offer a clear expectation of the value of a Belviq cancer suit. However, an experienced product liability attorney can offer an assessment of the type of damages that may be available in a particular case.