JPML Rejects Efforts to Create MDL Docket for Belviq Claims, Cites ‘Individualized Factual Issues’

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has opted not to create a multidistrict litigation docket for claims linking the weight loss drug Belviq to cancer, citing individualized factual issues concerning causation that would “diminish the potential to achieve significant efficiencies in an MDL.”

In the Aug. 10 order, the Panel also noted that “some plaintiffs allegedly took Belviq for as little as a month or two, while others claim to have taken it for several years or more.”

Instead, the JPML suggested, that informal coordination would make sense, noting that all of the cases are in …