Calif. Federal Judge Stays 3 Avandia Cases Pending JPML’s Decision to Transfer to MDL

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge has granted GlaxoSmithKline’s (NSE: GLAXO) request to stay three Avandia injury cases pending the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation’s decision to transfer them to the Avandia MDL in Pennsylvania.

On Sept. 26, Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California concluded that a stay “will avoid inequity and hardship to GSK, while simultaneously promoting judicial economy.”

The complaints, originally filed by several plaintiffs in San Francisco Superior Court, allege “death, personal injury, economic damages, punitive damages, and other claims of damage arising from the use of …