Federal Magistrate Judge Recommends Award of Summary Judgment to Novartis in Zometa Case

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A federal magistrate judge has recommended that Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. be awarded summary judgment in a Zometa injury case after deeming the causation testimony of the plaintiff’s experts to be inadequate.

On Sept. 2, Magistrate Judge Gregory B. Wormuth of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico explained that the four healthcare providers proffered as experts all admitted that they did not diagnose the plaintiff’s deceased husband with biophosphonate-induced osteonecrosis of the jaw and that they are not experts in the disease.

In October 2004, George Sage-Allison, who was suffering from prostate cancer with …