Krueger v. Wyeth, Inc.

310 F.R.D. 468, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137548, 2015 WL 5839197
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedOctober 7, 2015
DocketCivil No. 03cv2496 JAH (MDD)
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 310 F.R.D. 468 (Krueger v. Wyeth, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Krueger v. Wyeth, Inc., 310 F.R.D. 468, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137548, 2015 WL 5839197 (S.D. Cal. 2015).

Opinion

ORDER ON SUPPLEMENTAL BRIEFS

JOHN A. HOUSTON, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

Before the Court are the parties’ supplemental briefs on modification of the class definition. After a careful consideration of the briefs and relevant exhibits submitted by the parties, the Court sets forth its decision below.

BACKGROUND

1. Factual Background

Defendants manufacture the hormone replacement therapy (“HRT”) drugs Premarin, Prempro, and Premphase. See Doc. # 61-6 at 2. Premarin, an estrogen, is a prescription drug first approved by the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) in 1942 and used to prevent postmenopausal osteoporosis, treat moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms associated with menopause (e.g., hot flashes, night sweats), and treat vulvar and vaginal atrophy. See Doc. # 85 at 10-11; Doc. # 20-10 at 4. Prempro, a combination of estrogen and progestin, is a prescription drug approved by the FDA in 1994 “for limited use as a continuous, short-term regimen” to treat and prevent the same symptoms addressed by Premarin. See Doc. # 61-6 at 2; Doe. # 85 at 10. Premphase, a one tablet cyclic regimen of estrogen and progestin, is an alternative form of hormone therapy also used to treat and prevent the same symptoms addressed by the other two drugs. See Doc. # 61-5 at 5; Doc. # 85 at 11.

Plaintiff alleges that since the 1990s, defendants used “branded” and “unbranded” campaigns to market their HRT drugs to women over 45 years old and to physicians for on-and off-label drug uses. See Doc. # 61-6 at 4-5, 9-11; Doc. # 22. Branded campaigns marketed the drugs for FDA-approved, on-label uses, while unbranded campaigns marketed the drugs for non-approved, off-label uses, including the prevention of cardiovascular disease, dementia, and Al[472]*472zheimer’s disease. See Doe. # 61-6 at 4-5, 9-11. Specifically, defendants used the unbranded campaign to inform women that estrogen loss increased their risk of serious ailments, especially cardiovascular disease, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease, with HRT effectively reducing these risks. Id. at 6-7, 9. Defendants then used the branded campaign to introduce women to the HRT drugs and the purported benefits provided by these drugs, while also emphasizing that HRT did not cause breast cancer. Id.

In 2002, however, the Women’s Health Initiative (“WHI”), sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (“NIH”), released a study reporting that Prempro increased a woman’s risk of stroke, heart attack, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, dementia, and Alzheimers disease. See Doc. # 61-6 at 2-3; Doc. # 20-1. Following the study, the FDA revised the labeling of defendants’ HRT drugs to reflect these health risks. See Doc. # 20-5 at 2. Thereafter, defendants began to warn consumers that Premarin, Prem-pro, and Premphase “should not be used to prevent coronary heart disease,” and in light of the “potential increased risks of cardiovascular events, breast cancer, and venous thromboembolic events,” their use “should be limited to the shortest duration consistent with treatment goals and risks for the individual woman, and should be periodically reevaluated.” Id.; see also Doe. # 61-6 at 3.

Plaintiff brings the instant action against defendants for falsely advertising and deceptively marketing the HRT drugs in violation of California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act (“CLRA”), Cal. Civ.Code §§ 1750 et seq., and California’s Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”), Cal. Bus. & Prof.Code §§ 17200 et seq. See Doc. # 16.

2. Procedural History

On December 12, 2003, plaintiff initiated a products liability action against defendants and Does 1-100, inclusive, in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of California. See Doc. # 1. The Judicial Panel on Multi-district Litigation transferred the case to the Eastern District of Arkansas for coordinated pretrial proceedings pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1407, which merged plaintiffs complaint with those of other class action complaints as part of In re Prempro Prods. Liab. Litig., 230 F.R.D. 555 (E.D.Ark.2005) (MDL-1507). See Doc. # 6; Doc. # 7. Thereafter, plaintiffs case was remanded back to this district after the Arkansas court declined to certify a multi-state class of consumers alleging consumer fraud and seeking medical monitoring for any future injuries that arise from their use of Prempro. See Doc. #8; Doe. #9.

On May 14, 2007, plaintiff filed a motion to certify a consumer fraud class of California women who purchased defendants’ HRT drugs, which the Honorable Janis L. Sam-martino (“Judge Sammartino”) denied without prejudice upon a finding that plaintiff could not satisfy the “adequacy” requirement of Rule 23(a)(4) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (“FRCP”). See Doc. # 15; Doc. # 16; Doc. # 44. Judge Sam-martino noted, however, that plaintiff “may be able to satisfy the adequacy requirement by redefining the class,” with plaintiff subsequently filing a motion before this Court for certification of a damages class pursuant to Rule 23(b)(3). Doc. #44 at 6, n. 3; Doc. # 61 at 2. This Court granted in part and denied in part plaintiffs motion on March 30, 2011. See Doc. # 108. Defendants then filed a motion for reconsideration, which this Court denied on July 13, 2011. See Doc. # 110; Doc. # 122. Defendants subsequently filed a petition with the Ninth Circuit requesting permission to appeal this Court’s class certification order. See Doc. # 123. The Ninth Circuit denied defendants’ petition on October 18, 2011. See Doc. # 124. As it stands, therefore, the certified class in this ease includes:

All California consumers who purchased Wyeth’s Hormone Replacement Therapy products, Premarin, Prempro, and/or Premphase, for personal consumption between January 1995 and January 2003, and were exposed to a representation from Wyeth, or health care providers, or read in literature in which Wyeth advertised or provided to third parties to be disseminated under its brand or the third parties’ brand, that Premarin, Prempro, and/or Premphase lowered cardiovascular, Al-zheimers and/or dementia risk, or did not [473]*473increase breast cancer risk, and do not seek personal injury damages resulting therefrom.

On September 10, 2012, defendants filed a motion for summary judgment, a motion to exclude testimony, and a motion for decertifi-cation, which the parties fully briefed. See Docs. # 206, 208, 209, 220, 223, 224, 232-234, 266, 267, 270-73. Following a hearing on the motions, the Court denied defendants’ motions as moot, without prejudice, because completion of discovery raised various disputed issues, thus prompting the Court to invite the parties to submit supplemental briefs addressing modification of the class definition. See Doc. # 274. The parties filed briefs in response to the Court’s invitation. See Does. #278, 279, 280, 281. The Court now addresses the parties’ arguments in their supplemental briefs.

DISCUSSION

1. Legal Standard

Whether to grant class certification is within the discretion of a court. Montgomery v. Rumsfeld,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

UnifySCC v. Cody
N.D. California, 2025
Howell v. Advantage RN LLC
S.D. California, 2019
In re Morning Song Bird Food Litigation
320 F.R.D. 540 (S.D. California, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
310 F.R.D. 468, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137548, 2015 WL 5839197, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/krueger-v-wyeth-inc-casd-2015.