Hollingsworth LLP attorneys successfully secured a dismissal in one of the twelve bellwether discovery cases in the Tepezza^® MDL, In re Tepezza Marketing, Sales Practices, & Products Liability Litigation. On October 28, 2024, the Honorable Thomas M. Durkin of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted Horizon Therapeutics USA, Inc.’s (“Horizon”) motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) in Merriweather v. Horizon Therapeutics USA, Inc. The court agreed with Horizon, represented by Hollingsworth LLP, that all of plaintiff Merriweather’s claims were nonviable under a now-repealed Michigan statute that bars product liability actions against manufacturers of FDA-approved drugs. The Merriweather dismissal is a victory that informs the court of the potential meritless claims and cases across the MDL inventory.

The plaintiff in Merriweather is a Michigan resident who alleged that her exposure to Tepezza^®, a first-of-its-kind FDA-approved biologic indicated for the treatment of thyroid eye disease, caused her alleged injuries. At issue before the court was whether Illinois or Michigan law governed plaintiff’s claims. The court found that plaintiffs failed to overcome the strong presumption under Illinois choice-of-law rules in favor of Michigan law, the law of the place of plaintiff’s injury, and that Michigan law required dismissal of the complaint. Third-year associate Olivia N. Sacks successfully argued the motion before Judge Durkin.

Law 360 published about the dismissal and, separately, about the oral argument by Hollingsworth LLP attorneys.