Painters & Allied Trades District Council 82 Health Care Fund v. Forest Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

In these consolidated appeals arising out of two “off-label” prescription drug marketing cases aggregated for pretrial proceedings in the district court by order of a multidistrict litigation panel, the First Circuit reversed the dismissal of claims brought by two of the four plaintiffs, vacated the denial of Plaintiffs’ motion to compel the production of additional documents, and otherwise affirmed the district court's rulings.In their complaint, Plaintiffs claimed that Defendants, Forest Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Forest Laboratories, Inc., engaged in an off-label marketing scheme aimed at fraudulently inducing doctors to write pediatric prescriptions of their antidepressant drugs when the FDA had not approved the use of these medications for minors. After discovery, the district court entered summary judgment for Defendant on Plaintiffs’ Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. 1962(c)-(d), claims and dismissed Plaintiffs’ state-based allegations as deriving from their noncognizable RICO claims. The First Circuit (1) reversed the district court’s entry of summary judgment on certain plaintiffs’ RICO and state-law claims and on another plaintiff’s RICO and unjust-enrichment claims on the basis that the evidence was insufficient on these claims; (2) vacated the denial of Plaintiffs’ motion to compel; (3) affirmed the denial of class certification; and (4) otherwise affirmed. View "Painters & Allied Trades District Council 82 Health Care Fund v. Forest Pharmaceuticals, Inc." on Justia Law