First ONJ lawsuit involving Zometa goes to trial

Merck isn't alone in its legal battles involving bisphosphonates and osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ).

The first of several hundred lawsuits filed against Novartis alleging that its osteoporosis drug Zometa causes ONJ went to trial last week in Missoula, according to a news story in the Missoulan.

As with the recent case against Merck and its osteoporosis drug Fosamax -- which ended in a mistrial but is only the first of several hundred more the company faces -- legal analysts are saying a verdict in this case could have national significance, according to the Missoulan.

Peggy L. Stevens of Missoula sued Novartis last year, alleging the company was professionally negligent when it failed to disclose health risks associated with Zometa. Stevens, who has lymphoma, developed severe dental and jaw-related problems after taking Zometa intravenously for about three years.

"Instead of disclosing concerns about this relationship [between dental work and the jaw disorder] in a timely fashion, Novartis focused on obscuring the causal relationship, delaying disclosure and controlling the public relations fallout that would occur from the disclosure," her attorneys wrote in a pre-trial brief.

Novartis faces lawsuits from approximately 550 plaintiffs whose cases have been consolidated in a Tennessee federal court and a New Jersey state court. The first of those cases is slated for trial in March 2010, the Missoulan reported.