By Dan Brillman
(Reuters) - A lawyer who has helped consumers win notable jury verdicts in class actions over Lupron, Paxil and other drugs has been selected as the lead counsel in the federal litigation against the compounding pharmacy allegedly responsible for last year's deadly meningitis outbreak.
Thomas Sobol of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro was picked by Massachusetts federal Judge Dennis Saylor to be lead counsel for more than 150 pending federal cases against the New England Compounding Center. Mark Chalos of Lieff Cabraser Haimann & Bernstein has been selected as federal-state liaison counsel, helping to coordinate the federal cases with the approximately 35 pending state cases.
The personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits have been filed primarily by individuals who contracted meningitis, or by their survivors.
Sobol, whose selection was announced earlier this week, will head a seven-lawyer steering committee chosen by Saylor. The committee will coordinate hearings, trial and settlement negotiations in lawsuits alleging that the Massachusetts-based compounding center prepared and shipped thousands of contaminated steroid injections, causing 733 cases of fungal meningitis, including 53 deaths, according to the latest count from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Compounding pharmacies are supposed to provide individually mixed drugs for specific patients who might not be able to get a product elsewhere or in the right format.
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