Based on a ruling from a Charleston judge, Bausch & Lomb Inc. plans to seek to dismiss the majority of active lawsuits stemming from the 2006 global recall of a top-selling contact lens solution. David C. Norton, chief U.S. District Court judge in Charleston, last week granted the eye-products maker’s request to exclude the testimony of a medical expert in more than 1,000 complaints that have been filed by individuals.
Bausch & Lomb already has paid out more than $250 million to settle about 600 lawsuits linking MoistureLoc to a potentially blinding fungal infection known as Fusarium keratitis. But after a three-day hearing in New York in June on the admissibility of expert evidence, Norton said in an Aug. 26 ruling that there is no reliable scientific basis in the 1,024 remaining complaints for arguing that MoistureLoc caused various eye infections. He said attorneys who were relying on the opinion of corneal specialist Dr. Elisabeth Cohen to support their cases “did not submit any peer-reviewed studies, articles or case reports concluding that there is a causal relationship” between MoistureLoc and the infections.
Excerpted from postandcourier.com.