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The judge overseeing the Levaquin multi-district litigation in U.S. District Court in Minnesota has denied a bid by Johnson & Johnson to dismiss one of six lawsuits chosen for bellwether trials.

In an order issued last week, Judge John R. Tunnheim denied a motion for summary judgment in a suit filed by Edward Karkoska, 81, of Eveleth, Minn. Karkoska claimed that the antibiotic Levaquin he was prescribed to treat his bronchitis damaged his left Achilles tendon.

Johnson & Johnson argued that additional information about the risks of potential tendon rupture associated with Levaqin would not have altered the decision by Karkoska’s doctor to prescribe Levaquin.

But the judge disagreed.

“[The doctor] testified that if he had known that Levaquin had greater tendon toxicity than other fluoroquinolones, he ‘probably would have done several things [differently].’ … [H]e would have conducted vitamin D testing, he would have learned more about Karkoska’s ‘basic collagen maintenance system,’ and he would have investigated Karkoska’s ‘steroid situation.’ … Such inquiries may have resulted in a different course of treatment, or may have prompted Karkoska to raise the issue of his previous tendon pain with [the doctor],” the court noted.

No firm trial date has been set, but the first bellwether trial in the MDL is expected to be scheduled for some time in October.

The suits allege that Levaquin – an antibiotic made by Ortho-McNeil and Johnson & Johnson, and used to treat respiratory and urinary tract infections – causes tendonitis, tendinopathy and tendon ruptures. Many of the injuries involve Achilles tendons, according to plaintiffs’ lawyers.

- Nora Lockwood Tooher

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