Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Super. Ct.

BACKGROUND

Trial Court Proceedings On March 12, 2012, eight separate complaints, each including California residents and non-residents as plaintiffs, were filed in the San Francisco Superior Court by or on behalf of 659 individuals, consisting of 84 California residents and 575 non-residents (the RPI), who allegedly were prescribed and ingested Plavix. They (or their spouses) claim that they suffered adverse consequences as a result. Each complaint contains the same 12 causes of action.1 The two named defendants in each of these cases are McKesson Corporation (McKesson), which is alleged to be a pharmaceutical distribution and marketing company organized under Delaware law and headquartered in San Francisco, and BMS, which is alleged to be a pharmaceutical manufacturing and marketing company that makes and markets Plavix throughout the United States, organized under Delaware law and headquartered in New York. Each of the complaints alleges in identical terms that defendants introduced Plavix in 1997 and heavily marketed it directly to consumers by falsely representing it “as providing greater cardiovascular benefits, while being safer and easier on a person’s stomach than…