Firm’s partner suggests that suits may combine into class-action.
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BY RON SHINKMAN
The Los Angeles law firm of Peiffer Wolf, which is representing two couples suing Cooper Surgical, says that more lawsuits will be filed against the company, their attorney told Inside Reproductive Health.
Two Current Lawsuits Against Cooper Surgical for Destruction of Embryos
CooperSurgical is being sued by two Los Angeles couples who claim their attempts at conception through IVF were derailed by a faulty culturing solution that destroyed their developing embryos.
The lawsuits were filed earlier this month in Los Angeles County Superior Court, records show. They essentially make identical allegations: CooperSurgical sold culturing media to fertility practices that did not undergo sufficient testing. Those lots of solution “turned out to be toxic to human embryos, eggs, and sperm.”
CooperSurgical issued a recall notice of three lots of culturing media to its customers and distributors on Dec. 5, 2023. Entitled “Urgent Media Recall: Field Safety Notice,” the recall noted “a high volume of customer complaints for the three associated lots.” It also warned that the lots pose a risk of “impaired embryo development prior to the blastocyst stage.”
The lawsuits allege CooperSurgical’s recall efforts “intentionally did not immediately disseminate notice of the recalled lots publicly or throughout the IVF community.”
The plaintiffs in the two cases were referred to by random initials to protect their privacy. The clinics that provided the IVF services were not disclosed and were not named as defendants in the lawsuits.
A.B. and C.D., the plaintiffs in one case, allege that faulty culturing media destroyed all but one of “numerous embryos” within a few days of a fertilized egg being cultured in November of last year. E.F. and G.H., the plaintiffs in the other case, claim that all of their embryos were destroyed last November.
“Plaintiffs are devastated. They may no longer be able to have additional children with their genetic material as a result of defendants’ conduct,” the lawsuits state.
The litigation seeks damages for product liability regarding design and manufacturing defects and failure to warn, negligence and negligent failure to recall the defective culturing lots.
A spokesperson for CooperSurgical, a subsidiary of Pleasanton, Calif.-based medical device manufacturer The Cooper Companies, told Inside Reproductive Health it does not comment on pending litigation.
More Lawsuits Against Cooper Surgical Could Develop Into Class-Action
Peiffer Wolf partner Adam Wolf said that more lawsuits against CooperSurgical are forthcoming. He currently represents some 20 clients who claim the faulty culturing media damaged their embryos.
“It would not surprise me if we end up representing more than 100 people against Cooper. We will file those additional lawsuits in both state court and federal court.” Wolf said in an email. He noted that some clients are in other states outside of California, necessitating the use of federal courts. He added that he would not be surprised if any lawsuits filed in federal court are combined into a class-action, which could expose CooperSurgical to tens of millions of dollars in damages should the company take the case to trial and lose.
The themes reported in this publication are those of the news. They do not reflect the views of Inside Reproductive Health, nor of the Advertiser
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