Defendants and courts have seen a variety of arguments set forth in attempts to demonstrate specific personal jurisdiction. One argument seen with increasing frequency in medical products cases is that specific jurisdiction exists over an out-of-state defendant for the claims of non-resident plaintiffs because the defendant conducted clinical trials of the product at issue in the forum state. Courts have consistently rejected this argument.
For example, in Moore v. Bayer Corp., 2018 WL 4144795 (E.D. Mo. Aug. 29, 2018), three Missouri plaintiffs joined 95 non-Missouri plaintiffs to sue Bayer and four of its subsidiaries in Missouri state court. All plaintiffs alleged that they had suffered personal injuries as a result of being prescribed and implanted with the medical device Essure. The non-resident plaintiffs argued that specific jurisdiction existed because Bayer worked on the regulatory approval of Essure in Missouri. Plaintiffs alleged that “Missouri was one of eight principal sites in the United States chosen to conduct pre-market clinical trials of Essure. Missouri hospitals and physicians were used in these clinical investigations, and the Missouri study results were used to support the FDA approval process of Essure.” After analyzing Bristol–Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California, San Francisco County, 137 S. Ct. 1773 (2017) [BMS], the court held that “[t]he injury claims of the non-Missouri plaintiffs lack an adequate connection to Bayer’s activities in Missouri for specific jurisdiction. The non-Missouri plaintiffs were not prescribed Essure in Missouri, they did not have the device implanted in Missouri, and they were not injured in Missouri.” The court went on to state that “[t]he non-Missouri plaintiffs do not allege to have taken part in Missouri clinical trials nor do they allege to have personally reviewed or relied on the resulting data.”
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