Merck has moved to coordinate dozens of lawsuits brought over injuries allegedly caused by its shingles vaccine, Zostavax.

In an April 20 motion, Michaela Roberts, an attorney for Merck & Co. and Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., asked the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to transfer 57 cases to U.S. District Senior Judge James Moody of the Middle District of Florida, or U.S. District Senior Judge Harvey Bartle of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The motion comes as Merck has 27 pending “substantively identical motions to dismiss” before 13 judges.

“There now exists a critical need for coordination of pretrial proceedings to avoid duplicative, burdensome discovery of the defendants and perhaps experts, and inconsistent rulings on nearly identical pretrial motions,” wrote Roberts, a partner at Venable in Baltimore. “Although Merck has begun to pursue discovery from many plaintiffs, thus far no Merck witness depositions have taken place. In addition, expert discovery has not yet begun and trials are not expected to commence for at least another year. However, the parties are on the precipice of receiving potentially conflicting orders with respect to Merck's motions to dismiss plaintiffs' fraud-related claims.”

As an alternative, she wrote, Merck also suggested U.S. District Judge Joseph Bianco of the Eastern District of New York.

Roberts did not respond to a request for comment.

Marc Bern, who has filed the majority of the federal cases, said an MDL was unnecessary.

“There's only a handful of plaintiffs lawyers who are involved,” said Bern, of Marc J. Bern & Partners in New York. “What they should be concerned about is having a safe vaccine, which this is not. We believe that these cases can be adequately litigated wherever they are currently pending, and the need for an MDL is absolutely unnecessary.”

In the event of an MDL, though, he said that U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman of the Eastern District of Wisconsin would be a better choice.

Shingles is a rash on the side of the face or body, usually affecting persons over 50. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Zostavax as a shingles vaccine in 2006. The cases allege that the “live, attenuated varicella-zoster virus” in the vaccine caused patients to get shingles, brain damage and death, among other things.

Of the 117 plaintiffs with suits in federal court over Zostavax, most brought cases in 2017 and in Florida, where Merck suggests that Moody should oversee the MDL. But the first case was brought in 2016 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where Bartle is located. Other federal cases are in New Jersey, New York, Wisconsin and Massachusetts.

To support its MDL request, Merck cited recent applications in California and New Jersey, where the pharmaceutical firm is headquartered, to coordinate state court cases over Zostavax.

Dale Ratner of Bern's firm filed a Jan. 5 petition for coordination soon after Merck had moved to quash the non-California plaintiffs in most of the California state court cases based on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year in Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court of California. That ruling made it harder to bring cases on behalf of multiple out-of-state plaintiffs against an out-of-state defendant. According to Merck's motion, there are 10 California cases involving 260 plaintiffs.

“Coordination will reduce the risk of contradictory and inconsistent verdicts regarding those decisions,” Ratner wrote.

On Feb. 23, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl granted the petition under the state's Judicial Council Coordinated Proceeding process. She disagreed with Merck's lawyers to hold off on a decision until judges ruled on the Bristol-Myers issue, noting that even if judges dismissed the non-California residents, there still would be more than 30 California plaintiffs.

In New Jersey, meanwhile, Mark Sadaka of The Law Offices of Sadaka Associates in Englewood, New Jersey, filed a Feb. 15 letter to designate 23 cases brought by 285 plaintiffs in New Jersey state courts over Zostavax as multi-county litigation. Thomas Joyce, of Bern's firm, filed a similar letter on March 6 on behalf of 569 plaintiffs. Both suggested the Middlesex County Superior Court.