In Re: Lupron Marketing and v. Tap Pharmaceutical Products, Inc.; Abbott Laboratories; Takeda

Appellants, a small dissident group (“the Samsell plaintiffs”), are within a larger class of medical patient consumers in a case alleging fraud in overcharging for the medication Lupron. These plaintiffs, along with insurers and private health care providers, have achieved a major settlement agreement which was approved by the district court. The total amount of the settlement was $150 million, of which $40 million was allocated to consumers. That agreement provided that if there were unclaimed monies from the $40 million consumer settlement pool even after full recovery to consumer plaintiffs, all unclaimed funds would go into a cy pres fund to be distributed at the discretion of the trial judge.

The Samsell plaintiffs appeal from the district court’s distribution of the $11.4 million cy pres fund to the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and the Prostate Cancer Foundation (“DF/HCC”) for work on the treatment of the diseases for which Lupron is prescribed. The Samsell plaintiffs make a series of subordinate attacks, all designed to increase the sums paid to them, though they have already recovered more than 100% of their actual damages. The award is defended by the plaintiff class and, naturally, by the recipient DF/HCC. The defendant manufacturer of Lupron, having settled the case, has not filed a brief with us.