The first bellwether trial in Philadelphia's mass tort over allegedly defective inferior vena cava filters is expected to begin next week. The trial comes as neither side has emerged as a clear winner in the wake of several bellwether trials in related litigation outside Pennsylvania.

Jury selection is set to begin Friday in Reed-Brown v. Rex Medical with Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Erdos presiding over the case. No date has been set yet for the start of trial, but openings are expected to begin next week.

According to the docket, the plaintiff, Tracy Reed-Brown, is being represented by Rosemary Pinto of the Philadelphia-based firm Feldman & Pinto and David Matthews of the Houston-based firm Matthews & Associates.

They are expected to face off against Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith attorneys Megan Grossman and Walter (Pete) Swayze III, who are set to lead the trial team for the defendants.

The litigation focuses on allegations that the defendants failed to properly warn about the dangers of the filter devices, which were designed to prevent blood clots, but can allegedly migrate or fracture in patients' bodies, causing perforations. The injuries, according to plaintiffs, put patients at risk for a host of medical problems, including gastrointestinal difficulties, kidney failure and death.

According to the consolidated docket in Philadelphia, more than 760 lawsuits are pending in the court's vena cava mass tort program. That is in addition to the more than 15,000 filter cases pending in federal courts.

The litigation in Philadelphia focuses on Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based Rex Medical and Argon Medical Devices, which is based in Plano, Texas.

Stewart Eisenberg of Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck, who is a leading attorney for the mass tort program, said he expects to see steady growth for the program, although he added it is difficult to predict roughly how big the program will become. He said that, unlike with drug litigation, where label changes can create global cutoff dates for the mass tort, many devices are still active inside people, so the claims won't accrue until the device fails, making any predictions about the size difficult.

"It started out with around 100 cases [when it was consolidated into a mass tort in 2017], so you can see it's grown," Eisenberg said.

According to Eisenberg, although there are allegations that the devices are defective, the lawsuits focus on the defendants' alleged failure to warn about the dangers and possible complications of the device.

Reed-Brown focuses on the "Option Retrievable" filter, which, according to Reed-Brown's complaint, was manufactured by Rex Medical and distributed by Argon Medical Devices. In her lawsuit, Reed-Brown, a Georgia resident, alleged she was implanted with the device in December 2016 in Georgia, but the device later perforated through the wall of her vena cava, causing severe pain and complications, including fear and anxiety that the device may fracture, which could be fatal.

The complaint said the defendants failed to conduct sufficient clinical testing, and knew or should have known that there was a high rate of embedments, fracture and migrations, but failed to warn. The complaint raised negligence, strict liability, design defect, manufacturing defect, breach of warranty and negligent misrepresentation claims.

Along with compensatory damages, the suit seeks punitive damages.

At least one of the cases that have come to a verdict so far has resulted in punitive damages being awarded.

The related federal litigation focuses on Cook Medical, which is based in Bloomington, Indiana, and New Jersey company Bard Medical. As of Sept. 16, federal records showed more than 7,000 cases were pending against Cook in Indiana federal court, and more than 8,600 were pending against Bard in Arizona federal court.

So far, a handful of cases have gone to trial. The results have been mixed.

Cook won the first IVC filter trial in 2017, but it lost a $1.2 million verdict in Texas state court in May 2018. Cook was also hit with a $3 million verdict in February. In March of last year, plaintiffs won a $3.6 million verdict against Bard. That verdict included a $2 million punitive damages award against Bard. The company, however, followed up in June 2018 with a defense win.

Reed-Brown marks the first trial from the vena cava mass tort in Philadelphia, but two other cases are set to come before Philadelphia juries in the next nine months. The case Hobbs v. Rex is set to begin in April 2020, and Wilson v. Argon is scheduled to come before a jury the following month.

Neither Pinto, nor Matthews returned messages seeking comment. Calls to Rex Medical and Argon Medical seeking comment were also not returned.