Nearly 70 federal Cymbalta lawsuits are moving from a federal court in California to one in Indiana, while other claims brought by California plaintiffs will stay in their current courts.

U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller transferred the non-California claims out of state rather than dismiss them for lack of jurisdiction. The court considered defendant Eli Lilly Inc.’s motion to dismiss in three separate multi-plaintiff Cymbalta lawsuits.

Each of these actions, all filed in December 2014 in a California federal court, consisted of a single Cymbalta lawsuit brought by multiple plaintiffs from California and from several other states.

Defendant Lilly had moved the court either to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims for lack of jurisdiction or to transfer all the claims from non-California plaintiffs back to the courts in the plaintiffs’ home districts. The court denied Lilly’s motion to dismiss, concerned that dismissal would cause some plaintiffs’ claims to become time-barred by statutes of limitation.

Instead, the court severed the 69 non-California plaintiffs’ claims from the California actions, reasoning that the non-California plaintiffs had not met the procedural requirements for joining the California plaintiffs in a single action.

The court transferred the non-California claims to federal court in the Southern District of Indiana, which is Lilly’s home district and where several other Cymbalta lawsuits are already pending. The court rejected Lilly’s proposal to send each claim back to its home district, since the the claims had enough to do with each other that keeping them in a single court would foster more efficient handling.

Plaintiffs Try for Another Cymbalta MDL

Meanwhile, over 40 other plaintiffs have made a second request to the federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to consolidate several federal Cymbalta withdrawal lawsuits into a single multidistrict litigation.

The panel had denied a previous request to consolidate these claims in December 2014. Attorneys for the plaintiffs argue that consolidation is more warranted now that there are more Cymbalta lawsuits and various law firms involved in the litigation. They say the parties’ attempts to coordinate proceedings informally have not been successful.

Background on Cymbalta

Cymbalta was first approved by the FDA in 2004 as a treatment for major depressive disorder. It’s now also approved to treat generalized anxiety disorder and fibromyalgia.

Some patients have reported suffering withdrawal symptoms when trying to discontinue Cymbalta. In some cases, patients say the symptoms were so severe that they could not stop taking the drug.

Additionally, patients have reported experiencing what have come to be known as “brain zaps,” or sensations of electrical shock inside the head. Some patients have also reported dizziness, headaches, insomnia, or thoughts of suicide. Cymbalta withdrawal symptoms have, in some cases, lasted for several months.

Generally, plaintiffs in these Cymbalta lawsuits allege that Lilly failed to properly warn patients and physicians about the danger of Cymbalta withdrawal.

The current labeling for Cymbalta states that in clinical trials for Cymbalta, withdrawal symptoms were reported at a rate of “1% or greater.” However, plaintiffs allege Lilly’s own studies found withdrawal symptoms in at least 44.3 percent of patients. Plaintiffs claim the lower figures in the label are misleading.