Depo-Provera (Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate)
Centralized before Judge M. Casey Rodgers in the Northern District of Florida in February 2025, the Depo-Provera litigation consolidates federal claims alleging that depot medroxyprogesterone acetate, an injectable birth-control drug, causes meningioma — a typically benign but potentially serious brain tumor — in users who were not adequately warned of the risk. With 6,403 actions pending, this docket has grown to substantial scale within roughly a year and a half of centralization, a notably fast accumulation relative to many pharmaceutical mass torts at a comparable stage.
The structural development currently shaping this docket's trajectory is the court's decision to have the parties prepare five pilot bellwether cases, intended to reveal how juries are likely to respond to the evidence and expert testimony expected to recur across the broader claim pool before the court commits to a larger, more resource-intensive bellwether trial program. This kind of smaller pilot-case approach, ahead of a full bellwether slate, is a case-management tool courts use to gather early signal efficiently when a docket has grown large quickly, without yet locking in a full trial calendar.
Because no bellwether trial date has been set, the near-term structural question is how the pilot cases perform through discovery and any related Daubert practice, and whether that process surfaces a workable general-causation record for the meningioma theory that can then support a broader bellwether trial program. Given the pace at which this docket has grown, how efficiently the court can convert pilot-case learning into a scalable bellwether structure will be a significant determinant of overall resolution timing for a claim pool already in the thousands. Criterica Intelligence's platform tracks pilot-case and early case-management structures like this across every active MDL, providing a structural read on pace without predicting a specific causation finding.
Plaintiffs allege that long-term use of the injectable birth-control drug depot medroxyprogesterone acetate causes meningioma, a typically benign but potentially serious brain tumor, without adequate warning of the risk.
A smaller pilot-case approach lets the court gather early evidentiary and jury-reaction signal efficiently before committing to a larger, more resource-intensive bellwether trial program, which is useful when a docket has grown large quickly.
It reached 6,403 pending actions within roughly a year and a half of centralization in February 2025, a notably fast accumulation relative to many pharmaceutical mass torts at a comparable stage.
How efficiently the pilot-case process converts into a workable general-causation record and a scalable bellwether trial program will be a significant driver of resolution timing for a claim pool already in the thousands.
Statistics shown reflect historical or illustrative model outputs derived from real case data. They are not predictions or guarantees of any individual outcome. Litigation results depend on facts, jurisdiction, judge, and counsel, and vary case by case. Model accuracy is subject to selection effects and changing legal dynamics.