• Global pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. is facing a multidistrict litigation (MDL No.3140) in the USA, currently comprising approximately 400 lawsuits against the company.
  • This MDL follows a study by EPI-PHARE (Roland et al.) published in March 2024 in the British Medical Journal, which found that women who had used the Pfizer contraceptive injection Depo-Provera1 for more than one year were 5.6 times more likely to develop an intracranial meningioma, a type of brain tumor.
  • An estimated 74 million women globally receive Depo-Provera injections according to a 2019 UN study2.

A Case Management Conference (CMC) in the Depo-Provera legal action against Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) will take place on Friday, 30 May at 9:00am CT in the United States Courthouse is Pensacola, Florida. The litigation is being brought on behalf of women in the USA who developed meningiomas after receiving at least 4 consecutive injections of Pfizer’s Depo-Provera (DMPA). One of the law firms appointed to the Plaintiff’s Executive Committee responsible for overseeing the MDL is Levin Papantonio, which has helped to secure more than $80 billion in jury verdicts and settlements against some of the world's largest corporations, including Johnson & Johnson, BP, Dupont, 3M, Merck and big tobacco. The law firm is currently acting for plaintiffs in the Talcum Powder Litigation against Johnson & Johnson and the Preterm Infant Nutrition Products Liability Litigation against Abbott Laboratories and Mead Johnson, owned by Reckitt Benckiser.

The lawsuits allege that Pfizer and other generic producers of Depo-Provera were aware of the link between these birth control injections and brain tumors and that they failed to adequately warn of the risk and promote safer alternatives. Pfizer has acknowledged its awareness of the risks linked to long-term use of the drug and added warning labels in Canada in 2015, and in the UK and Europe in October 2024 following the Roland study published in the British Medical Journal. On 25 February 2025, Pfizer issued a note to healthcare professionals in South Africa warning that DMPA can cause meningiomas and should not be used by patients with a history of the condition. However, Pfizer has never provided an equivalent warning to women in the United States, highlighting inconsistent global safety standards.

Virginia Buchanan and Chris Paulos, Partners at Levin Papantonio said: “This case is moving at speed and this hearing will bring us closer to achieving justice for the women in the United States who have never been warned about the increased risk of developing a brain tumor from using Depo-Provera and who have gone on to develop meningiomas. Levin Papantonio has taken on Big Tobacco, Big Oil, and Big Pharma for their corporate wrongdoing and now we're demanding that Pfizer be held accountable.”

In the US, 24.5% of sexually active women have used Depo-Provera in their lifetime, according to a 2023 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report3 and according to the University of Edinburgh, Depo-Provera is used by 15% of women in the UK4. Following the March 2024 British Medical Journal study, other studies have since confirmed this risk5 and cancer epidemiologist Paul Pharoah estimated that whilst 40 out of every 10,000 30-year-old women in the UK would be diagnosed with a meningioma before the age of 80, this risk increases to approximately 200 per 10,000 among women who have used Depo-Provera, which equates to 2% of Depo-Provera users developing brain tumors6. Symptoms associated with these brain tumors include headaches, memory loss, seizures, and speech difficulties, often needing surgical intervention.

Depo-Provera, originally developed by The Upjohn Company in the 1950s as a cancer treatment, was marketed as a contraceptive to more than 70 countries from 19697 onwards despite evidence that its active ingredient, DMPA, caused cancer in animals8 and before the first attempt at a clinical study was conducted at the Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta between 1967 and 1978 involving approximately 11,000 mostly impoverished or African American women9. An audit performed by the US FDA found that the study was unreliable and failed to obtain informed consent from its subjects10. In 1984, The Public Board of Inquiry upheld the FDA’s decision to disallow the marketing of the drug and between 1978 to 1992, the FDA denied approval for the drug to be used in the US three times due to safety concerns. The drug was approved in the US in 19927. Pfizer acquired Depo-Provera following its takeover of Pharmacia & Upjohn in 2002.

Notes to editors

About Levin Papantonio

Levin Papantonio is one of the leading plaintiff law firms in America. The firm has successfully represented more than 100,000 clients harmed by corporate negligence and misconduct and has helped to secure more than $80 billion in jury verdicts and settlements against some of the world's largest corporations, including Big Tobacco, BP, Dupont, 3M and Merck:

  • Over $14 billion in settlements in the PFAS litigation from 3M, DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva over the last 20 years. These settlements aimed to fund the cleanup of toxic "forever chemicals" from public water systems nationwide, addressing environmental and health concerns linked to PFAS contamination.
  • $500 million settlement with Walgreens, resolving claims that the pharmacy giant recklessly dispensed opioids in 2023.
  • $26 billion national opioid settlement involving Johnson & Johnson and three other major drug distributors in 2021.
  • $18.7 billion settlement in the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill case in 2010.
  • $4.85 billion settlement in the Vioxx products multi-district litigation against Merck in 2007.
  • $3.75 billion settlement with American Home Products Corporation for those claiming injuries from the diet pill combo Fen-Phen in 1999.
  • $13.2 billion settlement for the State of Florida against the tobacco industry in 1992, the largest civil settlement in US history at the time.

The firm is led by Mike Papantonio, a nationally renowned US trial lawyer. Mike was selected as lead in discovery and trial in the National Prescription Opiate Litigation MDL, dubbed the most complex case in U.S. legal history, and he secured a $26 billion settlement.

One of the few living attorneys inducted into the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame, Papantonio’s work has been featured in award-winning documentaries including Oxy Kingpins, The Devil We Know, and Jesus Camp. Papantonio also hosts America’s Lawyer on YouTube, with over 1 million subscribers, and he founded and hosts the Ring of Fire radio show where he has interviewed major cultural and political figures, including Al Pacino, Erin Brockovich, and Howard Zinn.

1 Refers to Depo-Provera 150 mg/ml formulation. 2 United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Contraceptive use by method 2019: data booklet. 2019. https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/files/documents/2020/Jan/un_2019_contraceptiveusebymethod_databooklet.pdf Accessed 25 April 2025. 3 Daniels K, Abma JC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Health Statistics Reports, Number 195: Contraceptive Methods Women Have Ever Used: United States, 2015–2019. 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr195.pdf Accessed 28 April 2025. 4 University of Edinburgh. Women invited to trial twice-a-year contraceptive. 2023. https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2023/women-invited-to-trial-twice-a-year-contraceptive Accessed 25 April 2025. 5 Griffin RL. The Association between Medroxyprogesterone Acetate Exposure and Meningioma. Cancers (Basel). 2024 Sep 30;16(19):3362. doi: 10.3390/cancers16193362. PMID: 39409982; PMCID: PMC11482550. 6 Science Media Centre. Expert reaction to study finding an association between prolonged use of progestogen hormones and brain tumour risk. 2024. https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-study-finding-an-association-between-prolonged-use-of-progestogen-hormones-and-brain-tumour-risk Accessed 25 April 2025. 7 Nadakavukaren A. Our Global Environment: A Health Perspective. 7th ed. Waveland Press. 2011. Accessed 22 May 2025. 8 World Bank Group Archives. Depo-Provera background documents. 1984. https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/118081664196031351-0560011984/original/WorldBankGroupArchivesFolder1104000.pdf Accessed 25 April 2025 9 Green, W. Contraceptive Risk: The FDA, Depo-Provera, and the Politics of Experimental Medicine. New York University Press. 2017. 10 Weisz J, Ross G, Stolley P. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Report of the Public Board of Inquiry on Depo-Provera. 1984. See also Federal Register. 49(210):43507. Green W. Contraceptive Risk: The FDA, Depo-Provera, and the Politics of Experimental Medicine. New York: New York University Press; 2017.

Media Contacts Desiree Maghoo, Questor Consulting T: +44 (0) 20 3761 9670 M: +44 (0) 7775522740 E: dmaghoo@questorconsulting.com

Mimi Robson, Questor Consulting T: +44 (0) 20 3761 9669 M: +44 (0) 7749940494 E: mrobson@questorconsulting.com

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