Depo-Provera Litigation on Fast Track

Depo-Provera Litigation Timeline

The Depo Provera MDL was consolidated in early February 2025 and a second case management conference was held in March. Numerous legal sites report that Discovery is set to begin March 27, and the scheduling order for a group of five pilot cases is aggressive. Defendants have until May 11 to complete their document production on pre-emption and general causation, and by late July, pre-emption discovery should be wrapped. Lawyers expect that summary judgment motions on pre-emption will be seen and expert discovery on general causation will be completed by early 2026. With this timeline, the first trials may get underway by late 2026 or early 2027. One attorney noted that a “sticking point” has to be addressed: how to handle deficiencies in plaintiffs’ initial submissions. Judge Rodgers expects the parties to propose a uniform process by April 14.

Depo Lawsuits

In the wake of the British Medical Journal’s study in March 2024, which indicated that Depo-Provera increased a user’s risk of developing a type of brain tumor known as meningioma, Depo lawsuits have been filed nationwide. Just months after the study was published, the first federal lawsuit was filed against Pfizer and other defendants. Kristina Schmidt started taking the Depo Shot in 2005, when she was twenty-years-old. At age 37, Schmidt had an MRI – she was suffering from severe headaches—which showed a mass identified as meningioma. In October 2022, she underwent a three-hour brain surgery.

Schmidt had no idea that Depo-Provera was linked to meningioma until she read about the March 2024 study. She had no idea because Pfizer still hasn’t added risk of meningioma to its Depo warning label. According to her lawsuit:

Several scientific studies have established that progesterone, its synthetic analogue progestin, and Depo-Provera in particular, cause or substantially contribute to the development of intracranial meningioma, a type of brain tumor. Nevertheless, Defendants failed to warn, instruct, advise, educate, or otherwise inform Depo-Provera users and prescribers about the risk of intracranial meningioma or the need for monitoring for resultant symptoms. To date, the U.S. label for Depo-Provera still makes no mention of the increased risk to patients of developing intracranial meningiomas despite the fact that the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom labels now list meningioma under the “special warnings and precautions for use” section and advise EU patients to speak with their doctors before using Depo-Provera if they have any history of meningioma’.

Laurie King took the Depo shot from June 2002 until September 2022. WBAY News reported that King developed disturbing symptoms including headaches, near syncopal sensation, dizziness, and vertigo, developed intermittent word-finding difficulty and decreased coordination and balance. After numerous medical visits, hospitalizations, and testing procedures, [King] was diagnosed with an intracranial meningioma in August 2021 – she was getting Depo shots for almost a year after her diagnosis! Just like Schmidt, King “was unaware until very recently, following publicity associated with [the 2024 study], that Depo-Provera had any connection to her meningioma.” In a statement to Action 2 News, Pfizer said, “Depo-Provera has been an FDA-approved medication for more than 30 years and has been a safe and effective treatment option for millions of patients during that time. The company will vigorously defend these lawsuits.”

Schmidt and King, and multiple cases in the MDL, all claim that Pfizer did know or should have known about the risks that Depo-Provera posed and should have warned users of the medication.