R. Brent Wisner

For Wisner, the civil RICO class action against drug makers was personal. His grandfather had died of bladder cancer attributed to use of the diabetes medication Actos. Now Wisner represented plaintiffs who paid for the drug and who alleged the pharmaceutical companies who made and marketed it conspired to mislead physicians and consumers to believe Actos did not increase cancer risk.

"For 10 years the drug companies committed active fraud," said the Baum Hedlund partner and vice president. His case against Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. and Eli Lilly and Co. was set back when U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson of Los Angeles dismissed the case, ruling that the doctor-patient relationship broke the causal link between drugmakers and plaintiffs. So Wisner took his arguments to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and, in December 2019, won an important reversal, establishing that in pharmaceutical cases proximate causation claims cannot be used to shield defendants from accountability for wrongdoing. Painters and Allied Trades District Council 82 Health Care Fund v. Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., 18-55588 (9th Cir., op. filed Dec. 3, 2019).

"It was a turning point for those seeking to use this important avenue of recovery, the civil RICO statute, in pharma cases," Wisner said.

The case returns to the district court, though the defendants have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari, based on a split with a 7th Circuit opinion. If the high court grants review, Wisner said he's looking forward to his first oral argument before the justices.

At 36, Wisner has already secured two of the largest recent jury verdicts against Bayer AG-owned Monsanto Co. over claims against its Roundup weed killer. One was for more than $2 billion--reduced by an Alameda County Superior Court judge to $86.7 million--and the other was for $79 million. In June Wisner is set to argue Monsanto's appeal of the latter win. In February Monsanto filed its appeal in the former case.

Wisner likes his chances. "We just got a letter from the court [in the case set for a June argument] asking us to focus on damages. That's a good sign, like when a jury asks for a calculator," he said.

Meanwhile, Wisner in May was appointed by the court to the plaintiffs' leadership in multidistrict litigation over the heartburn medication Zantac and claims it causes cancer. In re: Zantac (Ranitidine) Products Liability Litigation, 20-MD-2924 (S.D. Fla., MDL status granted Feb. 6, 2020).

"It's always fun kicking the crap out of evil drug and chemical companies,' Wisner said.

-- John Roemer