U.S. District Judge David C. Norton will meet with lawyers to coordinate the exchange of information in the B&L litigation, which now involves 80 cases but could grow to many times that number.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys have reported potential claims from as many as 1,000 additional people, said H. Blair Hahn, a South Carolina lawyer serving as lead counsel for one aspect of the litigation.
The contact lens solution was linked earlier this year to an outbreak of a rare eye infection, fusarium keratitis.
B&L said it could not verify Hahn’s estimate of 1,000 plaintiffs. In September, the Rochester company said it had verified 123 product liability lawsuits. At that time, the company said it expected higher costs related to the permanent recall of the ReNu with MoistureLoc solution but did not say how much it expected to pay in connection with the litigation.
A securities analyst has estimated that the cases could cost B&L $1 billion in damages. The company has reduced its profit forecast by 78 percent.
You can find more of the story here
