THE GRASS IS STILL GROWING EVER SO SLOWLY IN THE FDA’S INJUNCTION CASES AGAINST U.S. AND CALIFORNIA STEM CELL CLINICS
September 26, 2018 Richard Jaffe Comments 0 Comment
Since my last update about these cases in early August, not much has happened, which is to be expected in federal civil litigation. Nonetheless, here is an update.
Let’s start with what hasn’t happened
1. There has been no announced agreement in either case that the defendants have stopped treating patients with their SVF, stem cell therapy which the FDA claims are unapproved new drugs, adulterated and misbranded, pending the final decision by the judges in these injunction actions.
2 The FDA hasn’t filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against either company to stop them from treating patients until the judges’ final rulings.
The FDA sure isn’t litigating these cases like these clinics are a big public threat. There are a few well-publicized cases of harm from U.S. Stem Cells patients, and there is much made of the fact that California group was using a dangerous toxic substance in processing their “drug” product. But as I’ve said in some previous posts, the FDA has bigger fish to fry.
See my post at:
http://www.rickjaffeesq.com/2018/08/01/update-on-the-fdas-stem-cell-injunction-cases”>http://www.rickjaffeesq.com/2018/08/01/update-on-the-fdas-stem-cell-injunction-cases”>http://www.rickjaffeesq.com/2018/08/01/update-on-the-fdas-stem-cell-injunction-cases
Of course, it’s a complicated subject for a federal judge, and maybe the FDA is worried about losing in the abbreviated hearing process of a preliminary injunction motion. Maybe the thinking is “do it right and take your time.” If so, I can’t argue with it.
Here is what has happened
U.S. Stem Cell
The defendants filed an answer in August. It largely parallel’s the answer in the California case, which isn’t surprising since the same big firm is lead counsel in both cases. Here is the Answer:
09261800
There is one big difference: U.S. Stem Cell’s answer contains a demand for “a jury trial as permitted by law.”
No such request was contained in the California Stem Cell Treatment answer. Getting the case away from a judge and into a jury’s hands would be a good thing for a defendant in this type of case, so did the California lawyers miss an opportunity?
I don’t think so. Injunction cases aren’t decided by juries; they are decided by judges. I think the Florida lawyers just tossed out a jury request and the docket just mechanically picked it up and the mechanical/automated software spit out the jury trial forms deadline. My guess and prediction is that down the road the jury trial issue will be addressed and rejected by the judge, even if the case gets that far.
The case is set for trial during a two week period starting June 10, 2019.
The more relevant deadline is March 11, 2019, which is the summary judgment motion deadline. Seems a safe bet that the FDA will file a summary judgement motion for a final judgment. (FYI: That’s how the Regenerative Sciences case was resolved). The feds will do some discovery, nail down via admissions and depositions what the company does and doesn’t do – most notably, being cGMP compliant – which establishes adulteration. The feds will get in admissible form the label instructions for use, which establishes misbranding, and obtain admissions and deposition testimony of the facts of how the product is processed, and how/for what indications it’s being used, which should establish non-compliance with the main regulatory requirements for drug status, i.e., more than minimal manipulation and non-homologous use, (at least under the FDA guidance documents.)
With those facts established in admissible form in discovery, there probably won’t be any factual issues to be tried by the judge (or jury). That makes the case amenable to resolution via summary judgement.
The defenses challenge is to find a disputed issue of fact on which the judge has to hear factual testimony from the parties at a trial. In this case, it will be a challenge, but there are some possibilities. The defense has smart lawyers and will figure it out, if there’s something to be figured out. And who knows, they might even come up with a legal basis to move the case sideways.
I’d look to have the defense seek a delay to filing papers in opposition to the summary judgment motion, figure a month. (Anything beyond that would probably interfere with the early June trial setting.) That would make a decision on the summary judgement motion in May. That’s how and when I’d see this case wrapping-up unless defense counsel figures out a way to derail or slow down the proceedings. Speaking as a defense lawyer, sometimes delay is the best you can hope for, because who knows what the future will bring. This point is aptly made in a fable I related at the beginning of my chapter on cancer doctor Stanislaw Burzynski’s several decades war with the FDA and the Texas medical board in Galileo’s Lawyer. It’s a good story. Here it is for those who have an immediate need for a smile.
mendal http://rickjaffeesq.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/mendal.pdf
Sometimes horses learn to fly, and a year or two could present an entirely new regulatory reality.
California Stem Cell
The parties filed a joint preliminary statement, which sets forth the claims and defenses, lists the witnesses, and the documents (and of course it can be amended as more information becomes available through discovery), and sets forth a proposed case schedule. The parties are looking at a trial in late July to early August, subject to the Court’s availability. They are proposing a motion deadline of late May. Here is the joint statement. castemcelljtdiscovery
There is a scheduling conference with the judge on Tuesday, October 1, 2018, at which point proposed deadlines will be adopted or changed.
The legal issues related in the joint statement are as expected and as discussed in prior posts, namely whether the defendants’ procedure is an unapproved new drug or not regulated by the FDA because it’s a same day surgical procedure, with not more than minimally manipulated autologous cells, given for a homologous use and all the practice of medicine and lack of jurisdiction stuff thrown in. The relevant trial documents are the 483 inspectional observations, communications between the parties and the final guidance documents pertaining to these issues, as well as patient complaints. Predictably, the defense seems to want to have some patients testify, and I’m always in favor of that. Look to the government to seek to stop that, because hey, that’s how they roll.
Yawn. I warned you it’s like watching grass grow.
Since the discovery process does not normally result in the publishing or making public, documents or other information revealed in discovery, I think nothing exciting is going to happen in these two cases (or nothing we will hear about) until summary judgement papers are filed (unless the lawyers come up with an interesting delay strategy). The Florida judge did refer the case out to mediation, but that’s a non-starter. U.S. Stem Cell isn’t stopping, and the FDA isn’t going away until it stops the Florida operation.
So any more news from the FDA in the stem cell field will be about other lawsuits or collateral things, like its cracking down on private stem cell clinics using clinicaltrials.gov to promote their clinics via patient funded clinical trials, per a recent post by the big dawg. https://ipscell.com/2018/09/fda-outlines-potential-crackdown-on-clinicaltrials-gov-offenders/
(And for the record, I don’t have a problem with the feds restricting clinicaltrials.gov to IND clinical trials, or at the very least, requiring disclosure that the trials are not FDA approved and that the “participants” pay for the treatment. That seems fair and reasonable.
I’m also very much in favor of the private stem cell clinics providing accurate and complete information about their operations, including that their treatments are not FDA approved, are not considered to be safe and effective by institutional authority, and that anecdotal evidence is not considered scientifically reliable, or even disclosing that there is no government review or verification that the statements made by the clinics on their web sites are true (like what the supplement manufacturers have to state). And I also don’t have a problem with the FDA or the FTC going after any health care facility which puts out materially false information to fraudulently induce patients to undergo the treatment. I’m all about providing the patients with accurate and complete information and let them make an informed choice, because it’s their bodies and their body parts we’re talking about).
So in sum about the status of the FDA’s two pending injunction cases: the millstones (wheels) of justice grind exceeding slow . . . . (you know the rest).
Rick Jaffe, Esq.
www.rickjaffe.com
rickjaffeesquire@gmail.com
For those who don’t: “The wheels of justice grind exceeding slow, but they grind exceedingly fine.” The odds favor the millstone over Mendal in these cases, so per Damon Runyon, “The fight isn’t always to the strong, or the race to the swift, but that’s the way to bet.”
September 26, 2018 Richard Jaffe Comments 0 Comment
Since my last update about these cases in early August, not much has happened, which is to be expected in federal civil litigation. Nonetheless, here is an update.
Let’s start with what hasn’t happened
1. There has been no announced agreement in either case that the defendants have stopped treating patients with their SVF, stem cell therapy which the FDA claims are unapproved new drugs, adulterated and misbranded, pending the final decision by the judges in these injunction actions.
2 The FDA hasn’t filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against either company to stop them from treating patients until the judges’ final rulings.
The FDA sure isn’t litigating these cases like these clinics are a big public threat. There are a few well-publicized cases of harm from U.S. Stem Cells patients, and there is much made of the fact that California group was using a dangerous toxic substance in processing their “drug” product. But as I’ve said in some previous posts, the FDA has bigger fish to fry.
See my post at:
http://www.rickjaffeesq.com/2018/08/01/update-on-the-fdas-stem-cell-injunction-cases”>http://www.rickjaffeesq.com/2018/08/01/update-on-the-fdas-stem-cell-injunction-cases”>http://www.rickjaffeesq.com/2018/08/01/update-on-the-fdas-stem-cell-injunction-cases
Of course, it’s a complicated subject for a federal judge, and maybe the FDA is worried about losing in the abbreviated hearing process of a preliminary injunction motion. Maybe the thinking is “do it right and take your time.” If so, I can’t argue with it.
Here is what has happened
U.S. Stem Cell
The defendants filed an answer in August. It largely parallel’s the answer in the California case, which isn’t surprising since the same big firm is lead counsel in both cases. Here is the Answer:
09261800
There is one big difference: U.S. Stem Cell’s answer contains a demand for “a jury trial as permitted by law.”
No such request was contained in the California Stem Cell Treatment answer. Getting the case away from a judge and into a jury’s hands would be a good thing for a defendant in this type of case, so did the California lawyers miss an opportunity?
I don’t think so. Injunction cases aren’t decided by juries; they are decided by judges. I think the Florida lawyers just tossed out a jury request and the docket just mechanically picked it up and the mechanical/automated software spit out the jury trial forms deadline. My guess and prediction is that down the road the jury trial issue will be addressed and rejected by the judge, even if the case gets that far.
The case is set for trial during a two week period starting June 10, 2019.
The more relevant deadline is March 11, 2019, which is the summary judgment motion deadline. Seems a safe bet that the FDA will file a summary judgement motion for a final judgment. (FYI: That’s how the Regenerative Sciences case was resolved). The feds will do some discovery, nail down via admissions and depositions what the company does and doesn’t do – most notably, being cGMP compliant – which establishes adulteration. The feds will get in admissible form the label instructions for use, which establishes misbranding, and obtain admissions and deposition testimony of the facts of how the product is processed, and how/for what indications it’s being used, which should establish non-compliance with the main regulatory requirements for drug status, i.e., more than minimal manipulation and non-homologous use, (at least under the FDA guidance documents.)
With those facts established in admissible form in discovery, there probably won’t be any factual issues to be tried by the judge (or jury). That makes the case amenable to resolution via summary judgement.
The defenses challenge is to find a disputed issue of fact on which the judge has to hear factual testimony from the parties at a trial. In this case, it will be a challenge, but there are some possibilities. The defense has smart lawyers and will figure it out, if there’s something to be figured out. And who knows, they might even come up with a legal basis to move the case sideways.
I’d look to have the defense seek a delay to filing papers in opposition to the summary judgment motion, figure a month. (Anything beyond that would probably interfere with the early June trial setting.) That would make a decision on the summary judgement motion in May. That’s how and when I’d see this case wrapping-up unless defense counsel figures out a way to derail or slow down the proceedings. Speaking as a defense lawyer, sometimes delay is the best you can hope for, because who knows what the future will bring. This point is aptly made in a fable I related at the beginning of my chapter on cancer doctor Stanislaw Burzynski’s several decades war with the FDA and the Texas medical board in Galileo’s Lawyer. It’s a good story. Here it is for those who have an immediate need for a smile.
mendal http://rickjaffeesq.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/mendal.pdf
Sometimes horses learn to fly, and a year or two could present an entirely new regulatory reality.
California Stem Cell
The parties filed a joint preliminary statement, which sets forth the claims and defenses, lists the witnesses, and the documents (and of course it can be amended as more information becomes available through discovery), and sets forth a proposed case schedule. The parties are looking at a trial in late July to early August, subject to the Court’s availability. They are proposing a motion deadline of late May. Here is the joint statement. castemcelljtdiscovery
There is a scheduling conference with the judge on Tuesday, October 1, 2018, at which point proposed deadlines will be adopted or changed.
The legal issues related in the joint statement are as expected and as discussed in prior posts, namely whether the defendants’ procedure is an unapproved new drug or not regulated by the FDA because it’s a same day surgical procedure, with not more than minimally manipulated autologous cells, given for a homologous use and all the practice of medicine and lack of jurisdiction stuff thrown in. The relevant trial documents are the 483 inspectional observations, communications between the parties and the final guidance documents pertaining to these issues, as well as patient complaints. Predictably, the defense seems to want to have some patients testify, and I’m always in favor of that. Look to the government to seek to stop that, because hey, that’s how they roll.
Yawn. I warned you it’s like watching grass grow.
Since the discovery process does not normally result in the publishing or making public, documents or other information revealed in discovery, I think nothing exciting is going to happen in these two cases (or nothing we will hear about) until summary judgement papers are filed (unless the lawyers come up with an interesting delay strategy). The Florida judge did refer the case out to mediation, but that’s a non-starter. U.S. Stem Cell isn’t stopping, and the FDA isn’t going away until it stops the Florida operation.
So any more news from the FDA in the stem cell field will be about other lawsuits or collateral things, like its cracking down on private stem cell clinics using clinicaltrials.gov to promote their clinics via patient funded clinical trials, per a recent post by the big dawg. https://ipscell.com/2018/09/fda-outlines-potential-crackdown-on-clinicaltrials-gov-offenders/
(And for the record, I don’t have a problem with the feds restricting clinicaltrials.gov to IND clinical trials, or at the very least, requiring disclosure that the trials are not FDA approved and that the “participants” pay for the treatment. That seems fair and reasonable.
I’m also very much in favor of the private stem cell clinics providing accurate and complete information about their operations, including that their treatments are not FDA approved, are not considered to be safe and effective by institutional authority, and that anecdotal evidence is not considered scientifically reliable, or even disclosing that there is no government review or verification that the statements made by the clinics on their web sites are true (like what the supplement manufacturers have to state). And I also don’t have a problem with the FDA or the FTC going after any health care facility which puts out materially false information to fraudulently induce patients to undergo the treatment. I’m all about providing the patients with accurate and complete information and let them make an informed choice, because it’s their bodies and their body parts we’re talking about).
So in sum about the status of the FDA’s two pending injunction cases: the millstones (wheels) of justice grind exceeding slow . . . . (you know the rest).
Rick Jaffe, Esq.
www.rickjaffe.com
rickjaffeesquire@gmail.com
For those who don’t: “The wheels of justice grind exceeding slow, but they grind exceedingly fine.” The odds favor the millstone over Mendal in these cases, so per Damon Runyon, “The fight isn’t always to the strong, or the race to the swift, but that’s the way to bet.”