Diabetes Drugmakers Seek Judgment After Plaintiffs’ Expert Axed

AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., and McKesson Corp. urged a federal court to grant judgment in their favor in multidistrict litigation linking diabetes medications to heart failure, following the exclusion of the plaintiffs’ only causation expert.

The medications are Onglyza and Kombiglyze, both of which contain saxagliptin as an active ingredient.

About 250 suits are pending in an MDL in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Judge Karen K. Caldwell excluded the plaintiffs’ sole causation expert, cardiologist Parag Goyal, in January. She denied the plaintiffs’ motion to bar defense experts who said there ...