Depo-Provera.
Meningioma litigation.
Federal multi-district litigation alleging that Pfizer's injectable contraceptive Depo-Provera caused intracranial meningiomas in long-term users. The fastest-growing pharmaceutical MDL in the federal court system, with bellwether trials and a pivotal preemption ruling on the near horizon.
The plaintiff theory.
The product. The injury.
The Depo-Provera MDL consolidates claims against Pfizer and several generic manufacturers of medroxyprogesterone acetate, the active ingredient in Depo-Provera. Plaintiffs allege that long-term, repeated use of the injectable contraceptive caused intracranial meningioma — a tumor of the membranes surrounding the brain — and that Pfizer knew of the risk for decades but failed to warn U.S. patients and prescribers.
The scientific basis traces to a 2024 study published in BMJ finding more than five times the risk of intracranial meningioma in long-term Depo-Provera users, with subsequent JAMA research finding a 2.4x risk concentrated in women with more than four years of use or those who started after age thirty-one. Pfizer provided meningioma warnings to Canadian and European regulators years before the U.S. label was updated.
In December 2025 the FDA approved a supplemental U.S. label change adding meningioma to the warnings section — an action that materially undercuts Pfizer's preemption defense, which had argued the FDA prevented the company from adding the warning earlier.
Procedural posture.
Preemption ruling, then Daubert.
The litigation's near-term inflection point is Judge Rodgers' ruling on Pfizer's federal preemption motion, which has been fully briefed through supplemental rounds following the FDA's December 2025 label change. Pretrial Order No. 30 made the preemption ruling binary across the entire MDL: it applies to every case, not just the pilot bellwethers. If preemption is denied, focus shifts immediately to the general causation Daubert hearings scheduled for June 24-26, 2026.
Five pilot cases — Toney, Blonski, Schmidt, Wilson, and Arceo — have been prepared for early trial dates. The first bellwether, Blonski v. Pfizer, is set for December 7, 2026. Plaintiff leadership has been reappointed through March 2027, and the court conducts joint case management conferences with state-court judges in New York, Delaware, and California to coordinate the broader litigation.
Acquisition. Screening.
Retention.
Depo-Provera intake requires careful eligibility screening on three dimensions: documented use of Depo-Provera or generic medroxyprogesterone acetate, a confirmed meningioma diagnosis, and the absence of prior brain tumor history. Higher-value case profiles are concentrated in women with more than four years of cumulative use or who began the injection after age thirty-one. We have built docket-specific intake protocols and trained specialists to handle the pharmacy-record retrieval and clinical documentation that bellwether-tier firms require.
Acquisition runs across paid social, paid search, and connected TV, with creative built specifically for this docket and compliance review on every iteration. Every claimant flows through our multi-vendor fraud-detection suite — Anura, CHEQ, ActiveProspect, TrustedForm, Blacklist Alliance, and Plaid — before reaching the partner firm. Retained cases land directly in the firm's case management system in real time.
For partner firms holding Depo-Provera dockets, we provide standing operational reporting on retained cases delivered, cost per qualified retention, and case-tier mix against your screening criteria. Strategy sessions cover docket-portfolio decisions: which screening criteria to tighten as the preemption ruling lands, which case profiles drive the highest recoveries given the JAMA risk data, and which bellwether outcomes change retention thresholds.
Start a conversation.
Speak with our team.
A LeadClient case-acquisition strategist will reach out to talk through your docket.