Date Announced

March 18, 2016

Lead Office

Toronto

McCarthy Tétrault LLP is the national lead counsel for Bayer Inc., Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals and Bayer Pharma AG in defence of proposed class actions commenced in 7 provinces. The cases involve allegations concerning Bayer’s novel oral anticoagulant medication Xarelto. The complaint includes claims for Canadian residents who claim to have suffered uncontrollable bleeding incidents that were allegedly caused by the anticoagulant medication. This is major litigation at its early stages that will likely continue for the next several years.

In 2016, class action proceedings continued before the Queen's Bench for Saskatchewan (Baumung v. Bayer Inc., 2016 SKQB 63; Tluchak Estate v. Bayer Inc., 2016 SKQB 13). The proceedings provide clarification to what factors the courts will consider in resolving carriage disputes between competing class actions. Barrington-Foote J's decision to grant carriage to the Tluchak Estate indicates that the fact that a law firm advances parallel actions in other Canadian jurisdictions (which Baumung is pursuing in Ontario) could lower the probability of success on a carriage dispute if it appears that counsel would prefer the action proceeding in the other province at the expense of the local class action.

The Saskatchewan certification motion was argued in December, 2016 and was partially decided on November 14, 2018.

The McCarthy Tétrault LLP team is led by Frank McLaughlin and includes Michel Gagné, Moya Graham, Brandon Kain, and Dorothy Charach.