CooperSurgical’s Recalled IVF Solution Destroyed Embryos, Class Action Lawsuit Alleges

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CooperSurgical, Inc. faces a proposed class action lawsuit following a December 2023 recall of its defective culture medium for in vitro fertilization (IVF), which allegedly ruined hundreds of fertility patients’ embryos.

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The 31-page lawsuit was filed by a Connecticut resident who claims to have lost all her embryos after her fertility clinic used Global Media, a culture medium manufactured by CooperSurgical to promote embryo growth and increase the chances of developing a viable embryo during IVF treatment. According to the suit, the plaintiff is just one of many patients whose embryos were irrevocably damaged by the apparently defective product, which was recalled on December 5, 2023 due to a magnesium deficiency that impaired embryo growth.

The case contends that CooperSurgical failed to properly test its product and ensure it was safe and effective for culturing embryos before shipping it to fertility clinics nationwide. Per the complaint, approximately 994 bottles of Global Media were affected, roughly 481 of which were purchased and used by clinics across the country.

CooperSurgical only learned of the medium’s apparent defect after numerous patients experienced “unexpectedly high rates of embryo loss,” prompting fertility clinics to bring their concerns to the company, the complaint claims.

As the filing tells it, the stage at which embryos are cultured is one of the final steps of IVF, an “intensive, invasive, emotionally tolling, and expensive” process for would-be parents. Global Media is used when IVF patients have reached the end of their grueling treatment, at the very last stage before an embryo transfer and potential pregnancy, the lawsuit against CooperSurgical says.

“With the eggs retrieved and fertilized, patients whose embryos were impaired with CooperSurgical’s defective solution were on the last step before being able to attempt a transfer,” the suit shares. “Consequently, CooperSurgical’s defective solution ruined the significant expense, time, and effort the fertility patients to [sic] make it to that final step.”

Losing an embryo at the very end of an intense IVF treatment has taken a significant emotional toll on patients such as the plaintiff, who says she has suffered “fear, anxiety, and hopelessness” caused by the possibility that “she may have lost her opportunity to have children,” the filing relays.

According to the suit, patients now face a difficult choice between repeating the burdensome and costly treatment process to pursue pregnancy again or “abandon[ing] their hopes altogether.”

“Even those who do repeat IVF face the chance that no eggs will be retrieved or fertilized,” leaving them back at square one, the case says.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States who had one or more embryos cultured using any of the lots of CooperSurgical’s Global Media identified in the February 14, 2024 Class 2 Device Recall Global Medium notice.

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