Pfizer Hit with Depo-Provera Lawsuit Seeking Medical Monitoring for Meningioma Brain Tumors

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Pfizer is among the defendants in a proposed class action lawsuit that seeks medical monitoring for instances of intracranial meningioma—brain tumors—allegedly linked to the Depo-Provera injectable contraceptive. 

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The 48-page Depo-Provera lawsuit relays that the risk of intracranial meningioma as a side effect is “particularly high” for consumers who take Depo Provera injections for more than a year, which usually amounts to at least four doses of the contraceptive. 

The Depo shot class action suit alleges Pfizer and its co-defendants—Pharmacia & Upjohn Co., LLC and generic Depo shot manufacturers Prasco Labs, Greenstone, LLC and Viatris, Inc.—knew or should have known for decades that Depo-Provera can cause or significantly contribute to the development of brain tumors yet continue to make, market and distribute the birth control drug to the public without warning about the brain tumor risk. 

The Depo shot meningioma lawsuit asks the court to order the defendants to establish a medical monitoring program for consumers who were prescribed and received four or more Depo-Provera injections. 

“Due to the absence of any instructions for how to identify and/or monitor Depo-Provera patients for potential intracranial meningioma-related complications, Plaintiff and the Class were unaware that Depo-Provera could cause serious, intracranial meningioma-related injuries, as this danger was not known to them, their physicians, or the general public,” the product liability lawsuit claims.

Related Reading: Learn More About How to File a Depo Provera Lawsuit

Depo-Provera (depot medroxyprogesterone acetate) is an injectable contraceptive that contains a high dose of progestin, a synthetic progesterone-like hormone that suppresses ovulation, the case relays. In addition to birth control, the Depo shot is also used as a treatment for endometriosis, hormone replacement and the prevention of uterine and cervical cancers, the lawsuit mentions. 

Intracranial meningioma is a condition whereby a tumor grows in the protective membrane that surrounds the brain and spinal cord just inside the skull, the suit states. Though roughly 80 percent of meningiomas are non-cancerous and do not spread from the origin site to other parts of the body, even a benign meningioma applies constant pressure to the surrounding brain tissue, often causing painful, debilitating symptoms, the filing shares. 

The Depo shot lawsuit says the association between progesterone and meningioma brain tumors has been “known or knowable” for decades to pharmaceutical entities such as the defendants. Per the suit, medical researchers have known for years that women have a higher incidence of brain tumors than men and that there exists a “biologically plausible link” between the synthetic progesterone-like hormone and intracranial meningioma. 

Related Reading: What Is a Mass Tort?

The filing contends that the defendants have had an “unassignable duty since the 1980s” to further investigate the “foreseeable potential” that a high dose of synthetic progesterone delivered in deep tissue could cause or substantially contribute to the growth of brain tumors. 

“If Defendants had performed this investigation, they would have discovered that Depo-Provera was associated with an increased risk of meningioma and could have informed physicians and patients of this risk,” the complaint argues. “Instead, Defendants failed to investigate links between Depo-Provera and meningioma, even though decades of medical research indicated that links were foreseeable or even probable.” 

The Depo-Provera lawsuit states that the most common meningioma brain tumor symptoms are headaches, seizures, blurred vision or vision loss, hearing loss, weakness and numbness, memory loss, personality and behavior changes, and speech difficulties. 

Per the case, up to 20 percent of meningiomas become malignant and can grow quickly and metastasize, spreading cancer to other parts of the body. The filing says meningiomas linked to progesterone-based contraceptives tend to grow at the base of the skull, “where surgical removal is even more challenging.” 

Invasive surgery to excise the tumor, such as a craniotomy, whereby a piece of bone from the skull near the site of the tumor is removed, is the usual course of treatment for a malignant meningioma, the lawsuit says. According to the class action suit, surgery to remove an intracranial meningioma can come with “severe neurological consequences,” with studies describing a risk of post-op anxiety and depression and an accompanying high risk of sedative and antidepressant use in the postoperative period. Surgery can also lead to seizures requiring epilepsy medication, the case adds. 

The Depo-Provera lawsuit looks to cover all individuals in California who received four or more injections of Depo-Provera, or a generic equivalent, from October 1992 to the present. 

The case stresses that a medical monitoring program would give high-risk patients the resources they need to detect developing meningiomas and begin treatment early. 

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