Pfizer Faces Legal Battle In U.S. Multidistrict Litigation Over Alleged Link Between Depo-Provera Contraceptive Injections And Brain Tumors, With Over 400 Lawsuits Citing Study Showing 5.6x Increased Risk Of Meningioma

• Global pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. is facing a multidistrict litigation (MDL No.3140) in the USA, currently comprising approximately 400 lawsuits against the company.
• This MDL follows a study by EPI-PHARE (Roland et al.) published in March 2024 in the British Medical Journal, which found that women who had used the Pfizer contraceptive injection Depo-Provera1 for more than one year were 5.6 times more likely to develop an intracranial meningioma, a type of brain tumor.
• An estimated 74 million women globally receive Depo-Provera injections according to a 2019 UN study2.

A Case Management Conference (CMC) in the Depo-Provera legal action against Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) will take place on Friday, 30 May at 9:00am CT in the United States Courthouse is Pensacola, Florida. The litigation is being brought on behalf of women in the USA who developed meningiomas after receiving at least 4 consecutive injections of Pfizer's Depo-Provera (DMPA). One of the law firms appointed to the Plaintiff's Executive Committee responsible for overseeing the MDL is Levin Papantonio, which has helped to secure more than $80 billion in jury verdicts and settlements against some of the world's largest corporations, including Johnson & Johnson, BP, Dupont, 3M, Merck and big tobacco. The law firm is currently acting for plaintiffs in the Talcum Powder Litigation against Johnson & Johnson and the Preterm Infant Nutrition Products Liability Litigation against Abbott Laboratories and Mead Johnson, owned by Reckitt Benckiser.

The lawsuits allege that Pfizer and other generic producers of Depo-Provera were aware of the link between these birth control injections and brain tumors and that they failed to adequately warn of the risk and promote safer alternatives. Pfizer has acknowledged its awareness of the risks linked to long-term use of the drug and added warning labels in Canada in 2015, and in the UK and Europe in October 2024 following the Roland study published in the British Medical Journal. On 25 February 2025, Pfizer issued a note to healthcare professionals in South Africa warning that DMPA can cause meningiomas and should not be used by patients with a history of the condition. However, Pfizer has never provided an equivalent warning to women in the United States, highlighting inconsistent global safety standards.