Melanie H. Muhlstock, Managing Partner of the Mass Torts Department for the national law firm Parker Waichman LLP, has been named to the Executive Committee of the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee in the multi-district litigation (MDL) involving the prescription medication Elmiron®. The Order was entered last week by Judge Brian R. Martinotti of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, who – true to his word – saw to it that the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee is diverse in many ways.

Ms. Muhlstock brings to the group not only substantial experience in managing mass torts, but also the full firepower of the Parker Waichman firm, long involved in multi-district litigation nationwide. Jerry Parker, the founding partner of the firm, commented that "Melanie Muhlstock is a talented mass torts attorney who has extensive experience in pharmaceutical and medical device litigation. The Plaintiffs' Steering Committee in the Elmiron® MDL is getting one of our best attorneys to the fight for Elmiron® victims."

Ms. Muhlstock, who also currently serves as a member of the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee and as Co-Chair of the Leadership Development Committee ("LDC") in In Re: Zantac (Ranitidine) Products Liability Litigation (MDL NO. 2924), joins a unique group in this Plaintiffs' Steering Committee, which is comprised of several of the most accomplished women in the field of plaintiffs' pharmaceutical litigation. "It is an honor to be appointed by the Court to work with this talented group of lawyers to seek justice on behalf of those injured by their use of Elmiron®," said Ms. Muhlstock.

Although marketed as a treatment for interstitial cystitis, it is alleged that early clinical studies of Elmiron®, relied upon to support approval of the drug, failed to demonstrate that Elmiron® was an effective treatment for interstitial cystitis in the first instance. Indeed, the MDL involves numerous lawsuits alleging that defendants Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals, as well as other companies involved in the development, manufacture, and sale of the drug, failed to warn, advise, educate or otherwise inform Elmiron® users as well as physicians and governmental regulators of patient risk of impaired vision, retinal damage and maculopathy as a result of the use of Elmiron®.