Motion Filed to Create Tepezza Hearing Loss MDL

With more than a dozen lawsuits already filed in federal courts over claims that Tepezza, a thyroid eye disease drug, causes permanent hearing loss or hearing damage, a motion has been filed to centralize all Tepezza hearing loss claims in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, as part of a Tepezza multidistrict litigation (MDL). Former Tepezza users claim that the thyroid eye disease medication causes irreversible hearing problems like tinnitus, hearing loss, muffled hearing, and deafness. If you or someone you love has suffered hearing damage allegedly caused by Tepezza use, don’t hesitate to call us. We can help you determine whether you may be eligible to file a Tepezza hearing loss lawsuit, which may allow you to recover financial compensation for your injuries. 

Hearing Damage Linked to Tepezza Infusions

Tepezza (teprotumumab-trbw) is a new-generation thyroid eye disease medication administered via injection once every three weeks, for a total of eight infusions. It entered the market in January 2020 as the first drug approved to treat thyroid eye disease (TED), a rare autoimmune disease that causes inflammation and damage to the tissues surrounding the eyes. For more than three years, Horizon Therapeutics has marketed Tepezza as a safe and effective treatment for TED. However, hundreds of former Tepezza users have recently come forward with complaints about hearing problems allegedly caused by Tepezza, including tinnitus and hearing loss. In many cases, these alleged Tepezza complications have persisted long after patients discontinued treatment, leaving them with permanent hearing problems. 

Users Had “No Knowledge” of Tepezza Risks

Emerging evidence about potential hearing-related side effects from Tepezza have led to several lawsuits against Horizon, including one recent claim by a Georgia woman who alleges that the manufacturer knew or should have known about the link between Tepezza and hearing loss and failed to disclose this information to consumers and the medical community. The plaintiff, Angela Simpson, claims that her Tepezza infusions caused her to suffer permanent hearing damage, which she could have avoided had Horizon warned about the possibility of Tepezza causing hearing loss. “Plaintiff and Plaintiff’s physicians were given no warning and had no knowledge of the serious risk of permanent hearing loss and/or tinnitus Tepezza posed,” Simpson’s lawsuit states. “(T)here is no warning or indication that Tepezza can, and in fact does, cause permanent hearing damage. Nor are physicians directed by Defendant to conduct baseline audiology testing before treatment with Tepezza, or monitor hearing acuity during treatment.”

Motion Calls for Tepezza Federal MDL

Simpson’s injury claim joins more than a dozen Tepezza hearing damage lawsuits already filed against Horizon in federal courts across the country. Each lawsuit involves similar allegations that Horizon failed to adequately test Tepezza, provided false and misleading information about the safety of the thyroid eye disease drug, and ignored postmarketing reports indicating that Tepezza users were experiencing hearing loss. Given similar questions of fact and law raised in the federal Tepezza complaints, plaintiff Kimberly Exton filed a motion to transfer on March 22, 2023, asking that the claims be centralized in an MDL in California. “Lost in Horizon’s marketing efforts was the fact that Tepezza—which the company was positioning as a cosmetic treatment—can and does result in permanent hearing loss and tinnitus,” the motion states. “Following Tepezza’s approval in 2020, Horizon immediately began to receive hundreds of Adverse Event Reports (AERs), detailing injuries associated with the drug, including serious permanent hearing loss and tinnitus, but Defendant did nothing with those AERs.”

Find Out if You May Qualify for Compensation

If the Tepezza MDL is approved, injury cases brought in federal courts across the country will be centralized before one judge for coordinated pretrial proceedings. In the meantime, product liability lawyers nationwide continue to review potential Tepezza hearing loss claims, and it is ultimately expected that several hundred Tepezza lawsuits will be filed throughout the federal court system. If you or someone you know has experienced hearing loss, deafness, tinnitus, muffled hearing, or another hearing-related side effect believed to be associated with Tepezza treatment, contact Consumer Safety Watch today. You may qualify for compensation, which an experienced Tepezza hearing loss attorney can help you pursue via an injury claim against Horizon.