A nationally renowned products litigator, Eben Flaster’s practice focuses primarily on the defense of pharmaceutical, medical device, biotech, and other large corporate clients in product liability litigation, government investigations, internal compliance, and legal and regulatory risk-mitigation projects. He has been actively involved in many of the most high-profile cases of the last two decades, including those involving statins, nutraceuticals, weight loss therapies, anti-inflammatory medications, anticoagulants, antipsychotic medicines, anti-anemic agents, oral antidiabetic drugs, antivirals, and acid-reducing therapies as well as a diverse portfolio of medical devices and consumer products, including hernia mesh, cosmetic talc, and herbicides (glyphosate). He has extensive practice in MDL and state coordinated proceedings and is regularly engaged as a core member of national counsel teams charged with developing overall litigation strategy and company defense.
Eben is known for his extensive knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry, the internal workings and operations of the companies, and his ability to navigate the complex legal and regulatory framework governing the marketing and promotion of prescription and OTC products, including FDA regulations, OIG best practices, the PhRMA Code, and the laws and standards governing scientific exchange and proper sales practices. He has considerable experience leading large fact investigations, preparing and defending company executives for deposition and at trial, and crafting and implementing expert and trial strategy. He has served on multiple trial teams addressing a broad array of products, including oral antidiabetic medications, statins, diet drugs and nutraceuticals.
Representative Matters
In re PPI Litigation—Eben is a member of the core national counsel team in litigation involving an acid-reduction therapy. He currently serves as lead counsel in charge of the Sales & Marketing Team, where he is responsible for managing lawyers across three firms in investigating sales and marketing issues and developing the company story and overall defense of the manufacturer and its former co-promotion partner. Over several years, Eben prepared and defended numerous sales and marketing executives in their MDL depositions, helped to developed the core work product and resources, and managed the overall litigation strategy and defense on these issues. Most recently, he was in charge of managing the company’s response and defense of sales representative depositions in the MDL bellwether trial program and hundreds of Wave cases.
In re Pradaxa Products Liability Litigation—Eben was responsible for developing the core case-specific evidence in several bellwether trial cases involving an anticoagulant therapy, including two cases that were voluntarily dismissed following his completion of critical fact witness depositions and the second national bellwether case that was tried to a defense verdict.
In re ACTOS Products Liability Litigation—Eben worked for years in litigation involving an oral antidiabetic medication. As a member of the Sales and Marketing Team, he prepared and defended numerous MDL depositions of company executives and co-led the team responsible for working-up liability issues impacting the manufacturer’s co-promotion partner. Eben was also a core member of the trial teams for the first two trials in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, where he was charged with arguing the critical evidentiary issues arising out of claims of spoliation.
In re VIOXX Products Liability Litigation—Eben was a member of the executive management team responsible for litigation strategy concerning all defensive discovery issues in the MDL, where he is credited with investigating and implementing the infrastructure and protocols for the first ever corporate Defense Fact Sheet in pharmaceutical product liability litigation.
In re Seroquel Products Liability Litigation—Eben was a member of a task force engaged to resolve a series of discovery disputes that impacted the effective start to the MDL, where he authored a critical opposition to the Special Master’s report and recommendations that helped to clear a path for productive dialogue on such matters, including negotiation of the initial pretrial orders governing preservation and production.
SJS/TEN Litigation—Eben has received accolades for his defense of several major manufacturers of brand name and generic prescription and OTC drug products in several serious injury cases involving the devastating skin reaction known as Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). Given the high-risk of large trial verdicts resulting from significant personal injury and damages based on long-term care scenarios, such cases present considerable exposure and are heavily litigated on multiple fronts. Eben has successfully managed all aspects of such cases pending in different federal and state courts across the country and obtained favorable results in these matters.
Legal/Regulatory Risk Assessment and Mitigation Projects—Eben has conducted numerous internal company risk mitigation projects, including an assessment of legal and regulatory risks associated with a second entrant in a product class already subject to litigation, development of additional warnings for an innovative medical device entering a new market, assessment of risks of a disease awareness program relating to a potential new product indication prior to market approval, and evaluating internal manufacturing and safety protocols to ensure integrity of certain consumer products.