GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Endo International PLC are working out a deal to settle more than 1,300 lawsuits accusing them of hiding the health risks of using Testim, a testosterone-boosting drug, Bloomberg News reported, citing court filings.
The lawsuits allege that Testim caused potentially fatal blood clots. The medicine is used to treat hypogonadism — a condition where the patient has low or no testosterone.
Testim is developed by Dublin-based Endo and its unit Auxilium Pharmaceuticals Inc.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago put on hold all litigation against the drugmakers while the details regarding the settlement were being ironed out, including an April 6 trial against Endo and Auxilium, the Bloomberg report said.
The settlement deal will "not involve any admission of wrongdoing or liability," a spokeswoman for Endo and Auxilium told Bloomberg in an emailed statement.
In November 2017, a federal jury in Chicago had ruled that Endo was not liable for the heart attack of a man who was using Testim.
Other developers of testosterone-boosting products have also been battling lawsuits.
In January, Eli Lilly and Co. agreed to resolve over 400 cases filed against it regarding its own testosterone replacement therapy, Axiron.
Also in January, AbbVie won a trial related to the marketing of AndroGel, a Testim rival. A federal jury in Chicago found that the U.S. drugmaker was not liable in a lawsuit accusing AndroGel of causing pulmonary embolism, or the blockage of an artery in the lung usually caused by a blood clot.