Thomas Sobol

Voted Massachusetts Ten Leading Litigators — The National Law Journal

CURRENT ROLE

• Partner & Executive Committee Member, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP
• Leads HBSS’s Boston office
• Lead negotiator in court-approved settlements totaling more than $2 billion
• Court-appointed lead or co-lead in ten active antitrust cases alleging injury to businesses and/or consumers caused by the delayed availability of generic drug, including:
  • In re Glumetza Antitrust Litigation, No. 19-cv-05822-WHA (N.D. Cal.) (Hon. William Alsup)
  • FWK Holdings LLC v. Shire (Intuniv), No. 16-cv-12653 (D. Mass.) (Hon. Allison D. Burroughs)
  • In re Zetia (Ezetimibe) Antitrust Litigation, No. 18-md-2836 (E.D. Va.) (Hon. Rebecca Beach Smith)

RECENT SUCCESS

• $120 million: direct purchaser class settlement, In re Loestrin 24 Fe Antitrust Litigation, No. 13-md-02472 (D.R.I.) (Hon. William E. Smith)
• $51.25 million: direct purchaser class settlement, In re Restasis (Cyclosporine Ophthalmic Emulsion) Antitrust Litigation, No. 18-md-02819 (E.D.N.Y.) (Hon. Nina Gershon)
• $166 million: direct purchaser class settlement, In re Lidoderm Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 2521 (N.D. Cal.) (Hon. William Orrick)
• $72.5 million: direct purchaser class settlement, In re Solodyn (Minocycline Hydrochloride) Antitrust Litigation, No. 14-md-02503 (D. Mass.) (Hon. Denise J. Casper)
• $94 million: direct purchaser class settlement, In re Celebrex (Celecoxib) Antitrust Litigation, No. 14-cv-00361 (E.D. Va.) (Hon. Arenda L. Wright Allen, Hon. Douglas E. Miller)
• $146 million: direct purchaser class settlement, In re Aggrenox Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 2516 (D. Conn.) (Hon. Stefan Underhill)

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• $453.85 million: largest U.S. antitrust settlement in 2022, In Re Glumetza Antitrust Litigation, No. 1:19-md-05822-WHA (N.D.C) (Hon. William Alsup)
• $340 million: second largest antitrust settlement in 2022, In re: Ranbaxy Generic Drug Application Antitrust Litigation, No. 1:19-md-02878, (D. Mass.) (Gorton, J., Kelley, J.)
• $325 million: third party payer class settlement, In re Neurontin Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, No. 04-md-1629 (D. Mass) (Hon. Patti B. Saris)
• Approximately $200 million: tort victim recoveries via bankruptcy plan, In re New England Compounding Pharmacy, Inc. Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2419 (D. Mass.) (Hon. Rya W. Zobel)
• $150 million: direct purchaser class settlement, In re Flonase Antitrust Litigation, No. 08-cv-03149 (E.D. Pa.) (Hon. Anita B. Brody)
• 4% price reduction of most retail drugs: New England Carpenters Health Benefits Fund v. First DataBank, Inc., No. 05-cv-11148 (D. Mass.) (Hon. Patti B. Saris)
• $350 million: consumers and third party payers, San Francisco Health Plan v. McKesson Corp., No. 08-cv-10843 (D. Mass.) (Hon. Patti B. Saris)
• $25 million: State of Connecticut, In re Zyprexa Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 1596 (E.D.N.Y.) (Hon. Jack B. Weinstein)

EXPERIENCE

• Has led almost 20 generic delay cases, involving various theories, on behalf of both direct and end payers to settlement and distributions to classes (or aggregated groups)
• Helped develop the econometric model used to show the relationship between marketing and the opioid epidemic in the opioids MDL. In re National Prescription Opiate Litigation, No. 17-md-02804 (N.D. Ohio) (Hon. Dan Aaron Polster)
• Originated the Ranbaxy fraudulent ANDA litigation, alleging novel theory that a generic company’s fraudulent statements to FDA in order to obtain exclusivities violated federal RICO and antitrust laws, Meijer, Inc. v. Ranbaxy Inc., No. 15-cv-11828 (D. Mass.) (Hon. Nathaniel M. Gorton)
• Served as Lead counsel in the New England Compounding MDL and a member of the creditors’ committee in the related bankruptcy, representing more than 700 victims who contracted fungal meningitis or other serious health problems as a result of receiving contaminated products produced, resulting in about a $200 million settlement, In re New England Compounding Pharmacy, Inc. Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2419 (D. Mass.) (Hon. F. Dennis Saylor, IV; Hon. Rya W. Zobel)
• In the Vioxx MDL, developed a win-win lien resolution program for consumers and health plans that dispensed with the inefficiencies of resolving insurance liens piecemeal that is now a routine part of mass tort MDLs, In re Vioxx Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 1657 (E.D. La.) (Hon. Eldon E. Fallon)
• Obtained a $142 million RICO jury verdict against Pfizer for fraudulently marketing its drug Neurontin; negotiated a separate $325 million settlement on behalf of a class of health plans, In re Neurontin Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 1629 (D. Mass) (Hon. Patti B. Saris)
• Brought ground-breaking suit alleging widespread fraudulent marketing and sales practices for the prostate cancer drug Lupron (In re Lupron Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, No. 01-md-1430 (D. Mass.) (Hon. Richard Stearns), which uncovered pricing theories later litigated in the Average Wholesale Price litigation (In re Pharmaceutical Industries Average Wholesale Price Litigation, No. 02-md-1456 (D. Mass) (Hon. Patti B. Saris), over $250 million in settlements) and related litigation against First Databank, (New England Carpenters Health Benefits Fund v. First DataBank, Inc., No. 05-cv-11148 (D. Mass.) (Hon. Patti B. Saris), major price rollback on hundreds of drugs)
• Worked closely with consumer groups trying to bring down the prices of prescription drugs, including serving as lead counsel to the former Prescription Access Litigation (PAL) project, a large coalition of health care advocacy groups that fought illegal, loophole-based overpricing by pharmaceutical companies.
• Since 2002, has represented consumers, consumer groups, health plans, governments and institutions in complex class actions involving waste, fraud, and abuse in the pharmaceutical industry.
• Special Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the states of New Hampshire and Rhode Island, including in ground-breaking litigation against tobacco industry (injunctive relief and recovery of more than $10 billion).
• Spent seventeen years at a large Boston firm handling large complex civil and criminal litigation.