Depo-Provera (Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate)

The Depo-Provera litigation, centralized before Judge M. Casey Rodgers in the Northern District of Florida in February 2025, consolidates claims that the injectable birth-control drug depot medroxyprogesterone acetate causes meningioma, a typically benign but potentially serious brain tumor, in long-term users who allege they were not adequately warned of the risk. With 6,403 actions pending after only about a year and a half of pretrial proceedings, this is already one of the largest active pharmaceutical mass torts by volume, and the court has moved quickly to structure a path toward trial-tested outcome data: the parties have been instructed to prepare five pilot bellwether cases designed to show how juries are likely to respond to evidence expected to recur across the broader claim pool.

No bellwether trial date has been set yet, so claim funding today is still priced primarily against individual medical documentation — imaging confirming a meningioma diagnosis, duration and dosage of Depo-Provera use, and tumor location and treatment history — rather than against jury-tested outcome data. That said, the five-case pilot structure signals the court's intent to generate real evidentiary signal relatively early in the docket's life relative to its scale, which is a favorable structural sign for funders thinking about duration risk.

Meningioma treatment can range from monitoring to surgical resection and radiation, and the resulting medical-lien exposure varies considerably by treatment path — a factor that should be built into individual claim underwriting rather than assumed uniform across the portfolio. Given the size of the pending claim pool, portfolio finance is a natural structure for firms holding a meaningful Depo-Provera inventory, with segmentation by tumor location, treatment intensity, and duration of drug use supporting more precise pricing. Criterica Capital's mass tort finance and portfolio finance products apply to this litigation, and a structural brief tracking the pilot bellwether process is available through Criterica Intelligence.

Pre-settlement funding is a non-recourse purchase of a portion of the proceeds of a pending legal claim — not a loan. If the case does not result in a recovery, nothing is owed. Rates, fees, and repayment terms are disclosed in full in the funding agreement, which the applicant’s attorney reviews before signing. Availability and terms vary by state.