The New Jersey Supreme Court has decided not to combine two Bergen County Superior Court mass tort cases over weight loss drugs including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, keeping them separate based on the type of injury alleged.

In a notice filed Monday, the justices said the cases would be consolidated separately under Bergen County Superior Court Judge Gregg A. Padovano for centralized case management. The cases allege injuries from the use of GLP-1 medications Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus, made by Novo Nordisk Inc., and Trulicity, Mounjaro and Zepbound, made by Eli Lilly & Co. and Lilly USA LLC.

According to the notice, one multicounty litigation will concern plaintiffs who allege gastrointestinal injuries, while the other will deal with plaintiffs who allege nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy vision loss injuries.

The NAION plaintiffs sought consolidation in July, telling the court that bringing together their cases, which had just grown to 30 with more likely to come, would simplify matters because it would avoid having different judges perform complex choice of law analysis for cases from 13 states.

In their respective applications, the NAION and the gastrointestinal injury plaintiffs said they were not seeking to consolidate with the other multicounty litigation, with the NAION plaintiffs saying while there may be some discovery overlap, the cases rely on different expert opinions and search terms.

"The decision to create two separate [multicounty litigations] is consistent with the request we made in our initial petition filed in June," Danielle Gold of Weitz & Luxenberg PC, representing the NAION plaintiffs, told Law360 on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for Eli Lilly said in a statement Wednesday, "Lilly appreciates the court's careful consideration of this threshold case management issue. We will continue to defend against these lawsuits in court."

Craig M. Silverman of Sullivan Papain Block McManus Coffinas & Cannavo PC, representing the gastrointestinal injury plaintiffs, said late Wednesday, "We agree with the decision to keep the litigations separate because they involve distinct injuries with different mechanisms of action and will require different proof and expert testimony."

Novo Nordisk declined to comment.

The NAION mass tort plaintiffs are represented by Danielle Gold of Weitz & Luxenberg PC, Mark Apostolos of Sullivan Papain Block McManus Coffinas & Cannavo PC, Tracy Ann Finken of Anapol Weiss, Jason Goldstein of Parker Waichman LLP and Daniel Lapinski of Motley Rice LLC.

The gastrointestinal injury plaintiffs are represented by Daniel Epstein of Epstein Ostrove LLC, Mark Apostolos and Craig M. Silverman of Sullivan Papain Block McManus Coffinas & Cannavo PC and attorneys with Morgan & Morgan.

Novo Nordisk is represented by Raymond M. Williams, Katie Insogna and Stephanie Peatman of DLA Piper.

Counsel information for the other parties was not immediately available Wednesday.

Case information was not available Wednesday.