Lawsuits surrounding Merck's HPV vaccine Gardasil have been piling up for years now, but they've garnered increased public attention lately after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s links to the litigation were exposed during his confirmation process.

Now, even after a California lawsuit reached a jury trial earlier this year, both sides have agreed to put an abrupt delay on the proceedings.

The trial in question began in January and had been ongoing for four weeks in a Los Angeles, California, court. On Feb. 14, the plaintiff’s counsel approached Merck with a proposal to discharge the jury and adjourn the case until September, according to a statement from the drugmaker.

Merck, which is "pleased" with the decision to adjourn, agreed under the stipulation that it would provide “no financial or other consideration” in exchange for the agreement, a company spokesperson explained to Fierce Pharma. 

Mark Lanier, an attorney for plaintiff Jennifer Robi told Reuters that it was “really tough having the trial while the [Kennedy] confirmation hearings were ongoing,” noting that he was uncertain what effect hearings would have on jurors. Lanier has secured several multi-billion-dollar verdicts against drugmakers throughout his long career.

In a lawsuit first filed in 2016, Robi claims the vaccine caused her to develop postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). Robi is one of many who have sued on similar grounds in litigation that took a starring role at RFK Jr.’s confirmation hearings due to his connection with Winser Baum, a law firm that represents Gardasil plaintiffs.

The newly appointed HHS secretary previously disclosed in an ethics agreement that he stands to receive a payout for referring successful cases to Winser Baum, raising concern from Senate democrats that he could use his government position to sway the outcome of the cases. RFK Jr., a former environmental lawyer, later pledged to divest his financial interest in the cases to his adult son.

RFK Jr. has played a significant role in the litigation since 2018, Reuters reported in January and was previously involved in the Robi suit specifically. He collected $856,000 from Winser Baum last year, according to his financial disclosure form (PDF).

Merck, meanwhile, maintains that the adjournment is “unrelated to publicity associated with any other matter” and can instead be chalked up to the “favorable safety data and evidence that we were able to present during plaintiff’s own case-in-chief.”

That evidence, in Merck’s eyes, “led directly to their proposal to adjourn in exchange for zero dollars, after plaintiff’s counsel had invested the time and resources in four weeks of trial.”

The company is “confident” that it will ultimately prevail in the litigation based on both evidence it had already presented and additional evidence it would have raised in its defense, which had not yet begun before the adjournment was proposed.

“An overwhelming body of scientific evidence, including more than 30 years of research and development along with real-world evidence generated by Merck and by independent investigators, continues to support the safety and efficacy profiles of our HPV vaccines,” the company said in its statement.

Outside of the delay in the Robi case, multidistrict litigation in North Carolina, which consolidates 140 lawsuits, continues to move along. Merck remains “committed to vigorously defending" itself in that matter, the company said.