Globus Medical paid $252.5 million for Nevro; 23 injury suits over its stimulators now share one judge

Twenty-three injury lawsuits land before one judge

On October 2 the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated the federal injury lawsuits↗ over spinal cord stimulators sold by Nevro, the pain-device maker Globus Medical·+0.03% — Globus Medical, up 0.03 percent as of its last quote bought in April 2025, and by Globus itself, into MDL 3195 before Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. of the Northern District of California, Nevro's home district ¹³. Twenty-three cases are pending across ten districts ². An MDL puts related federal suits before one judge and one shared pretrial record, the place where case counts and settlement figures surface first.

Migrating leads, painful shocks, roughly 300 claimants

The complaints allege implants that migrate, break through the skin, deliver painful shocks and damage nerves, often forcing revision surgery, and that sales representatives told patients mechanical failures were programming problems ². Nevro opposed centralization and lost; the FDA, sued alongside Nevro in nine of the actions, filed its own response ¹³. Plaintiffs' counsel told the panel it represents about 300 potential claimants, more than 30 of them held back only by a tolling agreement with Nevro, which pauses the deadline to sue ³.

The franchise behind the raised guidance

Globus, the Audubon, Pennsylvania spine-implant maker, paid $5.85 a share for Nevro, $252.5 million in total, while the target was struggling under competition in spinal cord stimulation, and booked a $118.8 million bargain-purchase gain because the fair value of the assets exceeded the price ⁵⁶. Chief Executive Keith Pfeil calls Nevro "a clinically superior pain product" that expands the addressable market ⁴.

In the second quarter the base business grew 8.9%; the Nevro line fell 14.3% year over year, to roughly $81 million of sales, while its adjusted EBITDA margin swung from negative 1.4% to 22.4% ⁴. Globus held 2026 revenue guidance at $3.18–3.22 billion and raised its non-GAAP earnings-per-share guide to $4.95–5.05↗ ⁴.

The filing that does not name the cases

The securities record is thinner than the docket. The legal-proceedings note in Globus's Q2 10-Q, filed with the SEC on August 6↗, itemizes three matters: the Moskowitz and 4WEB patent fights, and the Pimenta contract case, where a $28.7 million jury verdict became a $43.1 million accrual ⁵. The stimulator cases are not itemized and carry no disclosed reserve, so the only numbers live in the MDL docket ³⁵.

The fair view runs the other way first. Twenty-three cases are small against a company holding $840.5 million in cash and marketable securities ⁴. Management says Nevro sales held flat from the first quarter, with trial volumes returning to historical levels late in the fourth quarter ⁴.

Each case opens with a fight over federal preemption

The legal terrain is not a one-way street either. Every stimulator case now opens with a threshold fight over federal preemption, whether FDA approval bars the state-law claims, and the answer depends on which circuit hears the case ³. MDL 3195 sits in the Ninth Circuit, where plaintiffs must show Nevro deviated from a specific FDA premarket-approval requirement, and at least one Nevro case has already survived a preemption challenge ³.

Two records that will price the risk

Globus is showing its FDA-cleared SCRIPT patient-specific spine implants at the North American Spine Society's annual meeting in San Antonio this week; the meeting runs October 14–17 ⁸. Three weeks later, on November 5, the company reports third-quarter results ⁷. Two records will price the Nevro risk before any balance sheet does: the trial volumes management promised by year end, and the MDL 3195 docket, where the roughly 300 potential claimants either file or do not ³⁴.

Globus paid less than Nevro's parts were worth; the MDL docket is where the cost of the injury claims gets counted first ³⁵.