A pharmaceutical manufacturer based in China is facing a monetary sanction in a New Jersey court for failing to make its CEO available for a deposition in multidistrict litigation over alleged cancer-causing contamination in the blood pressure drug Valsartan.

Thomas Vanaskie, a former judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit who is now serving as a special master in the Valsartan MDL, ordered the sanctions in the case, which is being heard in federal court in Camden, New Jersey. He cited the failure by Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical Co. to compel CEO Baohua Chen to sit for his deposition, and the company’s violations of orders to produce certain documents.

Thomas Vanaskie of Stevens & Lee. Courtesy photo