The parties to the above-captioned coordinated litigation (the "action" or this "litigation"), through their counsel, have stipulated and agreed to give effect to this Joint Stipulated Protocol for Discovery of Electronically Stored Information and Hard Copy Documents ("ESI Protocol" or "Protocol"), to facilitate discovery in this litigation.

The parties shall make good-faith efforts to comply with and resolve any differences concerning compliance with this ESI Protocol. If a producing party, notwithstanding its good-faith efforts, cannot comply with any material aspect of this ESI Protocol or if compliance with such material aspect would be impossible or unreasonable, such party shall inform the requesting party in writing a reasonable time before the date of production as to why compliance with the ESI Protocol is impossible or unreasonable. No party may seek relief from the Court concerning compliance with the ESI Protocol unless it has conferred in good faith with the affected parties.

All productions in this litigation are subject to the protective order separately entered by the Court in this litigation.

I. GENERAL.

A. The procedures and protocols set forth in this Protocol shall govern the production of ESI and hard copy documents in this matter, unless the parties agree in writing to change them or they are changed by the Court. This ESI Protocol is intended to aid the parties by providing a more predictable, cost-effective, and efficient management structure for the maintenance and production of electronic discovery. Nothing in this ESI Protocol shall supersede the parties’ obligations and protections under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. However, this Protocol does not govern or encompass call logs, voicemails, text and/or instant messages (including collaboration system messages and social media messages) (collectively “Other ESI”). Nothing in this Protocol alters a Party's rights, obligations, and responsibilities under the applicable Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, nor does anything in this Protocol impose additional burdens beyond those imposed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as to the identification, collection, preservation, examination, and production of Other ESI. The Parties disagree as to whether the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure impose an obligation to search or produce information from Other ESI. In the event a party is ordered to produce any Other ESI, or the parties agree to produce any Other ESI, the parties shall meet and confer before such production to establish the search methodology to be used and the production formats.

B. The parties shall meet and confer in good faith on issues regarding ESI, as necessary, including issues relating to custodians, data sources and search methodologies (e.g., search terms and other methods of identifying responsive ESI), that arise under this ESI Protocol or otherwise. In the event the parties cannot reach an agreement on a disputed matter, the parties shall submit the matter to the Court.

II. DEFINITIONS.

A. “Documents” shall have the same definition as set forth in Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 26 and 34.

B. “Document Family” refers to a group of related ESI that includes parent and child documents as maintained in the ordinary course of business (e.g., a parent email and any attachments thereto).

C. “Electronically stored information” or “ESI,” as used herein, means, as referenced in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, information that is stored electronically, regardless of the media or whether it is in the original format in which it was created, as opposed to stored in hard copy (i.e., on paper).

D. “Extracted Text” means the text extracted from an electronic document, and includes all header, footer and document body information when reasonably available.

E. “Hard Copy Document” means a document collected from physical files (paper) and not from electronic sources.

F. “Load/Unitization file” means an electronic file containing information identifying a set of paper-scanned images or processed ESI and indicating where individual pages or files belong together as documents, including attachments, and where each document begins and ends. A Load/Unitization file may also contain data relevant to the individual documents, including extracted and user-created metadata.

G. “Media” means an object or device, real or virtual, including but not limited to a disc, tape, computer or other device on which data is or was stored.

H. “Metadata” is used to describe the structural information of a file that contains data about the file, as opposed to describing the content of a file. The Metadata fields to be produced are listed in Exhibit 1.

1. random access memory (RAM), temporary files, or other ephemeral data;

2. on-line access data such as temporary internet files, histories, caches, cookies, etc.; 3. data in metadata fields that are frequently updated automatically, such as last-opened

dates;

4. Shadowed, damaged, residual, “slack,” “fragmented,” or “unallocated” data;

5. data stored on photocopiers, scanners, and/or fax machines;

6. data maintained in any electronic backup system for the purpose of system recovery or information restoration, including but not limited to, system recovery backup tapes or other media, continuity of operations systems, and data or system mirrors or shadows, if such data are routinely purged, overwritten, or otherwise made not reasonably accessible in accordance with an established routine system maintenance policy;

7. operating system files, executable files;

8. electronic data temporarily stored by laboratory equipment or attached electronic equipment, provided that such data is not ordinarily preserved as part of a laboratory report; and

9. structural files not material to individual file contents that do not contain substantive content (e.g., .CSS, .XSL, .DTD, etc.).

1. Within fourteen (14) days of the Court entering this agreed upon ESI Protocol (the “Initial Exchange Date”), the parties will exchange the following information to the extent not previously provided:

i. An initial list of (a) custodians within their respective organizations likely to possess relevant ESI, along with each such custodian’s job title and a brief summary of his or her primary responsibilities; (b) proposed keyword search terms and strings (including, where relevant, sematic synonyms, code words, acronyms, abbreviations, non-language alphanumeric associational references to relevant ESI, etc.) to be used when searching for ESI; (c) a list of non-custodial data sources (such as databases, servers, group shares, cloud-based storage, etc.) that may contain relevant information; and (d) any proposed exclusion criteria (including, but not limited to, date restrictions) related to ESI searches. By the Initial Exchange Date, each party also will disclose any intent at that time to utilize TAR as a culling methodology.

2. Within twenty-one (21) days after the Initial Exchange Date, the Requesting Party will identify any additional custodians, search terms, or search strings it believes should be included. The Parties will then meet and confer about the disputed custodians and search terms or TAR issues promptly and in good faith. The Parties agree that they will cooperate in good faith regarding the formulation of appropriate search terms and strings and methods to be used to cull potentially responsive or relevant ESI. The Parties may agree to modify the search queries or the search methodologies during the course of the search query negotiation process if the search queries or the results of search methodologies appear under- inclusive or over-inclusive. If the Parties reach an impasse, they may submit the dispute to the Court in the form of a joint discovery letter within a reasonable timeframe

3. The parties will continue to meet and confer regarding any search process issues as necessary and appropriate during discovery. Nothing in this search protocol, or the subsequent designation of any search terms, shall operate to limit a party’s obligations or protections under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and applicable decisional authority to conduct a reasonable search for responsive documents. This ESI Protocol does not address or resolve any other objection to the scope of the parties’ respective discovery requests, and it does not prevent any party from undertaking searches of its own ESI for any purpose at any time.

1. No party shall identify and/or eliminate duplicates of hard-copy documents or ESI by manual review or some method other than by use of the technical comparison using MD5 or SHA-1 hash values outlined above.

2. For exact duplicate documents, the Producing Party will produce the metadata described in Section V for the Single Production Copy to the extent available, as well as any such metadata that differs for the duplicate document(s). If more than one custodian possesses a duplicate, the Producing Party shall populate a field of data that identifies each custodian who had a copy of the produced document (the “duplicate custodian field”) in addition to a separate field of data identifying the custodian whose document is produced.

3. If during the course of its review, the Producing Party identifies a large number of duplicate documents, the Parties may confer regarding a custom deduplication protocol. Except for the removal of extracted logos, no custom deduplication method will be implemented without the consent of the Requesting Party, and such consent shall not be unreasonably withheld.

1. All responsive ESI, except that which is produced in Native Format pursuant to paragraph V.D.2, shall be produced as black and white, single-page, 300 DPI, Group IV* TIFF files with corresponding extracted full text provided in document level text files, objective metadata fields pursuant to Exhibit 1, and load files pursuant to Exhibit 2.

2. Responsive spreadsheets, presentations, audio/visual/multimedia, and other files that are not conducive to production in image format shall be produced in Native Format, except where such files are redacted pursuant to Section V.H.l of this Protocol. Responsive ESI produced in Native Format shall be produced with all Metadata contained in or associated with that file to the extent technologically possible consistent with Exhibit 1. Each ESI produced in Native Format shall be assigned a unique Bates number, and for each a single page placeholder TIFF image stamped with this unique Bates number, the phrase “PRODUCED IN NATIVE FORMAT,” or other similar language, and the corresponding confidentiality designation under the Protective Order will be produced. No party may attach to any pleading or any correspondence addressed to the Court, Special Master, or any adverse or third party, or submit as an exhibit at a deposition or any other judicial proceeding, a copy of any produced Native Format document without ensuring that either the corresponding placeholder slip sheet is attached to the document or the corresponding Bates number and confidentiality legend, as designated by the Producing Party, appears on the document.

1. Redactions. To the extent that a responsive document contains information protected by the attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine, the Producing Party may produce that document in a redacted form. The producing party may also produce in a redacted form information in a responsive document that is: (1) subject to federal, state, or foreign privacy requirements (e.g., HIPAA; 21 C.F.R. §§ 20.111, 20.63, and 314.80; 45 C.F.R. §§ 160 and 164; GDPR); (2) constitutes irrelevant personal information of an intimate or private nature, or private data that this objectively irrelevant to this Action; (3) relates to products not at issue in this litigation; or (4) information identifying members of P&T Committees other than PBM employees. All parties reserve their rights to challenge the appropriateness of any redactions and the discoverability of the redacted information, including redaction of information identifying members of P&T Committees other than PBM employees. The Parties will meet and confer regarding any disputes related to any redaction and will not unreasonably deny good-faith requests for production of redacted information. Nothing contained herein shall be used to demonstrate that any document or group of documents, or any portion of any document or group of documents, is or is not properly discoverable in the event that a party moves for production thereof.

2. Nothing in Paragraph V.H.1. shall allow for any delay in the production of documents as a result of these redactions.

3. Any redactions under Section V.H.1. shall be clearly indicated on each page of the document from which information is redacted, bearing a designation that it has been redacted. The designation shall make clear the reason for the redaction (e.g., “Redacted - Privileged,” “Personal Information, “Other Drug Information”). Where a document contains both privileged and non-privileged responsive content, the Producing Party shall redact the privileged material and produce the remainder of the document.

4. Native Excel or other spreadsheet files that are redacted may be produced in TIFF format or by overwriting the data contained in a particular cell, row, column or tab with the word “Redacted,” and shall make clear the reason for the redaction (e.g., “Redacted Privilege”), provided that such overwriting does not impact any other, non-redacted cells or information in the spreadsheet (e.g., if a cell redacted for privilege contains a numerical value that is used in a formula by other, non-redacted cells in the spreadsheet). If a privilege redaction does impact non-privileged cells/information, the Parties shall meet and confer to discuss. The Parties acknowledge that redacting the native may alter the metadata of the produced file; however, the metadata produced subject to Exhibit 1 will be the metadata extracted from the original native file, other than metadata containing redacted information.

5. Native Excels or other spreadsheet files, PowerPoint or other presentation files that are redacted for privilege or privacy may be produced as black-and-white or color (as applicable), single-page TIFF files with OCR text provided in document level text files, with load files pursuant to Exhibit 2, which shall include all information contained in the original file, including, but not limited to, speaker notes and “hidden” slides, with any redaction clearly delineated. If the file contains external video or audio components, the video or audio will be produced as native files unless redacted.

1. Documents and ESI shall be produced pursuant to the terms of the Stipulated Protective Order. Any objections to production shall otherwise be made pursuant to the Local Rules, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or the Federal Rules of Evidence. If the Producing Party is producing ESI in TIFF Format subject to a claim that it is protected from disclosure under any protective agreement or confidentiality order, or any agreement entered into or Order issued in this matter, the document shall be stamped electronically on each page in accordance with the Stipulated Protective Order.

2. If the Producing Party is producing ESI in Native Format subject to a claim that it is protected from disclosure under any protective agreement or confidentiality order, or any agreement entered into or Order issued in this matter, then the designation shall be included in a separate field in the .dat load file, as well as the TIFF placeholder or where not produced with a TIFF placeholder, the storage device (e.g., CD, USB, or hard drive) containing such native ESI data shall be labeled in accordance with the Stipulated Protective Order.

1. Delimited image load/unitization file for images (.opt and .lfp) shall be provided pursuant to Exhibit 2;

2. Delimited metadata load file (.DAT) containing a field with the full path and file name to the native files produced pursuant to Exhibit 2, and shall include the metadata fields identified below (Exhibit 1);

3. Document level .txt files for all native documents containing extracted full text or OCR text (OCR only if extracted text is not available or if the document has been redacted);

4. Bates number branding and Confidentiality designation (if any) on the face of the image in a location that does not obliterate, conceal, or interfere with any information from the source document;

5. A TIFF placeholder embossed with the corresponding confidentiality designation and Bates number shall be produced for all ESI produced in Native Format;

6. Each Bates number will: (i) be unique across the entire document production; (ii) maintain a constant length across the entire production (i.e., ABC00000001-with no space between the prefix and the number, padded to the same number of characters); (iii) contain no special characters; and (iv) be sequential within a given document. If a Bates number or set of Bates numbers is skipped in a production, the Producing Party will so note in a cover letter or production log accompanying the production.

7. PowerPoint slides/presentations that are produced in TIFF format will be produced with any notes or comments contained therein.

8. Metadata and coding fields shall be produced for a document as set forth in Exhibit 1. If metadata fields are not produced for the reasons set out in Exhibit 1, the Producing Party shall include the fields in the header row of the .DAT and leave the field blank for the corresponding document(s).

1. Where an electronic document that is part of a family is withheld, and its relationship to the rest of that document family is indicated using slipsheets, the Producing Party shall provide one Bates-numbered slipsheet for each withheld document.

2. If a member of an ESI document family that has otherwise been determined to be responsive cannot technically be processed (e.g., unsupported file format, file corruption, inaccessible password-protected document), those technical problems shall be identified and disclosed to the Requesting Party by production of a Bateslabeled slipsheet that states “Technical issue—file cannot be processed.” A Requesting Party may thereafter raise with the Producing Party any questions or concerns, and the parties shall meet and confer under to attempt to resolve any issues.

A. Name of the litigation and its case number;

B. Name of the Producing Party;

C. Date of the production (mm/dd/yyyy);

D. Bates number range;

E. Confidentiality Designation; and

F. Notes regarding any irregularities in the production (e.g., whether it is replacement Production Media (see below)).

Any replacement Production Media or documents shall cross-reference the original Production Media, clearly identify that it is a replacement, and cross reference the Bates number range that is being replaced. Producing Patties may encrypt their  Production Media and, if so, shall provide a key to decrypt the Production Media in a separate communication.