The decision today bars only private suits for damages, which in lawsuits of this kind typically means back pay.
Madoff, who worked on the trading desk of his father's firm, and his brother Andrew have been accused in lawsuits of benefiting from the theft of billions of dollars.
"These are not companies that are typically plaintiffs in lawsuits of this type," said Jeffrey Kessler of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a New York law firm that is representing the Canadian companies.
Medco, formerly called Merck-Medco Managed Care, has been accused in lawsuits of unduly favoring expensive Merck drugs like Zocor, a cholesterol-lowering treatment, over similar products, like Lipitor from Pfizer, that the plaintiffs say are more cost-effective.
The two nuns, who are deceased, were accused in lawsuits of sexually abusing students decades ago.
A number of states have since accused Purdue in lawsuits of deceptively marketing its products to make billions of dollars.
In the last decade he had been locked in legal battles with former Thomas Kinkade Signature Gallery owners, some of whom accused him in lawsuits of trading heavily on his Christian beliefs even as he drove them to financial ruin.
Shell, accused in the lawsuit of being complicit in human rights abuses in Nigeria and in the 1995 executions, denied any wrongdoing.
He had been accused in one lawsuit of using $66m in improperly received funds to buy luxury homes.
In 2001, Chemical Products had accused Monsanto in a lawsuit of trying to thwart generic competition of Roundup.
