Coloplast: Sixth MDL to Represent Women Injured by Transvaginal Mesh

Mesh Medical Device News Desk, August 30, 2012 ~ Coloplast - It is one of the lesser known transvaginal meshes.

On August 6, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) ordered at least 24 Coloplast federal lawsuits to be consolidated into one court forming MDL No. 2387.

Here is the transfer order.

At least 13 of the cases have common questions of fact and they will become the sixth multidistrict litigation consolidated concerning transvaginal mesh and the fifth to be heard in the Southern District of West Virginia.

Coloplast mesh has been reported to cause injuries including mesh erosion, pain, and infection in women being treated for pelvic organ prolapse.

Drugwatch reports the order states “Centralization is consistent with our recent decision creating separate pelvic repair product MDLs involving [other] defendants.”

In an MDL, cases can still be tried individually. In the event of a settlement, the amount awarded to any one plaintiff will vary depending on her injury.

There are four other MDLs consolidated before the Honorable Judge Joseph R. Goodwin – Bard Avaulta, Ethicon; Boston Scientific, American Medical Systems, Inc. A fifth MDL focuses on injuries from the Mentor Ob Tape and is before Judge Clay D. Land in the Middle District of Georgia. Most of those cases have been resolved.

Plaintiffs can still file individual action in state courts. The first trials on a state and federal level will begin to be heard early in 2013.

On July 20, jurors in a Bakersfield, California state court determined that the Avaulta Plus Biosynthetic Support System vaginal implant caused Christine Scott’s chronic pain, mesh erosion, and incontinence and that she and her husband deserve the $5.5 million damage award after the Bard mesh eroded into her vagina, perforated her colon and continues to cause severe pain.

Bard announced it plans an appeal.

Based in Denmark, Coloplast makes medical products for continence and wound and skin care. It also manufactures four different types of mesh to treat pelvic organ prolapse:

*Novasilk – A synthetic vaginal mesh used to treat pelvic organ prolapsed including rectocele, enterocele and cystocele as well as vaginal vault prolapse. Novasilk is thin says the maker and “may reduce cases of inflammation, infection, or erosion by having less implanted material.”

*Suspend- made of human biologic material, Suspend is supposed to integrate better into the human body once implanted to treat pelvic organ prolapse.

*Exair – Polypropylene mesh used to reinforce the pelvic floor to treat prolapsed.

*Axis – Biologic product extracted from the back and back of legs which is intended to integrate into the human body once implanted to treat pelvic organ prolapse