Record $1 Bill Against J&J Over Defective Metal Hip

DePuy from Lanier Law

Mesh Medical Device News Desk, December 5, 2016 ~ It might be a new record in defective medical devices.

Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics has been hit with more than $1 billion in damages to be paid to six plaintiffs injured by their Pinnacle metal hip implant. The jurors found the metal-on-metal (MoM) Pinnacle was defective designed and that warnings to consumers and doctors were not adequate.

Plaintiffs claim that bone erosion and tissue death are due to design flaws of the Pinnacle even though it was promoted as being an improved design over plastic or ceramic hips.

J&J and DePuy denies any wrongdoing.

*Late Add: J&J promises a challenge to the verdict-Reuters here.

Howard Sadwin testifies to FDA panel on MoM hips, June 27, 2012

Attorney Mark Lanier, headed the plaintiffs group, which made an offer of $1.8 million to settle prior to trial. J&J rejected that offer.

The total of $1.041 billion includes $32 million in compensatory damages including pain and suffering. The remainder was punitive damages, a message jurors send to a company to punish it for its behavior.

Two types of hip replacements

J&J is facing almost 9,000 lawsuits claiming Pinnacle hip prosthesis is defective in its design and instructions and the cases are consolidated in Texas federal court where bellwether cases are being readied for trial.

The second trial yielded a $500 million verdict while J&J faced no liability in the first trial in 2014.

J&J plans to ask the appeals court to stop any further trials over Pinnacle, while it reviews trial errors, says an attorney for J&J to Bloomberg.

This is not the first defective metal hip prosthesis made by the company.

J&J and DePuy had to pay $2.5 billion over its ASR metal-on-metal hip implants, which were were called in 2010. The Food and Drug Administration toughened regulations on metal hips in 2013 and J&J stopped selling them at that time. ##

LEARN MORE:

SE Texas Record, December 12, 2016,
http://setexasrecord.com/stories/511057083-1b-verdict-against-johnson-johnson-reinforces-need-for-appellate-review-says-attorney

MND, March 2013 ~ $8.3 Million Verdict over ASR Metal Hip
https://www.meshmedicaldevicenewsdesk.com/8-3-million-verdict-against-jjs-depuy-unit-over-asr-metal-hip/

MND, June 20, 2012 ~ FDA Expert Panel Weights in on Metal Hips
https://www.meshmedicaldevicenewsdesk.com/coming-up-fda-expert-panel-weighs-in-on-metal-hips/

MND, March 5, 2012 ~ Howard Sadwin’s Story of Metal-on-Metal Hip Failure
https://www.meshmedicaldevicenewsdesk.com/suffering-in-silence-howard-sadwins-story-of-metal-on-metal-hip-failure/