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1. Bard Ends Several Dozen Pelvic Mesh Suits In MDL

   Apr 25, 2016 | Law 360

   By Emily Feild
   
   
   The West Virginia federal judge overseeing sprawling pelvic mesh multidistrict litigation on Monday said that several dozen women have agreed to end their suits against C.R. Bard Inc. alleging injuries from pelvic mesh implants.

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Online Sources

1. Bard Ends Several Dozen Pelvic Mesh Suits In MDL

   Apr 25, 2016 | Law 360

   By Emily Feild

   
   

   The West Virginia federal judge overseeing sprawling pelvic mesh multidistrict litigation on Monday said that several dozen women have agreed to end their suits against  C.R. Bard Inc. alleging injuries from pelvic mesh implants.
   
   U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin dismissed with prejudice the suits from roughly 50 women, saying that all their claims have been “compromised and settled” against C.R. Bard and other companies named in their suits over the allegedly defective implants. The details of the agreements were not immediately available Monday.
   
   The suits sought to hold the company liable for marketing and selling what the patients had alleged is a defective mesh product that caused them internal injuries.
   
   According to court records, there are some 10,000 cases pending against Bard in the MDL in West Virginia.
   
   But those cases are only a part of the giant jigsaw puzzle of litigation against mesh device manufacturers including Ethicon, Bard and Boston Scientific Corp.
   
   Seven separate MDLs comprising some 70,000 cases are pending in West Virginia over alleged pelvic mesh implant injuries. Ethicon is facing about 23,000 as part of its MDL, according to court records.
   
   Bard faced the first jury trial in the seven multidistrict litigation suits over the use of transvaginal surgical mesh to treat pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence. It was hit with a $2 million verdict in August 2013 in a case by Donna Cisson, who alleged that its Avaulta Plus Posterior BioSynthetic Support System caused serious internal injuries.
   
   The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently reclassified pelvic mesh devices like those at issue in the suits as high-risk devices that must undergo the agency's most stringent safety evaluation before being put on the market.
   
   In February, a Philadelphia firm representing women in in their suits against Bard argued that six dozen of the suits should be transferred to Pennsylvania federal court since they're not about to be resolved in the sprawling multidistrict litigation in West Virginia.
   
   Kline & Specter PC told Judge Goodwin that it had negotiated with the medical device maker but had not come close to settling the 72 cases it now seeks to transfer to Pennsylvania.
   
   Last summer, the firm sought to move 155 of its cases against Bard and hundreds more againstJohnson & Johnson’s subsidiary Ethicon Inc. to Pennsylvania federal court, pointing to similar concerns with timing in the MDL.
   
   Representatives for the parties didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.
   
   Bard is represented by Lori G. Cohen of Greenberg Traurig LLP and Michael K. Brown of Reed Smith LLP.
   
   The women are represented by Blasingame Burch Garrard & Ashley, among others.
   
   The case is In Re: C.R. Bard Inc. Pelvic Repair Systems Product Liability Litigation, case number 2:10-md-02187, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
   
   — Editing by Ben Guilfoy.

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