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Ethicon Media Monitoring 2/22/2017
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Ethicon Wants Another Chance to Overturn Huskey Pelvic Mesh Case
Feb 22, 2017 | Mesh Medical Device Newsdesk
Ethicon Wants Another Chance to Overturn the Huskey Pelvic Mesh Case by arguing that the defense team should have been able to introduce assurances about safety and efficacy by the Food and Drug Administration concerning the TVT-O transvaginal mesh.
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Ethicon Wants Another Chance to Overturn Huskey Pelvic Mesh Case
Feb 22, 2017 | Mesh Medical Device Newsdesk
Ethicon Wants Another Chance to Overturn the Huskey Pelvic Mesh Case by arguing that the defense team should have been able to introduce assurances about safety and efficacy by the Food and Drug Administration concerning the TVT-O transvaginal mesh.
On February 9, 2017, Ethicon filed for a rehearing of the Huskey v Ethicon case (Fourth circuit No. 15-2118) in an attempt to reverse the appellate decision which affirmed the jury award.
In essence, J&J wants a second bite of the apple.
Following the nine-day Jo Huskey trial, which concluded September 5, 2014, the jury returned a verdict for Jo Huskey and her husband on their design defect, failure to warn, and loss of consortium claims over her TVT-O implant. Huskey was awarded $3.27 million.
Ethicon immediately appealed and asked for a judgment in its favor, or for a new trial.
Both were denied.
Then on January 26, 2017, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its ruling by deciding to uphold the jury verdict, essentially ending the appeals process for J&J.
Here is the appeals court decision. That should have been the end of the appeals process.
EN BANC
On February 10th Ethicon tried again with the Fourth Circuit, asking it to review its decision upholding Huskey v Ethicon.
If Judge Goodwin’s ruling is allowed to stand, it will essentially bar any FDA discussion from the 60,000 or so product liability cases pending before Judge Goodwin, argues Ethicon.
“The clear takeaway from the Panel’s decision is that district courts may now exclude all FDA evidence in trials addressing the safety of FDA-regulated Class II devices. Indeed, if the FDA’s conclusion after a comprehensive post-market review that a device is “safe and effective” is not admissible, then no FDA evidence is,” says the petition, written by Charles Lifland of O’Melveny & Myers LLP.
With that dire prediction, J&J lawyers want a rehearing En Banc (meaning all eligible, active judges of the Fourth Circuit).
Listen (here) to the arguments recorded here of Dave Thomas (Ethicon) and Fidelma Fitzpatrick (Plaintiffs).
The defense is represented by lawyers from O’Melveny & Myers LLP, Christy Jones (Butler Snow) and Dave Thomas of Charleston, WV.
WHAT WAS DECIDED
n the Huskey trial, Judge Goodwin disallowed discussion of the 510(k) approval process of the Food and Drug Administration to be presented to the jury under Federal Rule of Evidence 403.
It was the TVT-O that was implanted in Ms. Huskey which the jury decided was defectively designed. J&J argued the Goodwin court erred in denying it a judgment in its favor as a matter of law on all five claims – strict liability and negligent design defect; strict liability and negligent failure to warn; and loss of consortium – claiming Huskey’s lawyers didn’t prove their claims.
The appeals court said they did.
The Huskeys proved that polypropylene mesh will incite a foreign body reaction when implanting that “will continue to attack it in this way until it’s removed or destroyed or it’s gone.” That was according to their expert in chemical engineering.
Dr. Bruce Rosenzweig echoed the same design defect when he said the more mesh the more foreign body response, especially heavyweight mesh.
Ethicon’s former employee Dr. Brigitte Hellhammer said lighter weight mesh could treat SUI and that heavier mesh would likely shrink.
Dr. Jerry Blaivas testified Mrs. Huskey had severe scarring and suffered chronic pelvic pain, a “reaction to the mesh.”
That added up to the conclusion that Ethicon’s use of heavyweight polypropylene mesh in the TVT-O was a design defect that caused inflammation and pelvic pain in Ms. Huskey.
The jury’s decision was not contrary to the clear weight of the evidence the appeals court decided in upholding the jury verdict.
The panel also rejected Ethicon argument under “comment K” that some products are unavoidably unsafe, though not unreasonably dangerous, shielding Ethicon from liability.
Huskey is from Illinois and state law determines if a specific product is covered by comment k doctrine (here).
WHAT’S LEFT TO DECIDE? THE FDA
J&J lawyers say there were four pieces of evidence that were excluded from the Huskey trial that would have made a difference for the company.
udge Goodwin excluded the FDA discussion in Huskey because it could confuse the issues and mislead the jury, not to mention take jurors down the long, complicated and jargon-filled world of FDA rules and regulations.
Lawyers for J&J say the FDA “comprehensively regulates medical devices,” including the TVT-O, considered the “Gold Standard” by medical societies. They go on to praise the FDA and its “robust regulatory history.” The defense team heralds the FDA’s 510(k) clearance of the TVT-O mesh kit (implanted in Ms. Huskey) along with its presumption of safety and efficacy.
J&J contents that the FDA approved Prolene suture that makes up the TVT-O kit was cleared “based on their established history of safe and effective use.”
J&J says the en banc should “consider this critically important issue.”
Most readers of Mesh News Desk understand that the 510(k) approval process can not accurately be called robust. Rather, medical devices make it to market, after a shuffling of paperwork and a declaration by the manufacturer that its new device is substantially similar to one already on the market. There are no clinical trials required.
LANA KEETON
ana Keeton, a woman implanted with an Ethicon pelvic mesh, a medical device expert and patient advocate, plans on filing an Amicus Curae (Friends of the court) Brief in Huskey v Ethicon. She wants mesh off the market and rejects the cry of some law firms “not kill the company,” according to Keeton.
“Justice is not being served in the transvaginal mesh litigation and I’m going to the Department of Justice,” she tells MND. Here are her contentions found on her website (here).
he prolene suture is not the same as the heavyweight prolene mesh used in the TVT-O.
The FDA did not hold its Ob-Gyn Panel meeting September 8-9, 2011 because of lawsuits. Truth in Medicine and my meetings with the FDA presenting scientific evidence of the complications of Polypropylene mesh, in addition to the over 6,000 adverse events filed by mesh injured women, precipitated the meeting and the warnings issued July 13, 2011.
Ethicon completely misrepresents the FDA’s 510(k) PreMarket Notification clearance process. I testified before the Institute of Medicine multiple times in 2010 and am fully aware of the actual legal process.
An FDA employee involved in the clearance of many of Ethicon’s mesh products has also worked for, and been paid by, Ethicon for over 20 years. I have absolute proof of this.
I am also calling on the hundreds of thousands of mesh injured patients worldwide affected by this through my online presence and my organization, Truth in Medicine, to support this effort. Ethicon/Johnson & Johnson will be defeated.
Yours truly,
Lana C. Keeton
http://www.meshmedicaldevicenewsdesk.com/ethicon-wants-another-chance-overturn-huskey-pelvic-mesh-case/
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