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J&J’s DePuy Ortho faces $247m ruling in Pinnacle bellwether ruling
Nov 17, 2017 | Mass Device
By Fink Densford
A Dallas federal jury this week ruled that Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and its DePuy Orthopaedics must pay $247 million to six patients claiming to be injured by its Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip implants, according to a Reuters report. -
Johnson & Johnson fined $247M in hip implant case
Nov 17, 2017 | FierceBiotech
By Nick Paul Taylor
A jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $247 million to six patients who received Pinnacle hip implants. The fine stems from claims the metal-on-metal hip implants caused tissue death and bone erosion as a result of flaws in their design. -
As Health Products Litigation Heats Up, Plaintiffs Lawyers Questioning Tactics of J&J's Counsel
Nov 17, 2017 | The Legal Intelligencer
By Max Mitchell
Plaintiffs lawyers representing plaintiffs in three separate cases against Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries have alleged over the past six weeks that attorneys for the health care products company have engaged in improper contact with witnesses in the cases. -
J&J to pay $247M for allegedly hiding defects in its artificial hip
Nov 17, 2017 | Becker's Hospital Review
By Alia Paavola
A court ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $247 million Thursday to six patients who claimed the company concealed defects in its Pinnacle artificial hips — marking the third multimillion dollar loss over the products, according to Bloomberg. -
J&J Is In Trouble For Its Hip Implant Device
Nov 17, 2017 | International Business News Service
By Ellen Nelson
Johnson & Johnson company, the giant health care product manufacturer in the world is facing legal charges in United States for its defective Pinnacle hip implant device. -
DePuy Orthopaedics abonará 247 millones de dólares por problemas con sus implantes de cadera
| EC Salud (Spain)
https://www.consalud.es/ecsalud/internacional/depuy-abonara-247-millones-dolares-problemas-implantes_44160_102.html -
WGN Midday News
Nov 17, 2017 | WGN Chicago, IL
View clip here: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30818929?token=88d4771e-4105-461b-aa47-b2ce4f2c913a
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J&J’s DePuy Ortho faces $247m ruling in Pinnacle bellwether ruling
Nov 17, 2017 | Mass Device
By Fink Densford
A Dallas federal jury this week ruled that Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and its DePuy Orthopaedics must pay $247 million to six patients claiming to be injured by its Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip implants, according to a Reuters report.
The jury ruled that the controversial metal-on-metal hip implants were defectively designed and that patients did not receive appropriate warning about the risks associated with them, according to the report.
The six plaintiffs and patients in the case claim that after implantation, the devices led to injuries including tissue death, bone erosion and other negative health effects, according to Reuters.
Johnson & Johnson said that it would immediately begin the appeal process in the case, according to the report, with a DePuy spokesperson saying the company is “committed to the long-term defense of the allegations in these lawsuits.”
In the case, plaintiffs said that the companies falsely promoted the device with claims that it would last longer than more basic implants which featured plastic or ceramic materials.
The verdict is the fourth test trial in Dallas federal court over the metal-on-metal Pinnacle hips, with over 9,000 cases pending.
In December, a federal jury in Dallas ordered J&J and DePuy Orthopedics to pay more than $1 billion to 6 plaintiffs claiming to be injured by its Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip implants, according to the plaintiffs lawyers.
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Johnson & Johnson fined $247M in hip implant case
Nov 17, 2017 | FierceBiotech
By Nick Paul Taylor
A jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $247 million to six patients who received Pinnacle hip implants. The fine stems from claims the metal-on-metal hip implants caused tissue death and bone erosion as a result of flaws in their design.
J&J has now lost three Pinnacle legal fights on the bounce since winning the first test case in 2014. That losing streak has near and long-term financial implications for J&J. The juries in the cases J&J has lost have awarded substantial damages to the affected patients, with this week’s $247 million hit following initial sums of $500 million and $1 billion in the two previous cases.
Damages in the two earlier cases were ultimately lowered—and Reuters reported that J&J will appeal the latest ruling—but the company still had to hand over $150 million and $543 million.
Those are big but manageable sums for a company of J&J’s size. However, these cases are the tip of the iceberg. Close to 10,000 Pinnacle lawsuits are pending in U.S. state and federal courts. The four cases heard to date will provide insights into the value of this larger group of claims and the sums that will be involved if they are settled out of court.
J&J is standing firm against the allegations, pointing to clinical data on the safe use of the implants. And the attorney who represented J&J and subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics in the latest case took aim at the legal process after learning of the jury’s verdict.
“This nine-week trial was a disservice to everyone involved because the verdict will do nothing to advance the ultimate resolution of this six-year old litigation,” John Beisner said.
The start of the litigation dates back to when the implants were still on the market in the U.S. J&J pulled the implants from the market in 2013 following the adoption by the FDA of new, tougher regulations on artificial hips.
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As Health Products Litigation Heats Up, Plaintiffs Lawyers Questioning Tactics of J&J's Counsel
Nov 17, 2017 | The Legal Intelligencer
By Max Mitchell
Plaintiffs lawyers representing plaintiffs in three separate cases against Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries have alleged over the past six weeks that attorneys for the health care products company have engaged in improper contact with witnesses in the cases.
The most high-profile accusation was made in October in a Texas case involving a J&J subsidiary, in which a federal judge asked the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI to look into allegations of witness tampering.
But, in early November lead counsel in the Xarelto litigation also made allegations that a sales representative for J&J subsidiary Janssen improperly contacted a key witness in the ongoing bellwether case, and that counsel for the company failed to properly notify the plaintiffs about the alleged contact until the eve of trial. Also, counsel for the plaintiffs in the pelvic mesh mass tort alleged that attorneys for defendant Ethicon, another J&J subsidiary, intentionally misrepresented the whereabouts of a witness integral to a jurisdictional dispute that could result in having most of the litigation transferred out of Philadelphia.
Attorneys from Drinker Biddle & Reath have been involved in each of the disputes. A spokesman for the firm did not provide a comment for this story as of press time.
A spokesman for J&J has denied the allegations.
“We contend that these allegations are completely without merit, and are simply meant to distract from the issues in these cases,” Ernie Knewitz said in an emailed statement.
One of the attorneys involved in the DePuy case filed a motion in mid-October saying she did not ask the DePuy sales rep to “do anything or communicate” with the witness at issue, a doctor who had filed an affidavit suggesting witness tampering. The judge ultimately determined that the jury would not be able to hear about the alleged witness tampering, and on Thursday, the jury awarded the plaintiff $247 million.
“The court’s finding shows that opposing counsel’s allegations—particularly the suggestions of criminal wrongdoing—were an unfair and unfounded attack on the integrity of the company and its legal team. We are glad to now have that matter behind us,” attorney John Beisner, of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, who is also representing DePuy, said in an emailed statement.
In the Xarelto matter, after the allegations first arose Janssen produced a signed declaration from the sales representative saying she did not speak with the witness, who was a treating doctor for the plaintiffs, but merely left materials with the doctor’s assistant asking him to attend a presentation. In the wake of the allegations, a spokeswoman for Janssen also said the allegations were “completely without merit,” and “simply meant to distract from the issues” in the case.
However, the judge handling that case agreed to allow the sales representative to be deposed, and on Nov. 15, the plaintiffs filed a motion asking the court to allow the jury to hear arguments about whether the contact may have impacted the witness’s testimony.
The allegations involving Ethicon, another J&J subsidiary, were spelled out in a Nov. 6 motion to the court regarding a dispute that recently emerged over whether the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Bristol Myers-Squibb v. Superior Court of California means that Philadelphia lacks jurisdiction over Ethicon in most of the pelvic mesh cases filed there.
The allegations about defense counsel’s conduct involve efforts by plaintiffs counsel to take the deposition of a former Ethicon employee regarding whether the company used materials made by a Pennsylvania-based manufacturer in its mesh devices. According to the motion, plaintiffs counsel sought to depose former Ethicon employee James Williams, but defense attorneys responded that Williams no longer worked for Ethicon, and that they would “continue to work to obtain Mr. Williams’ contact information.” Defense counsel also suggested that a current Ethicon employee be deposed instead, according to the motion.
However, the motion said, plaintiffs attorneys found Williams’ contact information through a simple internet search, and during the deposition learned that Williams had lived at the same location long before he left Ethicon and that Ethicon had contacted him in October to tell him he might be deposed.
“So on the very day that Ethicon told the court that it would ‘work to obtain Mr. Williams’ contact information,’ it telephoned Mr. Williams,” the motion said. “The court should be aware of Ethicon’s dissembling and what appears to be flat-out dishonesty when trying to prevent Mr. Williams’ deposition from taking place.”
The motion said the conduct could justify sanctions, but asked that the court should use the company’s alleged conduct when making credibility determinations about Williams’ deposition, which plaintiffs attorneys said greatly supports their position.
Attorney Shanin Specter of Kline & Specter, who is a lead attorney in the pelvic mesh litigation, declined to comment for the story.
One clear theme to the allegations is that they are emerging over especially high-stakes issues.
The allegations involving DePuy arose in a bellwether trial over the company’s hip implant. Two previous trials landed $502 million and $1.04 billion verdicts.
The allegations involving Xarelto arose in the first bellwether trial to take place in Philadelphia, after the plaintiffs suffered a string of losses in federal court, and the jurisdictional dispute in the pelvic mesh case could significantly reduce the number of cases pending in Philadelphia, where Ethicon has been hit with numerous multimillion-dollar verdicts, including a $57.1 million award in September.
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J&J to pay $247M for allegedly hiding defects in its artificial hip
Nov 17, 2017 | Becker's Hospital Review
By Alia Paavola
A court ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $247 million Thursday to six patients who claimed the company concealed defects in its Pinnacle artificial hips — marking the third multimillion dollar loss over the products, according to Bloomberg.
In the lawsuit, lawyers argued J&J's DePuy unit, which manufactures the hips, knew the devices had defects but didn't properly warn physicians and patients about the risk they would prematurely fail.
The jury granted the six patients whose hips had to be surgically removed $79 million in damages and $168 million in punitive damages.
Over the past year, 9,900 lawsuits were filed against J&J and the DePuy unit over the artificial hips, according to the report.
This is the third significant-dollar loss in court over the products. In 2016, a Dallas jury ordered J&J to pay $502 million to five patients over the hips, a judge later slashed the amount owed to $150 million. Earlier this year another jury ordered J&J to pay more than $1 billion to six California residents whose artificial hips failed. That settlement was later cut nearly in half.
J&J stopped selling the Pinnacle hips in 2013 after the FDA imposed tighter regulations for artificial hips.
J&J officials "remain committed to the long-term defense of the allegations in these lawsuits," Stella Meirelles, a spokeswoman for DePuy, told Bloomberg.
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J&J Is In Trouble For Its Hip Implant Device
Nov 17, 2017 | International Business News Service
By Ellen Nelson
Johnson & Johnson company, the giant health care product manufacturer in the world is facing legal charges in United States for its defective Pinnacle hip implant device.
J&J and its DePuy Orthopedics Unit is been ordered by Dallas federal Jury to pay $247 million to 6 patients who have claimed to suffer by the device.
The federal jury of Dallas have found that the metal-on-metal hip implants created by these companies are defective and the blamed companies did not warn customers about the defects. Over 9700 lawsuits are filed against J&J in state and federal courts across the U.S.
Among these, six New York patients claimed that they experienced issues such as, tissue death and bone erosion a long with other injuries. They blame it on the defective designed made by the companies.
Plaintiffs also claimed that the devices were promoted and marketed falsely. Companies claimed that that these devices would be beneficial to treat joint failures caused due to osteoarthritis along with many other false claims.
J&J said that it will soon appeal against these claims made by patients while DePuy stated that they are very much committed to the defense against these allegations. They further said that their metal to metal hip implant devices are scientifically perfect and are based by reliable clinical data and proofs.
A federal jury has so far awarded five Texas plaintiffs $150 million in damages. and six California patients with $543 million.
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DePuy Orthopaedics abonará 247 millones de dólares por problemas con sus implantes de cadera
| EC Salud (Spain)
https://www.consalud.es/ecsalud/internacional/depuy-abonara-247-millones-dolares-problemas-implantes_44160_102.html -
Nov 17, 2017 | WGN Chicago, IL
View clip here: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30818929?token=88d4771e-4105-461b-aa47-b2ce4f2c913a
Rough transcript: >>on the medical watch a major, legal victory for several people who received hip implants. johnson and johnson and its depuy orthopedics unit will have to pay have roughly 250 million dollars to patients. they claimed pinnacle hip were defective and caused tissue death bone erosion and other injuries. johnson & johnson says it will immediately launch the appeals process. the company faces nearly 10,000 pinnacle lawsuits in state and federal courts across the US.
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