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Ethicon Feb 16
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J&J Settles More than 100 Vaginal Mesh Cases
Feb 15, 2015 | DrugWatch
By Michelle Llamas
Johnson & Johnson agreed to settle more than 100 lawsuits filed by women who claimed transvaginal mesh devices manufactured and sold by the company’s Mentor unit caused them permanent injuries. The drug giant refused to disclose the amount of money it is paying to 111 plaintiffs in the U.S. District Court... -
Bard Expert To Partially Testify In Avaulta Trial In Mesh MDL
Feb 13, 2015 | Law360
By Sindhu Sundar
C.R. Bard Inc. on Wednesday persuaded a West Virginia federal judge to allow its expert witness to testify in an upcoming trial about whether certain materials used in its Avaulta pelvic mesh products are compatible with human tissue, but his views on whether the products were defectively designed were excluded.
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J&J Settles More than 100 Vaginal Mesh Cases
Feb 15, 2015 | DrugWatch
By Michelle Llamas
Johnson & Johnson agreed to settle more than 100 lawsuits filed by women who claimed transvaginal mesh devices manufactured and sold by the company’s Mentor unit caused them permanent injuries.
The drug giant refused to disclose the amount of money it is paying to 111 plaintiffs in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. J&J requested late last month that a trust fund be established to handle settlements, though the exact terms are unknown, Fierce Medical Devices reported.
Court documents in the same district show that the company also settled a handful of cases in September and October of 2014.
The cases consolidated in multidistrict litigation (MDL) before before Judge Clay Land are related to the Mentor ObTape Transobturator Sling, a product typically used to treat stress urinary incontinence (SUI). The sling is a piece of polypropylene plastic shaped like a strip of tape. The company maintains that the sling is a safe product although it discontinued the sling in 2006.
Hundreds of other cases are pending before Judge Land, and six bellwether cases are set for trial in October and November. One previous bellwether, Morey v. Mentor Corp., settled before a July 2013 trial.
“The overall benefits of the procedure and this product outweighed the potential risks,” John Q. Lewis, one of Mentor’s attorneys told the New York Times after a number of lawsuits against Mentor were filed in 2009.
Plaintiffs intimately familiar with the product disagreed.
According to lawsuits, Mentor Corp failed to warn doctors and women about the risks of ObTape and willfully concealed the complications. Injuries listed in court documents are extensive, including infections, bleeding, chronic mental and physical pain as well as inability to have intercourse. Some women continue to suffer complications because the mesh is too ingrained in vaginal tissues to be removed safely.
Negligence, fraudulent concealment and failure to warn are among the charges levied against J&J’s Mentor unit. One of the Largest Mass Torts in U.S. History
J&J’s legal problems related to mesh aren’t isolated to the Georgia MDL. Nearly 23,000 federal lawsuits against the company’s Ethicon unit await trial in West Virginia before Judge Joseph Goodwin.
Ethicon faces the largest number of unresolved claims, followed by American Medical Systems with a little over 19,000. In all, more than 70,000 plaintiffs suing a number of mesh manufacturers wait for their day in court in one of the largest mass torts in history.
Judge Goodwin urged attorneys from both sides to work harder to resolve cases. The judge previously recommended defendant C.R. Bard settle more than 10,000 cases against it to avoid billions in trial loses.
American Medical Systems already said it would set aside $1.6 billion to settle its lawsuits, and Goodwin wants more companies to follow suit.
February kicked off with two days of meetings between the judge and attorneys aimed at resolving the massive case load – and new cases continue to pour in. Goodwin warned companies that they should consider settlement, but that he was going to send cases to trial as quickly as possible, Reuters reported.
“I’m going to kick it into high gear and ask that you do the same,” the judge said at the meeting.
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Bard Expert To Partially Testify In Avaulta Trial In Mesh MDL
Feb 13, 2015 | Law360
By Sindhu Sundar
C.R. Bard Inc. on Wednesday persuaded a West Virginia federal judge to allow its expert witness to testify in an upcoming trial about whether certain materials used in its Avaulta pelvic mesh products are compatible with human tissue, but his views on whether the products were defectively designed were excluded.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin considered the expertise of Bard's expert witness Dr. Marshall Austin, a pathology expert in gynecological surgery, and allowed him to testify on the biocompatibility of polypropylene, a kind of plastic material, which is used in mesh devices.
He said Austin has the expertise to opine on that subject and disagreed with the plaintiffs that he arrived at his views based only on personal experience, finding that he had based his conclusions on "dozens of studies and articles."
"[The plaintiffs] point to his deposition, wherein he admitted that he has never designed a medical device and 'is not an expert on polypropylene,'" Judge Goodwin said in his ruling. "I do not find this testimony dispositive in light of Dr. Austin's demonstrated knowledge, training and experience as a gynecological surgical pathologist."
But Judge Goodwin also ruled that Austin "lacks the expertise required to extrapolate further," and agreed with the plaintiffs that his opinions about the devices' design should be excluded.
On Feb. 18, C.R. Bard will defend its Avaulta line of transvaginal mesh implants from claims by plaintiff Debra Wise that it can cause serious health problems, including scarring and bleeding.
The device maker has sought to separate the trial into two phases: one to address liability and the other to deal with some punitive damages issues. In a motion to bifurcate filed in December, Bard argued that presenting "inflammatory damages evidence" such as its finances in a case that involves "graphic injuries" that Wise's Avaulta Plus device allegedly caused her would cause unfair prejudice.
A total of seven MDLs have been assigned to U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin over transvaginal surgical mesh devices used to treat pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence.
Those MDLs contain more than 70,000 cases that are currently pending, including roughly 10,000 in the Bard MDL, according to court documents.
Wise is represented by Henry G. Garrard, Gary B. Blasingame, Andrew J. Hill, James B. Matthews and Josh B. Wages of Blasingame Burch Garrard Ashley PC.
Bard is represented by Lori G. Cohen and R. Clifton Merrell of Greenberg Traurig LLP and Michael K. Brown of Reed Smith LLP.
The case is Wise et al v. C. R. Bard Inc., case number 2:12-cv-01378, part of MDL 2187, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
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