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Boston Scientific Pays $600 Million to J&J to Settle Lawsuit Over Guidant Deal
Feb 19, 2015 | West Texas News
By Leah Gardiner
On Tuesday, the global medical device-maker Boston Scientific Corp announced that it settled a $7 billion lawsuit with Johnson & Johnson for the relative bargain price of $600 million. However, the company is still faced by two litigations. One involves claims from about 20,000 women, who said that company's netlike implant to treat pelvic... -
Risperdal, Pelvic Mesh Suits Cause Spike in Filings at Philadelphia’s Mass Torts Program
Feb 19, 2015 | The Pennsylvania Record
By John O'Brien
Mass tort filings in Philadelphia’s Complex Litigation Center jumped more than 150 percent from 2013 to 2014. A yearly statistical breakdown provided by the CLC, which houses lawsuits in 11 mass tort areas, shows that lawsuits against pharmaceutical makers shot up after two relatively calm years.
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Boston Scientific Pays $600 Million to J&J to Settle Lawsuit Over Guidant Deal
Feb 19, 2015 | West Texas News
By Leah Gardiner
On Tuesday, the global medical device-maker Boston Scientific Corp announced that it settled a $7 billion lawsuit with Johnson & Johnson for the relative bargain price of $600 million.
However, the company is still faced by two litigations. One involves claims from about 20,000 women, who said that company's netlike implant to treat pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence left them injured because of bad product design.
The other one is from Internal Revenue Service, which demands more than $1 billion in back-taxes dating back to 2001.
Stock analysts' concern is that the rise in legal problems is lowering the company's stock price. However, Boston Scientific's stocks climbed 12.4% to close at $16.68 on the news of the J&J settlement, cheering investors.
Now, investors are watching the company's other cases to resolve them. The company has already set aside $972 million to cover litigation costs and has accumulated another large sum related to the IRS dispute.
The case stemmed from a binding agreement J&J had in 2006. According to the agreement, the company had to buy heart-device maker Guidant Corp part of Boston Scientific based in Indianapolis with major operations in the Twin Cities.
According to J&J lawyers, Guidant broke the contract when it shared confidential company data, allowing Boston Scientific to put in a better offer and buy Guidant for $27 billion.
In an interview earlier this month, Dan Brennan, Chief Financial Officer, said, "For a company of our size, with more than $7 billion in sales and very profitable that is a very manageable number".
According to analysts' predictions, who are with Leerink Partners in Massachusetts, Boston Scientific will settle the cases all together for just over $1 billion. The mesh litigation will be resolved by the end of 2016.
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Risperdal, Pelvic Mesh Suits Cause Spike in Filings at Philadelphia’s Mass Torts Program
Feb 19, 2015 | The Pennsylvania Record
By John O'Brien
Mass tort filings in Philadelphia’s Complex Litigation Center jumped more than 150 percent from 2013 to 2014.
A yearly statistical breakdown provided by the CLC, which houses lawsuits in 11 mass tort areas, shows that lawsuits against pharmaceutical makers shot up after two relatively calm years.
Specifically, 987 lawsuits over the drug Risperdal and 694 filed over pelvic mesh products led to 2,095 new lawsuits in 2014.
There were more Risperdal lawsuits filed in 2014 than all mass tort programs combined in 2013, when only 813 were filed.
Along with 2012’s 816, those two figures represented an effort to correct the CLC’s reputation after the American Tort Reform Association named Philadelphia the No. 1 Judicial Hellhole in its 2011 report.
ATRA blamed the CLC’s heavy activity, which reached its pinnacle with 2,690 lawsuits filed in 2011, on former coordinating judge Sandra Mazer Moss and Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas President Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe.
ATRA accused Moss of inviting mass tort filings and Dembe of promoting the CLC in order to use the fees associated with those cases to help with the court’s budget.
In 2012, Court of Common Pleas Administrative Judge John Herron signed an order that eliminated the CLC’s controversial practice of reverse bifurcation, in which a damages trial is held before a liability trial in the same case, and limited consolidation in mass tort cases.
That year, only 816 new cases were filed and 1,803 concluded. That continued in 2013, when 813 were filed and 1,908 concluded.
But 2014’s new filings outnumbered those that concluded by almost 800. There were 4,643 pharmaceuticals cases pending as of Jan. 4.
The records also show that out-of-state plaintiffs are dominating the pharmaceuticals filings.
Of the 1,827 new pharmaceutical cases, 1,617 (89 percent), came from out-of-state plaintiffs.
The 89 percent is consistent with the court’s history. The lowest percentage was 2005’s 81 percent.
The figures also show that 268 new asbestos cases were filed in the CLC, the lowest since 2009’s 238 and down 62 cases from 2013’s record 330.
Figures from 2005-11 reflect new filings, as well as cases transferred to the CLC. From 2012-14, only new filings are counted.
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