Ethicon Media Monitoring 11/9/2018

Client Attorney Privileged/Attorney Work Product/At Request of Counsel

Online Sources

1. New J&J Pelvic Mesh Trial Ordered In Pa.

   Nov 8, 2018 | Law 360

   By Emily Field
   
   
   A Pennsylvania state judge has said that there should be a new trial in a woman’s suit alleging she was injured by a pelvic mesh implant made by a Johnson & Johnson unit after previously overturning part of a verdict in the company’s favor.

Client Attorney Privileged/Attorney Work Product/At Request of Counsel

Online Sources

1. New J&J Pelvic Mesh Trial Ordered In Pa.

   Nov 8, 2018 | Law 360

   By Emily Field

   A Pennsylvania state judge has said that there should be a new trial in a woman’s suit alleging she was injured by a pelvic mesh implant made by a Johnson & Johnson unit after previously overturning part of a verdict in the company’s favor.

   A 2017 jury had found that while the Ethicon pelvic mesh plaintiff Kimberly Adkins was implanted with was defectively designed, it didn’t cause the injuries that both sides acknowledged, but Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Erdos last year sided with her argument that the jury was inconsistent and overturned that part of the verdict. And in a Tuesday order, the judge said that the jury’s finding that a design defect wasn’t a proximate cause of her injury went against the weight of the evidence and entitles her to a new trial.

   Both her expert, obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Bruce Rosenzweig, and her treating physician testified that Ethcion’s so-called TVT Secur pelvic mesh, which Kimberly Adkins had implanted in July 2010 to treat her urinary stress incontinence, caused her pain, burning and irritation, according to the judge.

   Ethicon’s own expert conceded that the mesh injured Adkins, necessitating surgery to remove it, the judge said.

   “On behalf of Ms. Adkins we very much look forward to the retrial on this matter and achieving justice for what Ms. Adkins has experienced as a result of the implantation of JNJ’s dangerous and defective TVT-Secur mesh into her body,” Bryan Aylstock of Aylstock Witkin Kreis & Overholtz PLLC told Law360 on Thursday.

   Representatives for Ethicon didn’t respond immediately to requests for comment on Thursday.

   The jury had also found that Ethicon’s warnings were inadequate, but the judge said that a new trial was warranted on that claim, saying that the jury’s findings on that issue don’t necessarily mean that those warnings caused Adkins to be injured.

   There was evidence that her surgeon, Dr. George Petit, kept up with medical literature and that complications from the device were well-known in the medical community, the judge said.

   “Therefore, he may have known the true risks of harm associated with the TVT-Secure despite appellant’s failure to warn pelvic floor surgeons directly,” the judge said. “Moreover, it became clear at trial that Dr. Petit did not communicate to [Adkins] all of the risks that [Ethicon] did make known to surgeons like Dr. Petit.”

   Therefore, the jury could find that adequate warnings would not have changed Dr. Petit’s decision to recommend the device or his discussion with Adkins, the judge said.

   Adkins filed suit in July 2013 seeking damages after a portion of the TVT Secur implant eroded into her vaginal canal and left her in significant pain. The mesh erosion resulted in her undergoing surgery to remove a portion of the implant in September 2012.

   Ethicon’s victory at trial came after losses in four prior mesh-related cases dating back to December 2015 that have left the company facing nearly $50 million in damages.

   A representative for Ethicon declines to comment beyond noting that the judge's previous ruling on the verdict is currently on appeal.

   Adkins is represented by Bryan Aylstock, Daniel Thornburgh and James Barger of Aylstock Witkin Kreis & Overholtz PLLC and Lee Balefsky of Kline & Specter PC.

   Ethicon is represented by Kimberly Bueno of Scott Douglass & McConnico LLP, William Gage, Chad Hutchinson and Jordan Walker of Butler Snow LLP, and Kenneth Murphy, D. Alicia Hickok, Melissa Merk and Andrew Reeve of Drinker Biddle & Reath.

   The case is Kimberly Adkins v. Ethicon Inc. et al., case number 130700919, in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.

   https://www.law360.com/articles/1100513/new-j-j-pelvic-mesh-trial-ordered-in-pa-
   

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