Ethicon Media Monitoring 2/21/2019

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

Online Sources

1. Boston Scientific Says 50K Mesh Settlements Almost Final

   Feb 20, 2019 | Law 360

   By Aaron Leibowitz
   
   
   Boston Scientific Corp. said in its annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday that it is close to reaching settlements in about 50,000 of the 53,000 lawsuits related to its pelvic surgical mesh implants, and that 35,500 of the agreements have been finalized.
2. Boston Scientific spent $800M to settle mesh implant lawsuits last year

   Feb 20, 2019 | Boston Business Journal

   By Allison DeAngelis
   
   
   Marlborough medical device giant Boston Scientific is close to settling nearly 50,000 lawsuits related to a controversial mesh implant product that thousands of women allege led to infections, urinary problems, pain and other problems.

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

Online Sources

1. Boston Scientific Says 50K Mesh Settlements Almost Final

   Feb 20, 2019 | Law 360

   By Aaron Leibowitz

   Boston Scientific Corp. said in its annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday that it is close to reaching settlements in about 50,000 of the 53,000 lawsuits related to its pelvic surgical mesh implants, and that 35,500 of the agreements have been finalized.
   
   The company said the agreements required a certain amount of participation by the claimants and that they were entered into without any admission of liability or wrongdoing.
   
   "As of Feb. 5, 2019, we have entered into master settlement agreements in principle or are in the final stages of entering one with certain plaintiffs' counsel to resolve an aggregate of approximately 50,000 cases and claims," the filing says.
   
   Boston Scientific has been at the center of one of the largest multidistrict litigation proceedings in United States history since 2012, combining three previous MDLs and 104,000 cases against the Massachusetts company and other pelvic mesh manufacturers in West Virginia federal court.
   
   Late last month, the judge overseeing the MDL, U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin, said tens of thousands of cases have been settled for a total of $7.25 billion. He agreed to set aside 5 percent, or $366 million, for key attorneys. The settlement amount could grow to $11 billion when the rest of the cases are settled, Judge Goodwin said.
   
   Boston Scientific did not specify in its regulatory filing Tuesday how much it has paid out so far. But on an earnings call earlier this month, Chief Financial Officer Dan Brennan said the company paid over $600 million to a settlement fund in 2018 that includes the pelvic mesh agreements, according to online transcripts of the call. He said about 95 percent of all claims had been "settled or on the final stages of settlement."
   
   The products at issue are intended to treat stress urinary incontinence, which is the involuntary loss of urine during movement that puts pressure on the bladder. The mesh can fix the problem, but can also lead to punctured organs, infections, bleeding, pain during sexual intercourse and urinary problems.
   
   In November 2014, a Florida federal jury found Boston Scientific was negligent in manufacturing the Pinnacle Pelvic Floor Repair Kit and awarded some $27 million to four women. The jury did not award punitive damages in the bellwether trial, and the Eleventh Circuit upheld that decision in October 2017.
   
   In July, Judge Goodwin denied joint motions from the plaintiffs and Boston Scientific Corp. to toss more than 800 cases from the present litigation but granted their requests to dismiss nearly 300 suits against the medical device maker.
   
   The plaintiffs are represented by firms including Blasingame Burch Garrard & Ashley, Motley Rice LLC, Sanders Viener Grossman LLC, The Potts Law Firm, Fleming Nolen & Jez LLP, Bottar Leone PLLC, Kline & Specter PC, Sheller PC and Andrus Wagstaff PC, among others.
   
   Boston Scientific is represented by Jon A. Strongman of Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP.
   
   The MDL is In re: Boston Scientific Corp. Pelvic Repair System Products Liability Litigation, case number 2:12-md-02326, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

   https://www.law360.com/articles/1130868/boston-scientific-says-50k-mesh-settlements-almost-final
   

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2. Boston Scientific spent $800M to settle mesh implant lawsuits last year

   Feb 20, 2019 | Boston Business Journal

   By Allison DeAngelis

   Marlborough medical device giant Boston Scientific Corp. is close to settling nearly 50,000 lawsuits related to a controversial mesh implant product that thousands of women allege led to infections, urinary problems, pain and other problems.
   

   Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) is one of a handful of companies that make transvaginal mesh implants. The devices are used to treat medical issues such as pelvic organ prolapse, the term for when the muscles supporting organs like the bladder and uterus weaken, which Harvard Medical School reports can cause to pain and urinary problems.

   Over the last decade, some 53,000 lawsuits have been filed against Boston Scientific by women who allege they received the implants and experienced painful side effects or injury.

   Though the company has committed to fighting some of the remaining lawsuits, Boston Scientific has settled approximately 35,500 transvaginal mesh implant cases and is close to settling another 17,500 as of Feb. 5, the company reported in its year-end earnings report Wednesday.

   The company spent $800 million to settle the lawsuits last year, according to a Boston Scientific spokesperson.

   The company previously spent $119 million to settle close to 3,000 lawsuits in 2015 and has $655 million in a settlement fund, Chief Financial Officer Daniel Brennan reported during an earnings call.

   Boston Scientific expects to resolve all of the mesh product cases by the end of 2019, CEO Mike Mahoney told investors earlier this month. The device maker, which has 32,000 employees worldwide, continues to manufacture and sell the implants.

   A 2011 FDA probe of mesh devices made by multiple companies concluded that serious adverse events were not rare as originally thought, and that the mesh devices didn’t conclusively improve clinical outcomes. The federal agency is still investigating the devices, recently convening an advisory panel to discuss the safety of transvaginal mesh implants manufactured by Boston Scientific and other companies.

   The company is still fighting some of the lawsuits, including two that allege Boston Scientific used a counterfeit resin smuggled in from China in the implants, which caused bleeding, pain and urinary problems.

   "We deny the plaintiff's allegations and intend to defend ourselves vigorously," the company said of the two lawsuits.

   https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2019/02/20/boston-scientific-spent-800m-to-settle-mesh.html
   

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