AMS-Endo Announces Vaginal Mesh lawsuit final settlement

AMS-Endo announces Vaginal Mesh lawsuit final settlement, as reported by Bloomberg News. Endo Pharmaceuticals, the owner of American Medical System (AMS) agreed to another $775 million to settle vaginal mesh injury lawsuits.

Endo has paid more than $2.6 billion to settle “virtually all known” vaginal injury claims.

More than 100,000 injured women nationwide

More than 100,000 defective product liability and personal injury lawsuits have been filed by injured women against Endo and other major manufacturers of transvaginal mesh products, including Bard, Boston Scientific, Coloplast, and Johnson and Johnson.

Other mesh-insert makers, including Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific Corp., still face thousands of claims in the U.S. from women who blame the devices for injuring them.

J&J, said in SEC filings in February that it was defending 54,800 cases over its mesh implants, while Boston Scientific said it faced 43,000 mesh claims. Both companies have settled some mesh suits. The mesh implants have generated billions of dollars in profits for these companies.

Mesh made from polypropylene plastic

Over the past 15 years, the vaginal mesh has been used for the repair of pelvic organ prolapse and female stress urinary incontinence. Serious design defects have been associated with surgical mesh which is made from non-absorbable polypropylene plastic and the manufacturers were warned that the material was not safe to be used in humans.

The plastic mesh is linked to major side effects in women, in some cases the injuries were catastrophic, including recurrent pelvic and bladder infections, erosion of the mesh into the vagina and other vital organs.

AMS-Endo Announces Vaginal Mesh lawsuit final settlement

In 2014, Endo was the first major mesh and bladder sling manufacturer to settle mesh injury claims. The company initially agreed to pay about $830 million in AMS vaginal mesh settlements, then in August 2015 the company announced it was ear-marking $1.53 billion for litigation and settlement costs, and then later added another $834 million specifically for vaginal mesh litigation.

Endo announced that an additional $775 million will be set aside to resolve another 22,000 mesh claims. Endo hopes that this final settlement will resolve all known claims, but Endo admits that it is possible further injury claims may be filed.

Vaginal Mesh Lawsuits

The vaginal mesh litigation has been going strong over the past seven years involving thousands of injured women. The vaginal mesh is one of the largest mass torts in recent history.

All of the different manufacturers have reached vaginal mesh settlements, the most recent being Johnson and Johnson’s Ethicon sub-division.

FDA “No benefit from Vaginal Mesh”

The FDA warned that it had received thousands of adverse event reports involving problems with vaginal mesh products.

The FDA concluded that there was no evidence that transvaginal mesh provides any additional benefits when compared to more traditional surgery for treatment of pelvic organ prolapse.

In 2012, the FDA notified the mesh manufacturers that they under take medical studies to determine the safety of transvaginal mesh products, and establish whether they have an unreasonable risk of injury for women. In 2016, the FDA labelled the vaginal mesh devices as “HIGH RISK.”

In a no win situation, the mesh manufacturers decided to stop making the mesh implants to avoid spending money to prove that their mesh implants were defective and to possibly increase the litigation.

If you think you may have a Vaginal Mesh or bladder sling and are experiencing pain, recurrent infections, perforation caused by mesh erosion or have suffered a full revision and emergency care, please call Dr. Shezad Malik Law Firm at 214-390-3189.