Product Liability

January 31, 2015

J&J Ethicon Mesh Injury Settlements

There are over 75,000 women who have filed personal injury claims against the various manufacturers of the transvaginal and bladder sling products. According to sources, Johnson & Johnson has settled at least four Ethicon transvaginal mesh lawsuits.

These are the first few settlements reached out of over twenty thousand personal injury cases filed against the Johnson & Johnson Ethicon subsidiary company.

These settlements were reached in state court claims, and included a one wrongful death claim that alleged the vaginal mesh caused a deadly infection.

January 22, 2015

Actos Bladder Cancer Federal Trials

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The U.S. District Judge overseeing the federal Actos litigation has issued orders requiring that the Court be provided with details about each of the cases filed, information about potential settlements and motions in various state courts throughout the country.

There have been eight Actos Bladder Cancer trials to date across the United States. The majority of them have been held in various state courts and only one has been tried in the federal MDL out of thousands filed.

The federal MDL case, a real bell ringer for Takeda, saw a Louisiana jury award over $9 billion – most of it in punitive damages – to the plaintiffs. The eye popping award was lowered in October to $38.1 million, and the jury was allowed to hear information that the judge sanctioned Takeda for destroying documents.

Most recently, in November 2014, a jury fined Takeda $155,000 for destroying documents that could have helped plaintiff Richard Myers.

The panel in that case found that Takeda officials intentionally destroyed the files.Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., was also ordered to pay more than $2 million to a plaintiff who claimed that the company’s Actos diabetes medicine caused her bladder cancer. Jurors in state court in Philadelphia found that the Japan-based Takeda failed to properly warn Frances Wisniewski’s doctors about Actos’s cancer risk.

Federal Court Issues New Orders

Judge Doherty is requiring the parties to provide the Court with particularized information about each case pending in the federal court system.Defendants have been required to provide a summary of information contained on each plaintiffs’ fact sheet, including information on their exposure to Actos, medical history, bladder cancer treatments and other risk factors for the disease.Plaintiffs have been ordered to provide information about each case from the defendants’ fact sheet, outlining sales representative information received and any contact the drug companies had with the plaintiffs’ treating physicians.

Takeda Knew in 2004 of Cancer Link

According to court documents, Takeda knew by 2004 that studies found links between Actos and cancer, and didn’t issue a warning until seven years later to protect billions of dollars in Actos sales.

January 11, 2015

Hysterectomy Morcellator Cancer 2015 Update

by Dr. Shezad Malik

There are many product liability lawsuits being filed against the manufacturers of power morcellators. The injured women claim that patients and doctors should have been warned about the risks associated with use of the medical devices during minimally invasive, laparoscopic hysterectomies.

What Are Power Morcellators?

Power morcellators are medical devices that are used during laparoscopic hysterectomy and myomectomy procedures. The device allows the surgeon to grind up the uterus or uterine fibroids and remove the tissue through a small incision in the abdomen. The medical device is used during minimally invasive surgery, and reduces recovery time, scarring and speeds up recovery time.

January 10, 2015

Stryker Rejuvenate Hip Settlement 2015 Update

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II artificial hip metal implant global settlement which was announced in November 2014, appears to finally be gaining some traction as the policy and settlement procedures are being set down.

Stryker Corp. agreed in November to pay more than $1 billion to settle lawsuits over thousands of hip implants recalled in 2012 after patients complained of early hip implant failure, pain, and metal debris causing metallosis from the devices.

Stryker Hip Implant Settlement Details

December 18, 2014

Xarelto Louisiana MDL For Uncontrollable Bleeding Lawsuits

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation announced consolidation and centralization of all nationwide Xarelto lawsuits filed in federal courts before U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon in the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Over 50 Federal Xarelto Lawsuits

Bayer Healthcare and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals subsidiary are exposed to at least 50 product liability lawsuits over their new-generation anticoagulant. These personal injury and wrongful death claims are pending in 24 different federal courts.

December 16, 2014

Wrongful Death Uterine Cancer Ethicon Morcellator Lawsuit

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A Missouri family has recently filed an uterine cancer lawsuit over power morcellators. The deceased woman’s family alleged that the morcellator device manufactured by Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon subsidiary caused cancer to be widely spread during a robotic hysterectomy.

Ethicon Morcellator Wrongful Death Claim

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri in early December, following the death of Carl Cecilia Merrill from a rare, malignant cancer called leiomyosarcoma.

November 14, 2014

Boston Scientific Ordered To Pay $26.7 M in Florida Transvaginal Mesh Cases

by Dr. Shezad Malik

In the first federal trial involving Boston Scientific Corp., the vaginal mesh manufacturer was ordered by the jury to pay $26.7 million to a group of four women who blamed the company’s vaginal mesh inserts for their personal injuries.

Jurors in federal court in Miami found that Boston Scientific officials defectively designed their Pinnacle pelvic-organ implants and failed to properly warn doctors and their patients about the device’s risks.

The verdict is the first in a federal case against Boston Scientific over the Pinnacle inserts and the first to combine more than one plaintiff’s claims.

November 13, 2014

West Virginia Actos Bladder Cancer Trial

by Dr. Shezad Malik

An Actos Bladder Cancer trial in West Virginia state court has started over allegations that Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s popular diabetes drug Actos causes bladder cancer.

The West Virginia trial comes shortly on the heels of a $2 million verdict in Philadelphia on October 3 over the blockbuster drug.

It will be only the eighth case to go to trial out of thousands filed. Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., was slammed and ordered to pay more than $2 million to a plaintiff who claimed that the company’s Actos diabetes medicine caused her bladder cancer.

This was the latest Actos trial over bladder cancer claims from the medication.Jurors in state court in Philadelphia found that the Japan-based Takeda failed to properly warn Frances Wisniewski’s doctors about Actos’s cancer risk.

According to Wisniewski’s attorney, Mike Miller, the jury found Takeda “clearly failed to warn, and it clearly caused her damage. She’s got a life of bladder cancer; it’s a fair verdict,” he added.

Takeda Knew in 2004 of Cancer Link

October 24, 2014

Jury Finds for J&J DePuy In Texas Pinnacle Hip Trial

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Johnson & Johnson was found not liable for personal injuries and product liability by a Texas jury in the first case to go to trial.

Jury Found For Johnson & Johnson DePuy

The Dallas federal jury ruled unanimously against the plaintiff Kathleen Herlihy-Paoli, who said the two metal-on-metal Pinnacle hips she received in 2009 were defective and that the company failed to warn patients and doctors about the device’s risks.

October 21, 2014

Metal on Metal Defective Hip Metallosis Settlement Update

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The slow moving train wreck that we call the Metal on Metal Hip debacle continues to grind on. For the thousands of patients who were promised the latest and greatest hip technology but instead were sold a pile of scrap metal, and the significant risk of metal poisoning, there maybe light at the end of the tunnel.

There has been some success in resolving the lawsuits involving thousands of defective metal on metal hips. Some of the lawsuits have been settled and thousands more are still pending against the metal hip manufacturers including Zimmer (now the new proud owner of Biomet), DePuy, Stryker, Wright Medical and Smith and Nephew that sold the metal-on-metal hip implants.

The defective hip replacement lawsuits share similar allegations that there is premature catastrophic hip implant failure caused by metal cobalt and chromium release. The artificial hips are made of cobalt chromium alloy and the grinding action of the hip joint in daily activity causing the metal components to rub together, leading to the release of these toxic heavy metal particles.