Articles Posted in Class Action

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On July 20, 2018 Bayer announced that it would stop selling Essure, a hysteroscopic sterilization procedure for women. Bayer’s decision to pull Essure from the market comes on heels of an FDA black box warning for the device. A black box warning is the FDA’s highest warning that a drug or device may cause death or serious injury.

Essure is a metal spring like device with synthetic fibers that is implanted into a woman’s fallopian tubes in order to prevent eggs from fertilization. The device was marketed as a form of tubal sterilization that did not involve a surgical procedure.

Since its approval by the FDA in 2002, the agency received more than 27,000 adverse event reports related to Essure.  In addition to death, complications from the Essure procedure include; chronic pelvic pain, fetal death, organ puncture, ectopic pregnancies, device migration, expulsion, and perforation of pelvic organs requiring hysterectomies.

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In Phoenix, a woman that was injured by her defective C.R. Bard G2 filter has been awarded $3.6 million. This was the first bellwether multidistrict litigation of its kind regarding a Bard device. The injured party, Sherr-Una Booker, was implanted with a defective C.R. Bard G2 filter in 2007. Booker experienced a range of negative side effects when her IVC filter fractured and as a result migrated from its initial location and perforated her vena cava.

As it was explained at the onset of this trial there were two phases of litigation. In the first phase, the federal jurors ultimately ruled for $2 million in compensatory damages, Bard being deemed 80 percent ($1.6 million) at fault and an unnamed party doctor 20 percent at fault. In the second phase, the injured party was also awarded $2 million in punitive damages.

At the end of April, C.R. Bard moved for a new trial regarding this decision.

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Thousands of individuals have brought, and continue to bring, lawsuits against the manufacturers of defective IVC filters. On March 14th, the first bellwether trial against the manufacturer of defective IVC filters will take place. The results of this bellwether trial will be used by the parties to further gauge how future litigation may fare.

The March bellwether trial is set to be heard in the District of Arizona by U.S. District Judge David Campbell. The plaintiff selected for the first bellwether case is Sherr-Una Booker.

In 2007, Booker underwent a procedure in which a C.R. Bard G2 IVC filter was implanted. As a result of that procedure, she suffered from various health issues when her device migrated and fractured. After enduring multiple intense corrective procedures, it was concluded that one of the struts from her device would not be able to be removed and will remain in Booker’s inferior vena cava.

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This week in Dallas a jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $247 million to six patients that were negatively affected by the company’s Pinnacle artificial hips. The awarded amount broke down as $79 million in actual damages and $168 million in punitive damages. The patients that brought the claims all had to have their Pinnacle artificial hips surgically removed as a result of a defect. All six patients are residents of New York.

The New York patients that brought this claim included: Uriel Brazel, who is an 88-year-old physician; Karen Kirschner, a 67-year-old elementary school teacher; Ramon Alicea, a 61-year-old chauffeur; Hazel Miura, a 60-year-old housing official; Eugene Stevens, a 53-year-old health-care aide; and Michael Stevens, a 52-year-old financial analyst.

The Depuy unit is the manufacturer of this type of hip replacement for Johnson & Johnson. The jury ruled that Depuy knew that the Pinnacle artificial hip devices were defective and that the metal hip implants were defectively designed, but Depuy failed to properly warn medical professionals and patients about the risk of the device failing prematurely.

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Cook Medical is going to soon find themselves in court according to recent court developments. This news comes in the light of thousands of lawsuits that have been filed against Cook Medical and their IVC filters. The first bellwether trial is now on the horizon, after Cook Medical, Inc. was unsuccessful in their motion for summary judgment earlier this month.

According to the Southern District of Indiana, the jury selection process for the first trial will begin on October 23, 2017. Overall, a total of three bellwether trial are slated to take place, which will allow those negatively affected and their representation a range of settlement values regarding IVC filter lawsuits.

The case that has been selected for first bellwether trial is Hill v. Cook Medical, Inc., et al. This case involves Elizabeth Hill, a Florida resident. She was implanted with a Cook Celect IVC filter prior to her scheduled back surgery. Hill has alleged that she was negatively affected by her Cook Medical IVC filter and subsequently required multiple medical corrective procedures.

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Recently, in the Northern District of Texas, the fourth bellwether trial focused on allegedly defective metal on metal hip replacement devices began. This bellwether trial is concentrated on the DePuy Orthopedics’ Pinnacle Hip Replacement System. The bellwether trial has consolidated six hip replacement lawsuits filed by plaintiffs and their family members who allege that they suffered unwanted complications or serious negative side effects due to the premature failure of their DePuy Pinnacle Hip Replacement System device.

This bellwether trial also focuses on the allegations that Johnson & Johnson, and its subsidiary company DePuy, brought their metal-on-metal hip replacement devices to market albeit knowing the device was or may have been manufactured with defects. Among the alleged defects was the low-level quality equipment used to make the devices. Due to the material used in the production of the devices, many patients suffered the negative side effects, including having toxic metal debris to be allowed into their bloodstream or tissue surrounding their joints.

Moreover, through examination of their marketing process, emails and commissioned studies counsel for the plaintiffs has argued it may be shown that Johnson & Johnson, and DePuy took part in deceptive behavior. That highlighted conduct was allegedly aimed toward deceptively encouraging the use of their metal on metal hip replacement devices in hip implant surgeries.

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Earlier this month, Johnson & Johnson found itself in the courtroom again due to another female’s claim that after using Johnson & Johnson’s talc-based products for feminine hygiene purposes, over a significant period of time, she developed ovarian cancer. This marks the fifth case against talc-based Johnson & Johnson products to be heard, albeit the first case to be heard in California.

Eva Echeverria, a 62-year-old California resident, brought this claim against Johnson & Johnson. The claim, similar to recent lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson, alleged that the company failed to warn consumers of their talc-based product’s risks and encouraged women to engage in the use of their talc-based products; even though they were aware of multiple years’ worth of scientific studies that linked ovarian cancer deaths and diagnoses to the genital use of talc-based product such as the ones produced by Johnson & Johnson.

Last week, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury’s verdict ultimately found in favor of Echeverria. This came after a four-week trial and two-day’s worth of deliberation. As a result, Echeverria was awarded the largest verdict to date against Johnson & Johnson, $417 million. This was due to their failure to adequately warn consumers of the risks and unwanted negative side effects to be linked to talc-based product use. The breakdown of the verdict is as follows: $347 million in punitive damages and $70 million in compensatory damages.

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On August 7, Endo International Plc agreed to a settlement amount of an additional $775 million that will allow the company to settle the remaining 22,000 mesh suits brought against them. This additional settlement agreement has now brought the settlement figure to a staggering $2.6 billion. The lawsuits brought against the company alleged that the company’s vaginal-mesh implants left some women incontinent and in extreme pain due the mesh implants eroding.

The August settlement agreement comes only a year after Endo International was slammed with over thousands of complaints due the devices produced by the company. As a result, the company chose to close and shut down one of the units that was based on producing mesh implants. Paul Campanelli, Endo’s CEO and president issued a statement last week in which he called this settlement an “important milestone” for the company. He also made a point to express that this settlement also allowed the company to “resolve virtually all known U.S. mesh product liability claims” against the company.

On the other hand, other companies that are producers of mesh devices, such as Boston Scientific Corporation and Johnson & Johnson, are still facing thousands of complaints from women who had one of their mesh products inserted/implanted and as a result suffered painful or unwanted negative side effects. Overall, mesh based lawsuits are showing to be one of the main mass tort claims in history with the total number of transvaginal mesh lawsuits currently rising to over 100,000 filed complaints.

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In the first bellwether product liability trial regarding the blood thinner Xarelto a New Orleans jury has ruled in favor of Johnson & Johnson and Bayer. Although this is not a favorable decision for the plaintiff, those bringing future lawsuits should not panic.

The lawsuit was brought by Louisiana resident Joseph Boudreaux. Boudreaux brought the suit against Johnson & Johnson and Bayer, the joint developers of Xarelto, after the drug allegedly caused him internal bleeding that required a lengthy hospital stay in the intensive care unit, multiple heart procedures as well as many blood transfusions. This uncontrollable internal bleeding occurred only one month after Boudreaux began taking Xarelto.

Currently, the total number of Xarelto based lawsuits is over 16,000 and growing. Xarelto is an anticoagulant that is commonly used to treat blood clots. The anticoagulant is Bayer’s top selling drug and is Johnson & Johnson’s third highest selling drug. The lawsuits are being or have been filed by patients that used Xarelto and experienced negative side effect, most commonly internal bleeding. Many of the lawsuits are based on the claim that Johnson & Johnson and Bayer did not adequately warn individuals of the possible risks linked to Xarelto, thus claiming that they were misled.

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In today’s day and age there are different corrective procedures that an individual suffering from the unbearable or unwanted pain of a hernia can undertake. One of the more common procedures is to undergo hernia repair mesh surgery. When a hernia repair mesh surgery is undergone, the medical professional must choose the type of mesh that is going to be used during the procedure.

One of the mesh materials that may be used by the medical professional is the Atrium C-Qur Mesh. Atrium C-Qur Mesh is known for combining Atrium’s polypropylene mesh and an Omega 3 gel coating. Although, polypropylene may cause damage to the surface of any organ that it is contact with. Recently, the C-Qur mesh material has been under the spotlight and at the helm of injured individuals’ lawsuits, after undergoing surgery that used this type of C-Qur mesh material, against Atrium.

One of the motivations behind the lawsuits is focused of the belief that the FDA should issue a recall on the C-Qur mesh due the frequent reports of patient’s negative side effects linked with Atrium C-Qur Mesh. Atrium has recalled the C-Qur’s packaging, but has not recalled the hernia mesh itself. Many of the individuals that are pursuing lawsuits also allege that Atrium knew or should have known about the potential negative side effects of internal injuries to the patients, but chose to withhold that information from the public as well as those throughout the medical field.

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