How Much is DePuy Willing to Pay in Case Settlements?

The DePuy Orthopeadic, a unit of Johnson and Johnson, is facing about 8,000 lawsuits over hip implants it had recalled in 2010, medical experts say. Because of this, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) closes loophole with new restriction on metal implants.

With the number of lawsuits being filed, Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay about $600,000 to resolve three cases in the first settlements of the litigation.

Officials of Johnson &Johnson’s DePuy unit agreed in August 2012 to settle Nevada residents’ suits over the company’s ASR hip implants, two people familiar with the agreement said. The company will pay about $200,000 a case to resolve the suits before they were scheduled to go to trial late last year.

According to business professor Eric Gordon at the University Michigan, Johnson & Johnson officials were able to negotiate settlements at the low end of what the company should have expected to pay.

He added that the companies have been expected to pay in the range per case from $200,000 to $500,000. Lawsuits in federal and state courts describe patients in pain and immobilized by joint dislocations, infections and bone fractures.

In the older days, those who usually avail a hip replacement are those people who are aging.However, at present, even the younger ones are already open to getting such hip replacement after DePuy Orthopeadic launched two of its ASR Hip System. Artificial hips were positioned as a specialized surgical solution also for younger generation who has lost its mobility due to accident and broke their femur or early development of osteoarthritis which causes unbearable pain whenever they move and impairing them of doing their day to day living.

However instead of restoring mobility recipients it has worsen every patient’s condition and even endangered the lives of the patients. One of the serious concerns of every patient is facing with their metal-on-metal hip implant is the presence of metallosis.

Metallosis may occur when metallic components in the hip implants rub with one another and may shred of tiny particles of metal which may get into the blood stream, causing pain around the area of the implant. The damaged and inflamed tissue can also contribute to loosening of the medical device.

Patients won’t have to go through this kind of situation if only DePuy Orthopeadic has double-checked the quality of their ASR Hip Systems before they distributed it to the market to avoid the alarming number of patients suffering from it. Since 2010, they were able to collect 93,000 hip implants, including 37,000 in the U.S., saying more than 12 percent of the devices failed within five years. The company spent $800 million dollars for the recall. To know more about the related cases check, DePuy Hip Recall News Center at depuyrecallnewscenter.com.

The author is a professional medical researcher, covering news about hip replacement operations.

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