Jury slaps Johnson & Johnson with $500m verdict in Pinnacle hip bellwether

UPDATED March 18, 2016, with additional comment from DePuy, plaintiffs’ and defendant’s attorneys. A Texas federal jury today slapped Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics with a $500 million judgment in favor of a quintet of plaintiffs who said the metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implant caused their injuries. After a 2-month trial, jurors found that the Ultamet metal-on-metal version of the Pinnacle hips were defectively designed and that DePuy failed to warn patients about the risks. Jurors awarded about $130 million in total compensatory damages and about $360 million in punitive damages, said plaintiffs’ lead trial lawyer Mark Lanier. “There are thousands of these cases, and J&J needs to get responsible,” Lanier said. The 1st bellwether trial in the Pinnacle multi-district litigation went J&J’s way in October 2014, when the jury acquitted DePuy. Last month, the company won another legal victory with the dismissal of a False Claims Act lawsuit brought by a pair of British surgeons over its since-discontinued Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip implant. J&J spokeswoman Mindy Tinsley told MassDevice.com that the company plans to appeal the most recent verdict immediately. “We have no greater responsibility than to the patients who use our products, and our goal is to create medical innovations that help people live more active and comfortable lives,” Tinsley wrote in an email. “DePuy act...
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Equipment Authors: Tags: Legal News Metal-on-Metal Product Liability DePuy Orthopedics Hips Johnson & Johnson Source Type: news