Johnson & Johnson Agrees to $2.5 Billion Settlement Over Defective Artificial DePuy Hips

Johnson & Johnson, the giant pharmaceutical company, has agreed to a settlement of about $2.5 billion to patients who suffered serious health issues from artificial hips that failed.

The deal was announced this week. The New York Times reported it was unclear if it would satisfy thousands of plaintiffs who have filed lawsuits.

Under the announced agreement, the company would pay nearly $2.5 billion in compensation to about 8,000 patients who have been forced to have their all-metal artificial hips removed and replaced with another device.

“Separately, the company has agreed to pay all medical costs related to such procedures, expenses that could raise the deal’s cost to Johnson & Johnson to $3 billion, people familiar with the proposal said,” the New York Times reported.

Just last week I wrote about how a settlement was imminent. Johnson & Johnson was reported to be poised to pay out $4 billion at that time to end these cases, making this the largest settlement of a claim for a US surgical device.

The artificial hips were manufactured by Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy unit. The devices were the subject of major recalls. Johnson & Johnson recalled 93,000 implants in 2010, including 37,000 in the U.S., after in excess of 12 percent failed within five years of being fitted.

Recently Bloomberg quoted Carl Tobias, a product liability law teacher at the University of Richmond in Virginia, who said, the settlement seemed like a lot of money but “there are whole bunch of people who contend these hips caused grievous injuries …so some of them may feel like this isn’t enough compensation for what they’ve gone through.”

Patients who suffered failures of the devices said the metal-on-metal implant caused dislocations, pain and led to follow-up surgeries known as revisions. They claimed that debris from the chromium and cobalt device caused tissue death and increased metal ions in the bloodstream.

If you have been harmed by a medical device call our experienced Virginia Beach injury lawyers at 757.455.0077 or see Cooperhurley.com