Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) received a favorable verdict
Thursday from a Texas jury in a trial regarding the company's
all-metal hip-implant product.
The company was found not liable in a suit concerning Ultamet's
metal-on-metal hip-replacement product, made by J&J's DePuy
unit. Sales of the product were discontinued in May 2013 because of
low demand and alternative hip products.
In a statement, a DePuy spokeswoman said the company was pleased
with the jury's decision.
As of June 29, about 6,600 lawsuits involving Ultamet had been
filed in state and federal court, most of which have been
coordinated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
Texas.
J&J, which expects additional cases to be tried in the
coming months, has said it is committed to fighting the
allegations.
It was the second trial among about 10,750 product-liability
claims against J&J's DePuy unit, which recalled the ASR
hip-replacement devices in 2010 because an excessive number of
patients needed follow-up surgeries to repair problems. The company
had sold 93,000 ASR implants worldwide.
J&J lost the first such trial in March when a Los Angeles
jury awarded $8.3 million in damages to a man who said he was
injured by the ASR product, which the jury found was designed
defectively. The second trial was in the Circuit Court of Cook
County, Ill.
"DePuy's actions concerning the product were appropriate and
responsible, including the program to address patients' medical
costs related to the recall," said DePuy spokeswoman Lorie
Gawreluk.
The plaintiff's attorney in the case couldn't immediately be
reached.
J&J has set aside hundreds of millions of dollars in legal
costs and reimbursements to patients for treatment costs associated
with the ASR product.
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