Articles Posted in Product Liability

According to attorneys, DePuy ASR hip implants which were recalled by the company in 2010, will start going to trial later this year to help determine liability and damages in more than 6,000 lawsuits.

J&J’s DePuy unit recalled its 93,000 ASR hips worldwide in 2010, including 37,000 in the U.S. According to medical experts, more than 12 percent of the devices failed within five years.

According to the allegations raised in lawsuits, filed in federal and state courts, patients are in pain and immobilized by joint dislocations, infections, bone fractures, and a medical condition known as metallosis.

The Biomet M2a-Magnum hip implant is the latest metal-on-metal hip device to come under scrutiny following reports of a wide range of adverse side effects associated with it.

What is Biomet M2A-Magnum Hip?

The Biomet M2A-Magnum Hip is a metal-on-metal hip replacement system that has been implanted in patients throughout the United States.

A Tennessee man has filed a lawsuit against the maker of Pradaxa, claiming that the blood thinner caused him to suffer a cerebral hemorrhage.

According to the complaint, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. concealed knowledge that Pradaxa can cause serious, life-threatening bleeds, and did not warn that Pradaxa bleeding side effects may be irreversible.

The plaintiff alleges that he was prescribed Pradaxa, and after 2 months of use, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, as well as other severe personal injuries which are permanent in nature.

According to Bayer AG, the German pharmaceutical giant has shelled out $142 million so far, in settlements of U.S. lawsuits claiming that its Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella line of birth-control pills caused blood clots.

Bayer, said today in its Stockholders’ Newsletter for the first quarter, that it has resolved 651 cases alleging its Yasmin and Yaz contraceptives caused blood clots that can lead to heart attacks, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and strokes.

The company said it paid $142 million in the settlements, for an average of about $218,000 a case.

Today, in Dallas, Texas, my home town, the attorneys involved in the multi-district consolidated federal DePuy Pinnacle litigation, met with Judge Ed Kinkeade, who is overseeing the MDL Court.

The topics that were discussed included the recent Case Management Order that is to provide a schedule for proceeding with the Pinnacle metal on metal hip lawsuits.

From my vantage point in the “peanut gallery,” I counted 6 attorneys from the defense and about 35 plaintiff attorneys and each side made a short presentation on the status of the lawsuits at this time.

Approximately 1,000 women across the United States who suffered serious blood clot side effects have filed a Nuvaring lawsuit claim.

What is Nuvaring?

NuvaRing birth control is a third generation contraceptive manufactured by Organon USA. Organon is part of the Schering-Plough Corporation, which is now owned by Merck.

Federal regulators at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have issued a warning about the combination of blood pressure medication Aliskiren (Tekturna) with ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBS) in diabetics or kidney patients.

Novartis, the maker of Aliskiren, announced that the TekturnaR labels have been updated in the US, following the FDA’s review of the preliminary findings from the ALTITUDE study.

Altitude Study

Wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits are being filed against Intuitive Surgical, Inc., the maker of the da Vinci Robotic system. These lawsuits are alleging that patients are being injured following the use of a da Vinci robot during a hysterectomy and other surgeries.

Recently a case was filed by Gilmore McCalla in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on April 4, alleging that the death of his daughter, Kimberly McCalla, was caused by problems with the device used during her robotic surgery.

What is the da Vinci Robotic System?

According to Merck & Co., Inc. form 10-K annual report for the fiscal year 2011, published on February 28th, approximately 950 NuvaRing lawsuits were pending as of Dec. 31st 2011.

This critical information is buried deep in the financial disclosures, pages 118, 119.

The plaintiffs are alleging damages for personal injuries sustained from NuvaRing, including deaths, venous thromboembolism, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and strokes.

According to a report in Bloomberg News, Bayer AG will pay at least $110 million to settle about 500 lawsuits over claims that its Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella lines of birth-control pills caused blood clots, in the first round of case settlement.

Bayer, is based in Leverkusen, Germany, and agreed to pay an average of about $220,000 a case to resolve the claims that its Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella drugs caused venous thrombo-embolism that can lead to heart attacks, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and strokes.

The settlements came after federal judge Herndon overseeing the MDL litigation in Illinois postponed Jan. 9 bellwether trials. The complaints alleged that Bayer and some of its units mislead women about the health risks of its birth-control pills.