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J&J DePuy Hammered in Latest Pinnacle Metal Hip Verdict. Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary DePuy have been hit again in the latest Texas DePuy Pinnacle hip implant case to go to trial.
Johnson & Johnson, and its DePuy subsidiary are under fire over allegations involving its Pinnacle/Ultamet line of metal hip devices which are prone to metal poisoning and premature failure according to lawsuits.
A Texas federal jury slammed Johnson & Johnson and DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. unit with a combined $247 million verdict in the latest bellwether trial over DePuy’s Pinnacle line of metal-on-metal hip implants.
The Texas jury found J&J and DePuy liable for design and manufacturing defects, fraud, deception, and found the companies had acted gross negligence. They awarded $90 million in punitive damages against J&J and $78 million in punitive damages against DePuy.
This is the third in a row multi-million dollar verdict in the multidistrict litigation.
J&J DePuy Hammered in Latest Pinnacle Metal Hip Verdict
Johnson & Johnson, and its DePuy subsidiary are under fire over allegations involving its Pinnacle/Ultamet line of metal hip devices which are prone to metal poisoning and premature failure according to lawsuits.
Texas DePuy Pinnacle Hip Implant Trial
This trial involved six New York plaintiffs who claimed serious side effects and injuries related to the premature failure of their Pinnacle hip device.
Texas DePuy Pinnacle Hip Implant Trial Verdicts
In May 2011, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation centralized pretrial proceedings in the cases before Judge Kinkeade in the in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation.
The Texas federal court has more than 9,000 hip implant lawsuits, involving the Johnson and Johnson DePuy Orthopaedics’ Pinnacle Hip Replacement system that uses the metal Ultamet liner.
What is the problem with the DePuy Pinnacle hip system?
Over the past several years medical studies have found that some all-metal implants can release dangerous amounts of toxic cobalt and chromium metal ions particles locally into the hip joint and the bloodstream, causing severe local tissue reactions and premature failure complications that require painful revision surgery to remove and replace the implant.
This metallic debris causes the medical condition known as metallosis.
The FDA announced warnings about metal on metal hip implant complications.
Why won’t DePuy announce a recall over its Pinnacle/Ultamet liner system?
DePuy announced a global hip replacement recall for its ASR line of metal implants in August 2010, after worldwide reports of metallosis and premature hip failure. Johnson & Johnson in 2013 had agreed to pay at least $2.5 billion to settle more than 9,000 lawsuits over DePuy ASR hip replacements, which feature a metal-on-metal design that has been described as a “substantial equivalent” to the Pinnacle hip
Since the premature failure and metal toxicity rates are similar between the two implant designs, many folks now question why the company has not taken similar action in regards to the Pinnacle/Ultamet liner combination.
Critics blame Johnson and Johnson who have made immense profits from the DePuy Pinnacle line of implants for following their own playbook when it comes to settlements. First, they deny that there is any problem, then delay the litigation process with protracted discovery and then finally defend the defective products with multiple trials.
Johnson and Johnson Pinnacle hip trials
In 2016, in the second and third bellwether trials, Texas juries found in favor of two groups of plaintiffs from Texas and California, awarding them $502 million and more than $1 billion in damages. Those major verdicts were later reduced to $150 million and $543 million, in order to comply with state law governing punitive damages.
In the first bellwether trial in 2014 involving the Pinnacle Ultamet, a jury sided with J&J against a single plaintiff from Montana.
Injured by a failed DePuy Pinnacle Metal Hip?
If you think you may have a DePuy Pinnacle Metal Hip and are experiencing pain caused by metal corrosion or have suffered a hip failure requiring full revision and emergency care, please call Dr. Shezad Malik Law Firm at 214-390-3189.
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