Johnson & Johnson
$2.5 Billion Johnson & Johnson DePuy Hip Implant Settlement
In what may be a landmark settlement, Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay up to $2.5 billion in damages in order to resolve over 8,000 lawsuits filed over its recalled DePuy hip implant devices. This would make it the largest medical device settlement in history. In 2010, the company recalled over 93,000 hip replacement devices when it was determined that they were defective.
Johnson & Johnson Knew About High Failure Rates in Hip Implants
A recent article in the New York Times reports that Johnson & Johnson, parent company of DePuy Orthopaedics, the company that manufactured faulty metal-on-metal hip replacement appliances, knew that the hip devices would fail within five years in nearly 40 percent of patients who had them surgically implanted. According to the article, which cited documents recently disclosed in the upcoming trial for a recipient who filed a lawsuit against DePuy, Johnson & Johnson conducted the internal analysis of the implants shortly after they were recalled. Of particular concern to implant recipients and Orlando personal injury attorneys such as James O. Cunningham is the fact that Johnson & Johnson knew of the high failure rate while it was publicly disputing similar findings conducted by a British implant registry.