The AP (1/26, Deutsch) reported that a jury in Los
Angeles, California, "heard opening statements Friday in a lawsuit that
accuses Johnson & Johnson of knowingly marketing a faulty hip implant that
lawyers say left thousands of people with crippling problems or in need of
replacement surgeries. The fraud and negligence suit is the first of thousands
of similar cases to reach trial" in the US, related to the "all-metal
ball-and-socket hip joint" that J&J subsidiary, DePuy Orthopedics Inc.
"pulled from the market two years ago."
According to Bloomberg News (1/25, Possley, Voreacos,
Feeley), the "first of 10,000 lawsuits over the device to go to
trial," involved Loren Kransky, a "retired prison guard who got an
ASR XL hip implant in 2007, sued in state court in 2011 and had the device
replaced last year." In his opening statement on Friday, Kransky's lawyer
Michael Kelly told a Los Angeles jury that DePuy Orthopaedics "knew the
ASR hips were failing and never told doctors." Kelly also "claimed
that debris from the metal ball sliding against the metal cup caused metal ions
to enter Kransky's bloodstream."
On the front of its Business Day section, the New York Times (1/26, B1, Meier, Subscription
Publication, 1.68M) noted that Kelly also "introduced a number of internal
records that suggested that company executives' concern for profits might have
exceeded their worries about patients." He said officials at DePuy never
informed physicians "that the ASR had failed an internal performance test
against another company hip." Moreover, Kelly alleged that company
officials "changed the test and tested it against other things until they
found one it could beat."
Meanwhile, Reuters (1/26, Beasley) reported that in
documents submitted to the court, J&J and DePuy contend that ASR hips do
not leak poisons; and they assert that Kransky's extensive medical conditions
are due to the fact that he is a life-long smoker, who suffers from diabetes
and kidney disease - both of which were diagnosed prior to his having received
the implant. Reuters also pointed out that the Food and Drug Administration on
Jan. 24 released a proposed order to bar medical device manufacturers from
selling metal-on-metal artificial hip joints until they are able to provide
data to substantiate the safety of the products.www.med-art.com
