Reports: J&J Reach Over $4 Bln Deal To Settle Hip-implant Lawsuits

(RTTNews) - Health care giant Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) has reached an over $4 billion settlement to resolve more than ten thousand lawsuits filed by patients against it in federal and state courts related to the recall of its hip-implant products, according to media reports on Tuesday. The proposed settlement is billed as the largest ever for a medical device.

J&J's DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., the medical-device division, is currently battling more than 10,000 lawsuits in the U.S. over the recall of its ASR Hip Resurfacing System and the ASR XL Acetabular System in 2010.

In August 2010, DePuy Orthopaedics issued a voluntary recall of its ASR XL Acetabular Hip System and DePuy ASR Hip Resurfacing System after receiving new, then-unpublished data from a joint replacement registry in the UK.

The data indicated that while many patients with the ASR Hip System were not experiencing any problems, a higher number of ASR patients than previously reported to DePuy needed a second surgery, called a revision surgery. The DePuy Orthopaedics ASR Hip System first became available in July 2003.

The recall meant that ASR implantees had to undergo a revision surgery, which caused the patients a loss of time, money and a lot of pain.

The lawsuits were filed by implantees who have suffered metallosis, premature device failure, and other serious complications allegedly caused by the metal-on-metal hip devices recalled in 2010.

The DePuy unit recalled 93,000 implants in 2010, including 37,000 in the U.S. It is said to have already spent nearly $1 billion on testing and treatment costs related to the recall.

The proposed more than $4 billion settlement is more than the $3 billion settlement discussed in August and sharply higher than the near $2.0 billion settlement originally discussed. Juries have already awarded several million dollars in damages to some plaintiffs.

JNJ closed Tuesday's regular trading session at $93.56, down $0.73 or 0.77% on a volume of 7.64 million shares.