A federal judge in Philadelphia will allow six women who are suing Bayer (ETR:BAYN) over its Essure sterilization implant to proceed with their personal injury claims and three others to pursue their breach-of-warranty claims. One woman who became pregnant following implantation with Essure will be able to pursue her claim that Bayer fraudulently concealed the risk of pregnancy, the judge ruled.
Bayer had filed a motion for partial summary judgment on all 12 plaintiffs’ claims in the class action suit, citing statutes of limitations. Judge John Padova of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted Bayer’s motion for summary judgment on the personal injury claims of six of the women and on some or all of the breach-of-warranty claims of nine women.
The women had the Essure coils implanted in their fallopian tubes between 2006 and 2013 and claimed they suffered a variety of ailments afterward, including pain, bleeding and autoimmune disorders. Two became pregnant.
Under Pennsylvania law, the women had two years to file claims seeking damages for personal injury and four years to file claims for breach of warranty. Bayer and some of the women differed on when the clock began to run, based on when the women — or their doctors — connected their health problems to Essure and when they filed suit.
Padova heard the arguments on Bayer’s motion on February 11. Bayer took Essure off the market in the United States in December 2018. In April of 2018, the FDA put restrictions on U.S. sales of Essure, a small metal coil that’s placed in the fallopian tubes via catheter, after concluding that some patients were not adequately warned of its risks.
