Nearly two dozen people who have lived in the Augusta, Ga. area are suing Cardinal Health subsidiary Kendall Patient Recovery U.S. over ethylene oxide emissions from a medical device sterilization plant in the city. The people suing KPR U.S. in U.S. District Court in Southern Georgia lived and worked within miles of the Augusta facility […]
Product Liability
Abbott to pay $66M to settle suits involving St. Jude Medical and Alere
Abbott (NYSE:ABT) has reached settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice over False Claims Act lawsuits involving St. Jude Medical and Alere — two companies it spent billions of dollars to acquire in 2017. The Abbott Park, Ill.-based medtech giant will pay nearly $66 million as part of the settlements. Without admitting liability in either […]
Heater-Cooler suit against LivaNova revived
A Louisiana resident whose lawsuit against LivaNova (NSDQ:LIVN) was thrown out will have another chance to plead his case. A federal appeals court in Pennsylvania ruled last week that a Louisiana district court must reconsider the case of Kyle Hamer. Hamer underwent open-heart surgery at Children’s Hospital-New Orleans in 2017 using LivaNova’s 3T Heater-Cooler device. […]
Federal judge won’t let Boston Scientific avoid Watchman lawsuit
A federal judge in western North Carolina has declined to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit against Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) over its Watchman stroke prevention device. Boston Scientific had sought to have the suit — brought by the Jean Penland estate — dismissed based on the Supreme Court’s decade-old Riegel v. Medtronic decision. The Riegel ruling […]
Boston Scientific settles host of state pelvic mesh lawsuits for nearly $189M
Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) has agreed to pay $188.6 million to 47 states and the District of Columbia to resolve claims that it deceptively marketed transvaginal surgical mesh devices, state AGs announced today. Pelvic mesh products have been one of the medical device industry’s worst failures so far in the 21st century. First cleared nearly two […]
Allergan must face breast implant class action
A federal judge in New Jersey has shut down part of a multi-district lawsuit against Allergan over its Biocell textured breast implants but kept most other parts of the litigation. Judge Brian Martinotti ruled on March 19 that some of the plaintiffs’ claims against Allergan (now part of AbbVie) were preempted by federal law while […]
Medtronic must face pain-pump lawsuit
A 70-year-old man may proceed with a lawsuit claiming that Medtronic’s SynchroMed II infusion pump is defective and that the company was negligent in manufacturing it. A U.S. District Court judge in West Virginia last week denied Medtronic’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by John David Brumfield, who claims that the pump in the […]
N.J. appeals court tosses $83M pelvic mesh verdicts against J&J, Bard
A New Jersey appeals court yesterday threw out jury verdicts totaling $83 million in separate pelvic mesh lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE:JNJ) Ethicon division and Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX) subsidiary C.R. Bard. In both cases, Bergen County, N.J. judges erred by disallowing evidence showing that each company’s mesh product had received FDA 510 (k) clearance, according […]
Elizabeth Holmes, prosecutors trade accusations over lost evidence
Ex-Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes through her lawyers is blaming prosecutors’ “investigative failure” for the loss of a company database that would have shown the level of inaccurate blood-testing results. In a filing yesterday, Holmes’ lawyers claim that in the absence of information in the Laboratory Information System (LIS) database, the judge should not allow jurors […]
Federal lawsuit over Boston Sci pelvic mesh heads to trial
A federal judge in Arkansas has ruled that most counts in a pelvic mesh lawsuit against Boston Scientific can go to trial. Kortney Cline sued Boston Sci in 2014, claiming that she suffered injuries after implantation with the company’s Obtryx trans-obturator mid-urethral sling in 2009. Cline’s case was recently transferred to federal court in Arkansas […]
Zimmer Biomet wants federal court to throw out $3.55M hip implant judgment
Zimmer Biomet (NYSE:ZBH) wants either a judgment or a new trial after a federal jury’s $3.55 million award in a metal-on-metal hip implant case. The jury awarded the money to Lori Nicholson and her husband Willis in November for injuries sustained as a result of the M2A Magnum. In a brief filed Feb. 12, Zimmer Biomet claimed […]
