Eight former and current executives from Johnson & Johnson‘s (NYSE:JNJ) DePuy Orthopaedics subsidiary are being called to testify in the multi-district litigation over the recalled DePuy ASR metal-on-metal hip implant.
Warsaw, Ind.-based DePuy Orthopedics pulled its ASR XL acetabular and ASR hip resurfacing systems off the market in August 2010, after receiving reports that a higher-than-normal number of patients required surgeries to correct or remove defective implants.
Prompted by data showing "a 5-year revision rate of approximately 12% for the ASR Hip Resurfacing System and approximately 13% for the ASR XL Acetabular System", according to DePuy, the recall affected more than 96,000 patients.
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More than 6,000 of the personal injury lawsuits filed over the ASR implants were consolidated under Judge David Katz of the the U.S. District Court for Northern Ohio in December 2010. Now 8 top DePuy Orthopaedics execs, including former president David Floyd and current president Andrew Ekdahl, promoted to replace Floyd, are being called to file depositions in the case.
Also being called for deposition are worldwide hip development director Tom Camino; Rodrigo Diaz, manager of clinical research; DePuy Int’l. Ltd. international hip business marketing director of marketing Paul Kurring; Matt Reimink, manager of development; Mary Stewart of DePuy International Ltd.’s R&D unit; and director of biostatistics & data management Paul Voorhorst, according to court documents.
The first of roughly 2,000 cases filed in state courts were settled for a reported $600,000 last month, when more cases were added to the MDL case gathering suits filed over another DePuy metal-on-metal hip implant, the Pinnacle.
Lawsuits against DePuy began piling up in June 2010 when a a Florida woman accused the company of knowing about the devices’ problems but failing to warn physicians. That suit was followed days later by 3 more from California residents who all had to have revision surgery after the implant partially detached from their hip sockets.
