Ex-ArthroCare CEO Baker draws 20 years
September 2, 2014 by Brad Perriello
A pair of former ArthroCare executives found guilty of defrauding investors drew hefty prison sentences last week for their parts in a scheme estimated to have cost investors more than $750 million.
Ex-ArthroCare CEO Michael Baker was sentenced August 29 to 20 years and former CFO Michael Gluk was sentenced to 10 years by Judge Samuel Sparks of the U.S. District Court for Western Texas. Read more
Smith & Nephew settles whistleblower lawsuit for $8M
September 4, 2014 by Brad Perriello
Smith & Nephew agreed to pay $8.3 million to settle a whistleblower’s lawsuit accusing it of passing off devices made in Malaysia as manufactured in the U.S., but admitted no liability for the charges, according to court documents.
Samuel Cox III, a former IT director Smith & Nephew’s Tennessee operations, filed the lawsuit in 2008, accusing the firm of breaking the Trade Agreements Act. Read more
Secant Medical escapes pelvic mesh cases
September 2, 2014 by Brad Perriello
A Pennsylvania state judge last month dismissed Secant Medical from more than 860 personal injury lawsuits filed over the pelvic mesh Secant made for Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon.
Judge Arnold New, director of the Complex Litigation Center at the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, ruled August 22 that Pennsylvania state law shields Secant from the lawsuits because it only made a component of the larger companies’ transvaginal mesh products, according to court documents. Read more
Bellwether trial kicks off for DePuy's Pinnacle hip implant
September 4, 2014 by Brad Perriello
Johnson & Johnson subsidiary DePuy’s marketing push for its Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip implant ran “amok” as the company ignored warning signs that the devices were defective, a plaintiff’s attorney told a jury yesterday during opening arguments in the 1st of thousands of bellwether lawsuits to go to trial.
Johnson & Johnson told physicians that the Pinnacle devices worked “99.9% of the time” and treated patients like “guinea pigs,” Mark Lanier, the lawyer for Kathleen Herlihy-Paoli, said in a Dallas court yesterday, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. Read more
J&J, Boston Scientific, others can't shake Philly pelvic mesh mass tort
September 4, 2014 by Brad Perriello
Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific and several other pelvic mesh makers will have to challenge more than 860 product liability lawsuits on a case-by-case basis, a Pennsylvania state judge ruled this week in a growing mass tort action in Philadelphia.
Judge Arnold New, director of the Complex Litigation Center at the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, on Sept. 2 dismissed joint motions by J&J subsidiary Ethicon, Boston Scientific, C.R. Bard and Endo Health Solutions unit American Medical Systems Holdings to toss all of the lawsuits en masse, according to court documents. Read more
