MassDevice

The Medical Device Business Journal — Medical Device News & Articles | MassDevice

Home » First bellwether date set for Boston Scientific in pelvic mesh lawsuits

First bellwether date set for Boston Scientific in pelvic mesh lawsuits

By

First bellwether date set for Boston Scientific in pelvic mesh lawsuits

The 1st bellwether trial in the multi-district litigation filed over Boston Scientific‘s (NYSE:BSX) pelvic mesh products is slated for early next year, a federal judge ordered this week.

Judge Joseph Goodwin of the U.S. District Court for Southern West Virginia, who’s overseeing the MDL against a raft of pelvic mesh makers, tapped 4 cases to serve as bellwethers for the entire set of lawsuits.

The 1st case, Fawcett et al v. Boston Scientific Corp, is set for trial March 10, 2014, Goodwin ruled Oct. 9, according to court documents.

Natick, Mass.-based Boston Scientific and other pelvic mesh makers including  Johnson & Johnson‘s (NYSE:JNJ) Ethicon subsidiary, C.R. Bard (NYSE:BCR), Endo Health Solutions (NSDQ:ENDP), Cook Medical and Coloplast (CPH:COLO B) are embroiled in 10s of thousands of lawsuits filed over transvaginal mesh implants designed to treat pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence in women. Early this month a report surfaced that 5 of the companies are looking to settle the cases en masse, with Ethicon the lone holdout.

In September, Bard settled for an undisclosed amount a New Jersey lawsuit filed over its Avaulta mesh. The Murray Hill, N.J.-based company settled a 2nd bellwether case in the Avaulta multidistrict litigation in August. The 1st case against Bard originally went to trial earlier this summer, but was halted in July after Goodwin declared a mistrial, ruling that a witness broke his ban on mentioning Bard’s 2012 recall of the Avaulta mesh. The jury in the 11-day retrial of the case, begun July 29, awarded $250,000 in compensatory damages and $1.75 million in punitive damages to plaintiff Donna Cisson.

Endo Health subsidiary American Medical Systems agreed in June to pay $54 million to settle personal injury lawsuits filed over its pelvic mesh products.

In February, J&J lost a bellwether lawsuit over Ethicon’s transvaginal mesh implants amid a federal probe of its marketing of the devices.

In case you missed it

RSS From Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Toray develops new stretchable film for medical devices
    Toray Industries has a new stretchable film based on its proprietary polymer Reactis technology, with potential applications that include robotics and biological and industrial sensors. Tokyo-based Toray said it shipped samples to customers and plans research and development efforts to commercialize the new grade of film. “Recent years have increased the potential for developing stretchable… […]
  • Google Health hires FDA’s chief digital health officer
    Former FDA Chief Digital Health Officer of Global Strategy and Innovation Bakul Patel has started a new job with Google after 13 years with the regulatory agency. Patel became senior director, global digital health strategy and regulatory for Google Health earlier this month, he said on LinkedIn. Patel recounted highlights of his “incredible journey since… […]
  • Expect more heart and lung failure years after COVID, Abbott’s heart failure CMO says
    Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, we know more than ever about the SARS-CoV-2 virus and how quickly it moves to ravage the human body. What remains to be seen is how the virus — and perhaps more importantly, our immune system’s response to it — will affect the health of people long after infection,… […]
  • FDA moves forward with Voluntary Improvement Program to bolster medical device quality
    Kathryn Burke, Emergo Group The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued new draft guidance to establish a full-blown voluntary program for improving quality-related processes in medical device manufacturing following promising results of a pilot program. The FDA guidance stems from a pilot undertaken by the agency along with the Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC) in 2018.… […]
  • How Minnetronix Medical helped Lazurite with its wireless surgical camera
    Minnetronix Medical (St. Paul, Minnesota) has played an important development and manufacturing partner role with Lazurite’s wireless surgical camera system. It’s been nearly two months since Lazurite (formerly Indago) announced FDA 510(k) clearance of its ArthroFree system. ArthroFree combines proprietary low-heat, high-intensity Meridiem light engine technology with advanced camera, battery and wireless transmission technologies and… […]
  • Instron releases TrendTracker data analysis workflow platform
    Instron announced that it released the TrendTracker module in Bluehill Central for accelerating data analysis workflows. Norwood, Massachusetts-based Instron designed TrendTracker with an intuitive interface to improve the data analysis workflow of single or multi-location materials testing laboratories. According to a news release, the platform features quick searching and the ability to display and analyze… […]
  • Henry Schein hires former Medline veteran to drive ‘One Distribution’ push
    Henry Schein (Nasdaq:HSIC) today named Dirk Benson as VP and chief commercial officer of the medical device manufacturer and distributor’s North America Distribution Group (NADG). Melville, New York-based Henry Schein is the world’s largest provider of health care supplies and services for office-based dental and medical practitioners, and NADG is the company’s largest business group. The… […]
  • The road to a robot: Medtronic’s development process for its Hugo RAS system
    Elephants are the perfect analogy for surgical robotics, Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) VP of Marketing for Surgical Robotics Mike Stow says. Speaking on the “Road to a robot: Designing technology to address unmet needs & barriers” panel at DeviceTalks Boston last week, Stow explained that elephants are big, taking up a lot of space and that they eat a lot, making… […]
  • iRhythm stays silent on federal grand jury subpoenas
    More than one year after receiving the first of two federal grand jury subpoenas seeking information about its products and communications with the FDA, iRhythm Technologies has said little publicly about the matter. It would have been easy to miss the San Francisco-based cardiac monitor maker’s initial disclosure last summer. iRhythm (Nasdaq:IRTC) was without a… […]
  • How Dexcom’s portfolio goes beyond highly-anticipated next-gen G7
    A lot of talk around Dexcom (Nasdaq:DXCM) in the last couple of years has centered around its next-generation G7 continuous glucose monitor. The latest iteration of the company’s CGM platform has already garnered CE mark this year and awaits FDA approval, with some expectations for that to come after the American Diabetes Association’s Scientific Sessions next month. The company also presented… […]
  • Texas power grid struggles in heat one year after record cold stopped semiconductor plants
    A heatwave in Texas took at least six power plants offline Friday, with high temperatures forecasted to blaze throughout this week. A record cold snap in February 2021 took NXP Semiconductors and Samsung chip fabrication facilities offline for weeks, contributing to a global semicondcutor shortage that is still throttling medical device production. There’s no indication… […]

Leave a Reply