India’s Supreme Court last week reportedly approved a compensation plan for patients there who were implanted with a since-recalled metal-on-metal hip made by Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ).
Depending on age and disability level, patients implanted with the DePuy ASR replacement hip between 2004 and 2010 are eligible for payments of between ₹3 million to ₹12.2 million ($42,390 to $172,413), the Financial Express reported.
The judges also asked India’s health ministry to publicize the compensation plan and expedite the payments, the newspaper reported. J&J pulled the ASR XL devices from the market in August 2010, five years after winning FDA clearance.
The company and its DePuy Synthes subsidiary “illegally sold DePuy ASR Hip Implants in India from 2005 to 2006. In fact, J&J applied for Import license only on December 6, 2006 and was granted license by Drug Controller (India) on December 15, 2006; however, showing contempt and disregard to Indian Laws for safety of Indian citizens, Respondents (the firms) imported and sold the implants even without imports license,” the high court found, according to the Financial Express.
Goenka said that the company had to pay $4.40 billion to over 9,000 victims of faulty implants in the USA, and in India no such measures have been undertaken. “As on date, more than 1,500 law suits are pending in the Federal Courts in USA,” it added.
($1 = ₹70.7714)
