Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) agreed to settle more than 100 lawsuits filed against its Mentor Corp. subsidiary over its pelvic mesh products.
The plaintiffs in 108 cases filed against Mentor in a federal court in Georgia asked Judge Clay Land to establish a trust fund to administer the settlements, according to court documents.
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs agreed to settle the cases April 29, 2014, according to the documents, which do not reveal the amount of the settlement fund or the terms of the individual settlements.
Back in June 2010 Mentor agreed to settle another group of lawsuits filed against it over an allegedly defective device designed to treat female urinary incontinence. Those cases were also consolidated under Land at the U.S. District Court for Middle Georgia.
Several Johnson & Johnson divisions, C.R. Bard (NYSE:BCR), Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) and several other medical device companies are facing 10s of thousands of product liability lawsuits filed over their respective pelvic mesh offerings, which are designed to treat female stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse.
Last week J&J asked the federal judge in West Virginia who’s overseeing another multi-district litigation to force plaintiffs and lawyers to prove they have valid grounds for their cases, alleging a campaign of telephone solicitation aimed at generating more cases.
Also last week, Bard lost a bid to delay pending trials in the multi-district litigation over its mesh devices.