Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) asked a federal judge yesterday to call off a bellwether trial in the multi-district litigation over its TVT-O pelvic mesh, arguing that plaintiff Jo Huskey failed to prove her case during the trial.
Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon subsidiary and several other medical device companies are facing thousands of personal injury lawsuits over their pelvic mesh offerings, designed to treat female urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse.
Ethicon won the 1st bellwether in the MDL in the U.S. District Court for Southern West Virginia, which is supervised by Judge Joseph Goodwin. The 6-day trial of Huskey v. Ethicon, which concluded yesterday, failed to produce evidence either that Ethicon failed to warn of the risks associated with the TVT-O product or that it was negligent in its design of the device, the company argued in a court filing.
A separate mass tort is under way under Judge Arnold New of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Earlier this week, New dismissed joint motions by J&J subsidiary Ethicon, Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX), C.R. Bard (NYSE:BCR) and Endo Health Solutions (NSDQ:ENDP) unit American Medical Systems Holdings to toss all of the lawsuits en masse.
Boston Scientific won the 1st 2 of its bellwether pelvic mesh trials, held in state court in Massachusetts.