UPDATE: New Jersey jury hits BD subsidiary Bard with $68m pelvic mesh verdict

Updated to include a $35 million punitive damages verdict released today.

Becton Dickinson & Co. (NYSE:BDX) subsidiary C.R. Bard was reportedly hit yesterday with a $33 million verdict in a product liability lawsuit brought over its Avaulta and Align pelvic mesh products.

A New Jersey jury in the Bergen County Superior Court awarded $23 million in compensatory damages to plaintiff Mary McGinnis and $10 million to her husband, Thomas McGinnis, Courtroom View Network reported.

Bard was also hit with $35 million in punitive damages today, according to the CVN report.

The jury found that the Avaulta and Align meshes implanted to treat McGinnis’s bladder prolapse and stress urinary incontinence were defectively designed and left her in chronic pain, CVN reported. Bard argued that it tested Avaulta extensively and that McGinnis had other medical issues that caused her injuries. By 2016 the company had removed both products from the market, according to CVN.

Back in 2012 Bard lost a $5.5 million Avaulta verdict in California state court and another $2 million Avaulta case West Virginia the next year; in February 2016 Bard and co-defendant Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) won out in another suit brought over their respective Align and Solyx mesh devices.

BD closed its $24 billion acquisition of Bard late last year.

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