C.R. Bard (NYSE:BCR) settled the 2nd bellwether trial over its Avaulta pelvic mesh just before it was supposed to go to trial, a week after losing a $2 million judgment in the 1st trial.
Murray Hill, N.J.-based Bard and plaintiff Wanda Queen agreed to settle the case on undisclosed terms, with lawyers notifying Judge Joseph Goodwin of the U.S. District Court for West Virginia that they’d agreed to settle the case yesterday on the morning it was set to go before a jury, according to news reports.
Last week a jury found that Bard’s Avaulta transvaginal mesh was defective, ruling that Bard failed to warn about the problems with the mesh, used to treat pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence in women. The jury awarded $2 million in damages in that trial.
A raft of medical device companies, including Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX), Endo Health Solutions (NSDQ:ENDP), Cook Medical and Johnson & Johnson‘s (NYSE:JNJ) Ethicon subsidiary, are facing some 4,000 federal lawsuits over their respective mesh offerings.
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 to plaintiff Donna Cisson $250,000 in compensatory damages and $1.75 million in punitive damages, after deliberating for 12 hours over 2 days, according to Bloomberg.
Costs associated with lawsuits filed over Avaulta hit Bard’s earnings for the 2nd consecutive quarter, according to its Q2 earnings report. The company took a $292.4 million charge to cover its expected liabilities for the lawsuits, on top of a $26 million charge booked during the 1st quarter.
Endo Health subsidiary American Medical Systems agreed in June to pay $54 million to settle personal injury lawsuits filed over its pelvic mesh products.