West Virginia attorney general Patrick Morrisey yesterday became the latest state AG to sue Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) subsidiary Ethicon over its pelvic mesh products.
The newest complaint, filed Sept. 18 in the Monongalia County Circuit Court, alleges that Ethicon’s “unlawful, unfair and deceptive marketing of polypropylene mesh products” concealed the potential risks of pelvic mesh from patients and physicians.
Ethicon’s communications with doctors and patients “included misrepresentations to doctors and patients that defendants’ surgical mesh devices were well-studied and endorsed by respected, independent, neutral and competent government and medical organizations,” according to the complaint.
“Communications to doctors misrepresented the full range of known material risks and complications associated with their surgical mesh devices, by deceptively omitting known material risks and complications associated with surgical mesh devices. As a matter of common practice, doctors often provided this information to their patients,” the lawsuit alleged. “The misrepresentations and/or omissions directed to patients were material because they were likely to affect the patients’ treatment decisions. Defendants’ misrepresentations to doctors and patients were intended to, and were likely to, deceive the reasonable doctor and patient audience.”
in April J&J settled a similar case in Washington for $10 million. Kentucky is also suing Ethicon. The first trial among the state AG lawsuits, filed by California’s Xavier Becerra, kicked off last July in San Diego.
The FDA in April ordered Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) and Coloplast — the only remaining companies that sell pelvic mesh in the U.S. — to immediately halt sales and distribution of those products.
