Thousands of DePuy Lawsuits Expected

Toledo, OHPatients stricken with the now-recalled DePuy hip replacement system will be cheered by the announcement that a single judge will oversee all pretrial proceedings with regard to defective DePuy hip lawsuits. Bloomberg News noted December 4 that US District Judge David A Katz has been assigned the task by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.

DePuy Orthopaedics, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical and medical device giant Johnson & Johnson, recalled the hip replacement systems this year after a discomforting percentage of hip replacement patients required revision surgery just a few years into their new hips.

Artificial hips are expected, on average, to last upwards of 20 years and be fully functional for the majority of that time. However, researchers in the UK were finding that 13 percent of patients with the complete hip replacement product, and 12 percent outfitted with resurfacing devices, required a second operation.

The DePuy ASR Hip Resurfacing System was not sold in the US. However, the DePuy ASR XL Acetabular System was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2005. A total of 37,000 patients in the US received the allegedly defective product.

At the moment, according to Bloomberg, there are about 150 federal lawsuits pending. However, that number, according to attorneys close to the situation, is expected to balloon into thousands of plaintiffs and may represent a significant liability for the defendants.

Perhaps in the billions of dollars.

A spokesperson for DePuy issued a statement.

"DePuy looks forward to working with Judge Katz and counsel for plaintiffs to address the issues raised by this litigation," Lorie Gawreluk said in e-mail. "DePuy remains committed to covering reasonable and customary costs of testing and treatment for patients who need services, including revision surgery if it is necessary, associated with the ASR recall."

There are precedents out there. It was nine years ago, in 2001, that Sulzer AG agreed to a $1 billion settlement in order to put to bed a collection of lawsuits alleging hip and knee implants made by the former Sulzer Medica were defective.

The MDL panel noted in a statement that such consolidation under Judge Katz in Toledo "will serve the convenience of the parties and witnesses and promote the just and efficient conduct of the litigation."