Did Johnson and Johnson’s attempt to convince doctors that metal on metal hip implants were safe amount to “marketing run amok? J&J pushed its pinnacle hip implants, promoting the devices to doctors, plaintiff’s attorney Mark Lanier told jurors yesterday, also that the pinnacle hip implants suffered from design flaws, yet Johnson and Johnson assured doctors they worked “99.9% of the time.”
A large number of patients who had the devices implanted are now having cobalt and chromium material leaching into their bloodstream. J&J is taking the position that the metal in the woman’s ( the plaintiff in the case) body isn’t tied to design flaws, but by the position of the woman’s hips.
You should know that J&J stopped selling the metal on metal hip implant devices in August, 2013 after the FDA indicated it would require device makers to submit new versions of artificial hips for approval. You will likely see news about the artificial hips called Depuy implants.
J and J agreed to put as much as $1 billion and recovery. Medical costs and removal of recalled ASR, hips, the ASR is a different version of hip implant. Many familiar with the orthopedic devices believe J&J did not tell doctors about the failure rate of the devices, instead continued selling them.
