Posted in Medical Device Business by Nancy Crotti on November 20, 2014
A federal jury in Miami has concluded that Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX) must pay a total of $26.7 million to four women who claimed the company’s Pinnacle pelvic inserts injured them.
The jury found that company officials had designed their Pinnacle pelvic-organ implants improperly and failed to warn physicians and their patients of the risks, an attorney for one of the women said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
The jury’s finding marked two milestones in the saga of pelvic mesh lawsuits. It was the first federal case against Boston Scientific over its Pinnacle device, as well as the first case to include claims made by more than one plaintiff, the Bloomberg report said.
Boston Scientific believes it has grounds to appeal, a company spokesperson told Bloomberg in an email.
The verdict follows another blow to the company. In a September state court trial in Texas, Boston Scientific was ordered to pay $73 million to one woman who claimed she suffered constant pain and nerve damage after receiving the company’s Obtryx device four years ago. To comply with Texas state law, that award has since been reduced to $34 million, but the court deemed Boston Scientific liable for gross negligence and a faulty product, according to a report by Trefis.com. The Marlborough, MA–based company has won other cases in state court in its home state, the report said.
The Bloomberg report cited documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission saying that Boston Scientific faces more than 23,000 vaginal-implant lawsuits in U.S. state and federal courts, as well as in courts in Canada and the United Kingdom. A reportby Reuters tallied the U.S. federal lawsuits at 14,000. The company pulled its Pinnacle implant from the market in 2011.
Boston Scientific has plenty of company in fighting pelvic implant lawsuits. Six others medtech companies, including Johnson & Johnson's Ethicon subsidiary and C.R. Bard, face lawsuits over the products.
Dublin, Ireland-based Endo International plc said in September that it had set aside $1.6 billion to settle "substantially all" the cases against it and its American Medical Systems unit, headquartered in Minnetonka, MN.
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Nancy Crotti is a contributor to Qmed and MPMN.
