Second Xarelto Bellwether Trial Ends With Defense Verdict

The second bellwether trial in the Xarelto MDL ended with a defense verdict. The jury received the case this last Monday, and deliberated for a few hours before reaching their verdict. The plaintiff in the case suffered a stroke and alleged it was caused by Xarelto. Most of the 18,000 cases filed in the MDL allege bleeding events that led to hospitalization. It is unclear if the Plaintiff will appeal. This is the second trial in a row the plaintiffs have lost.

The plaintiff in the first bellwether trial, who also received a defense verdict from the jury, is asking for a new trial. That plaintiff alleged a gastrointestinal bleed for which he required hospitalization and blood transfusions. Although he is appealing on several grounds, one of his main contentions is that he was prevented from presenting the jury with evidence that a blood clotting test called Neoplastin PT should have been provided to patients in order to monitor any adverse reactions from Xarelto.

Zimmer NexGen MDL Will Go On...For Now

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer issued a brief minute order this week that she will not disband the multidistrict litigation accusing Zimmer of manufacturing shoddy knee implants before she can try another pair of bellwethers in her court. Judge Pallmeyer expects two more bellwether trials in the MDL before she will entertain a request to unwind the MDL and send around 300 remaining cases back to the courts where they were initially filed or where jurisdiction is proper.

It appears that the two bellwether trials will occur this year and that the remand request will be revisited in 2018. The MDL at one point had over 1,800 cases filed in it. The cases all involve variations of the Zimmer NexGen series of knee implants. Zimmer opposed the unwinding of the MDL. Two bellwether cases have previously been tried; both resulting in defense verdicts. One option going forward is to try multiple plaintiffs’ cases at one time, similar to the approach that was taken in the Pinnacle MDL.

Judge Pallmeyer simultaneously weighed in on another dispute involving the production of documents from a third-party medical consulting firm, ruling that Physicians Medical Review must “produce all medical records that were furnished to potentially declaring or testifying experts.” However, she ruled that deposition notices issued to PMR’s principals would not be enforced.

Philadelphia Jury Finds For Plaintiff Against J&J for Mesh Product

A state court jury in Philadelphia last week found in favor of the Plaintiff and against Johnson & Johnson regarding injuries the Plaintiff sustained due to a pelvic mesh device. The device was manufactured by the company’s Ethicon unit. The jury found for the Plaintiff in the amount of $2.16 million.

This was the latest of roughly 54,800 lawsuits pending against Johnson & Johnson in state and federal courts over vaginal-mesh devices produced by Ethicon. There have been several major Plaintiff victories over the last few years regarding mesh products manufactured by different companies. The verdict last week follows a $12.5 million jury verdict in a transvaginal mesh lawsuit against Johnson and Johnson’s Ethicon division on December 22, 2015. That Philadelphia jury found that the Plaintiff suffered injuries from a Prolift pelvic mesh implant, which was removed from the medical device market in 2012. The $12.5 million award included $7 million in punitive damages as the jury heard evidence of Ethicon’s document destruction.

Booth Samuels and the attorneys at Pittman, Dutton & Hellums, P.C. are currently investigating mesh injury cases. If you or someone you love was implanted with a pelvic or vaginal mesh device after the year 2008 and have had revision surgery, please contact Booth Samuels at 1-866-515-8880 or by email at booths@pittmandutton.com for a free consultation.