Johnson & Johnson will pay over $4 billion to settle lawsuits over its recalled hip implants.
According to sources of Bloomberg, the three-sector health care company will need to prepare more than $4 billion to compensate an average amount of $300,000 to the 7,500 lawsuit filed against them. However, the agreement will also cover patients who might report defective hip implants in the future. This indicates that the amount quoted at the moment will further increase in the future.
Though Mindy Tindley, a spokesperson for DePuy, declined to comment about the agreement, there has been rumors that the agreement will be announced next week in the federal court in Toledo, Ohio.
According to Carl Tobias, who teaches product-liability law at the University of Richmond in Virginia, The agreement "resolves a lot of litigation that could have dragged on for years and cost J&J much more money in the long run."
"It's certainly a lot of money, but there are whole bunch of people who contend these hips caused grievous injuries," Tobias said to Bloomberg. "So some of them may feel like this isn't enough compensation for what they've gone through."
Lorie Gawreluk, another spokesperson for DePuy, said in an e-mail to Bloomberg earlier this year that the company has spent roughly $993 million on informing surgeons and patients about the recall and on medical costs. She added that the company kept an undisclosed amount for litigation, which was increased before June 30.
The claimants said that metal devices from the hip implant can cause tissue damage in the region of the joint and enhance the amount of metal streamed in the system. They also claim that the implants inflicted pain which made them decide to undergo replacement surgeries
If the case ends up settled, it would be one of the biggest settlements in corporate history.
