Boston Scientific Wins Second Trial Over Vaginal Mesh
By Jef Feeley Aug 29, 2014 3:42 PM ET 0 Comments Email Print
Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX)’s vaginal-mesh sling wasn’t defectively designed and the company properly warned about its health risks, a Massachusetts jury ruled in a second victory for the company in as many trials over the inserts.
Jurors in state court in Woburn, Massachusetts, deliberated for 17 hours over three days before clearing Boston Scientific of liability for Maria Cardenas’s injuries, Doug Monsour, one of her lawyers, said in a phone interview.
Cardenas, of Utah, agreed to have the mesh implanted to deal with incontinence problems, according to court filings. She said the Obtryx sling caused her pain and she was forced to have it removed surgically.
Boston Scientific faces more than 12,000 lawsuits in which women contend the vaginal mesh erodes, causing organ damage and pain, according to court filings.
“We will continue to fight these cases, since the product at issue is made of mesh that is not intended to be inserted in the human body,” Monsour said today.
Boston Scientific and other makers of vaginal inserts targeted in suits had talks this year about settling cases over the devices, according to people familiar with the discussions.
No Defect
“We are pleased that after considering the evidence, the jury found no design or warning defect with our pelvic-repair product,” Kelly Leadem, a spokeswoman for Natick, Massachusetts-based Boston Scientific, said in an e-mailed statement.
Many of the implant cases against Boston Scientific and manufacturers including Johnson & Johnson and C.R. Bard Inc. have been consolidated before U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin in Charleston, West Virginia, for pretrial information exchanges. Others have been filed in state courts in Delaware, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Missouri and California.
Juries in New Jersey and West Virginia over the past year have ruled that J&J’s and Bard’s implants caused women’s injuries and ordered the companies to pay a total of more than $13 million in damages.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered Boston Scientific, J&J and more than 30 other vaginal-implant makers in 2012 to study rates of organ damage and complications linked to the products.
Endo International Plc (ENDP) agreed this year to pay $830 million to resolve about 20,000 suits alleging its vaginal-mesh inserts eroded in some women and left them incontinent and in pain.
The Massachusetts case is Cardenas v. Boston Scientific Corp., 12-02912, Middlesex County Superior Court, Massachusetts (Woburn).
By Jef Feeley Aug 29, 2014 3:42 PM ET 0 Comments Email Print
Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX)’s vaginal-mesh sling wasn’t defectively designed and the company properly warned about its health risks, a Massachusetts jury ruled in a second victory for the company in as many trials over the inserts.
Jurors in state court in Woburn, Massachusetts, deliberated for 17 hours over three days before clearing Boston Scientific of liability for Maria Cardenas’s injuries, Doug Monsour, one of her lawyers, said in a phone interview.
Cardenas, of Utah, agreed to have the mesh implanted to deal with incontinence problems, according to court filings. She said the Obtryx sling caused her pain and she was forced to have it removed surgically.
Boston Scientific faces more than 12,000 lawsuits in which women contend the vaginal mesh erodes, causing organ damage and pain, according to court filings.
“We will continue to fight these cases, since the product at issue is made of mesh that is not intended to be inserted in the human body,” Monsour said today.
Boston Scientific and other makers of vaginal inserts targeted in suits had talks this year about settling cases over the devices, according to people familiar with the discussions.
No Defect
“We are pleased that after considering the evidence, the jury found no design or warning defect with our pelvic-repair product,” Kelly Leadem, a spokeswoman for Natick, Massachusetts-based Boston Scientific, said in an e-mailed statement.
Many of the implant cases against Boston Scientific and manufacturers including Johnson & Johnson and C.R. Bard Inc. have been consolidated before U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin in Charleston, West Virginia, for pretrial information exchanges. Others have been filed in state courts in Delaware, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Missouri and California.
Juries in New Jersey and West Virginia over the past year have ruled that J&J’s and Bard’s implants caused women’s injuries and ordered the companies to pay a total of more than $13 million in damages.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered Boston Scientific, J&J and more than 30 other vaginal-implant makers in 2012 to study rates of organ damage and complications linked to the products.
Endo International Plc (ENDP) agreed this year to pay $830 million to resolve about 20,000 suits alleging its vaginal-mesh inserts eroded in some women and left them incontinent and in pain.
The Massachusetts case is Cardenas v. Boston Scientific Corp., 12-02912, Middlesex County Superior Court, Massachusetts (Woburn).