Depuy Hip Replacement | Blog | The Brandi Law Firm

Big Pharma: Is Paying Big Fines More Profitable than Telling Doctors and Consumers the Truth in Marketing?

This week, Johnson & Johnson etched its name in the history books of another big pharma company that has been fined over billions of dollars due to a drug manufacturer practices of improper marketing and failure to warn. Johnson & Johnson pled guilty to claims stemming from allegations that the giant pharmaceutical company knowingly marketed […]

November 7, 2013Jamie

United Kingdom Seeks to Eliminate the Use of Metal-on-Metal Implants Due to High Failure Rate

Because of the high failure rates of metal on metal hip devices, and the potential for toxic exposure, the United Kingdom is moving to ban all metal-on-metal hip replacements performed at National Health Service [NHS] hospitals. NHS is the publicly funded health care system in the U.K, the NHS seeks to stop these surgeries with […]

November 1, 2013Jamie

DePuy September 23, 2013 Bellwether Trial Continued

On September 20, the Honorable David Katz presiding over the DePuy bellwether case, Ann McCracken v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., et. al., Case No. 11 dp 20485, continued the trial 90 days from September 24, 2013 “in the interest of justice”. According to the Order, the Judge continued the trial so that the parties could complete […]

September 23, 2013Jamie

Johnson & Johnson Recalls Another DePuy Orthopedic Product

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is no stranger to controversy. From being embroiled in massive litigation in DePuy ASR artificial hips, Pinnacle litigation, and in the transvaginal mesh litigation with its Ethicon Gynecare products to its multiple legal troubles and fines associated with the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal, some things do not change for J&J – they […]

August 2, 2013Jamie

510(k); Pathway for Safer drugs or Recipe for Disaster

Recent medical disasters such as the DePuy ASR, DePuy Pinnacle, and transvaginal mesh cases have revealed that medical devices were approved for use without adequate clinical data based on a grandfathering type provision in the FDA called a 510(k) process, where a new device that is cleared as “substantially equivalent” as a previously approved device […]

June 3, 2013Jamie

Are Too Many Doctors Simply Sales People for Big Pharma?

Big Pharma paid doctors more than $1 billion in 2012 to act in various spokesperson capacities, for travel and meals, as well as research and royalties, which is significantly more than reported in 2011. According to a new data reported in the Financial Times, that figure only includes the 12 leading drug makers who actually […]

May 29, 2013Jamie

Who is Responsible for J&J’s DePuy ASR, Pinnacle, Ethicon’s Gynecare, and Merck’s Vioxx and Fosamax?

Consumers injured by defective devices face an armada of attorneys as they seek to hold accountable device makers such as J&J’s hip implants DePuy ASR, DePuy Pinnacle, J&J’s transvaginal mesh product Ethicon, and Merck’s FOSAMAX that has left countless post menopausal women with atypical femur fractures. Currently there are over 10,000 pending cases in the […]

May 28, 2013Jamie

J&J’s DePuy Unit Abandons Pinnacle and All Metal Hip Implants

On May 16, 2013, in what many health advocates feel is a long overdue move, J&J’s DePuy Orthopedic unit announced it was stopping the manufacture of all metal replacement hips. In August 2010 the unit recalled the DePuy ASR in the face of mounting evidence of high failure rates but continued to sell the all […]

May 17, 2013Jamie

Risperdal adds to DePuy and Ethicon Troubles for J&J

Johnson and Johnson (J&J), already embroiled in massive litigation in DePuy ASR artificial hips, and in the trans vaginal mesh litigation from its Ethicon Gynecare products, faces another significant issue over its mounting legal troubles stemming from its antipsychotic drug Risperdal. The drug was approved in 1993 for use in adults and was also later […]

May 12, 2013Jamie

Medical Device Reporting for People Injured by Vaginal Mesh, Actos, Fosamax, and DePuy ASRs: What the Consumer Needs to Know

Manufacturers, user facilities and importers of medical devices are mandated to submit certain adverse events to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [FDA]. Medical device reporting requires that manufacturers report to the FDA when they learn that one of their devices may have contributed to a death or serious injury. Consumers and health professionals can […]

April 26, 2013Jamie

History’s Lesson and the Strum vs. DePuy Verdict

Recently a jury returned a defense verdict in the Chicago trial of Carol Strum vs. DePuy (In Re DePuy ASR Hip Litigation, No. 10-L-10506, Cook County Circuit Court). This was on the heels of the 8 million dollar Plaintiff verdict in the Los Angeles case of Kransky vs. DePuy. (BC456086, California Superior Court, Los Angeles […]

April 23, 2013Jamie

DePuy Gets Help From Big PHRMA’s Protector

In the current Chicago trial of Carol Strum vs. DePuy, J&J must tell the jury its conduct with the DePuy ASR was reasonable and the ASR is safe. J&J needed to bring a neutral person whose only concern is safety for consumers, who looking at only the facts, could tell the jury how reasonably J&J […]

April 16, 2013Jamie

Co-Inventor Testifies He Would Not Use DePuy ASR

On the heels of J&J president Andrew Ekdahl’s amazing testimony in the trial in Chicago of Carol Strum vs. DePuy that the ASR hip was not recalled due to defects, but to was merely a matter of the DePuy ASR failing to meet “clinical expectations”, orthopedist and co inventor orthopedic surgeon Thomas P. Schmalzried, who […]

April 8, 2013Jamie

J&J President Testifies DePuy ASR Recall Had Nothing to Do with Safety

On day three of the March 18, 2013 in the trial in Chicago of Carol Strum vs. DePuy, Johnson and Johnson (J&J), President Andrew Ekdahl amazingly testified that the 2010 recall of the metal on metal hip had nothing to do with safety concerns or defects, but was merely a matter of the ASR failing […]

April 4, 2013Jamie

Troubles Mounting For Johnson & Johnson

Fresh on the heels of a $8.3 million dollar verdict finding its DePuy hip was defective, (Kransky v. DePuy, BC456086, California Superior Court, Los Angeles County), Johnson & Johnson’s is recalling its OneTouch VerioIQ glucose meter, because, according to the Associated Press on March 25, 2013, “they do not provide a warning when a diabetic’s […]

March 26, 2013Jamie

$8.3 Million Verdict against J and J for Defective DePuy ASR Hip

On March 8, 2013, after six days of jury deliberations, a Los Angeles jury held Johnson and Johnson (J and J) liable for its defective ASR hip implant and awarded $8.3 million to Loren Kransky, a 65 year old retired prison guard. Kransky had the hip implanted in December 2007 and removed in February 2012. […]

March 8, 2013Jamie

DePuy Predicts 40% Failure of ASR Hip Implant

An internal investigation conducted by DePuy owner Johnson & Johnson shortly after it recalled the DePuy ASR implant has produced troubling results. J&J estimates that nearly 40% of patients with the recalled hip will need it replaced within 5 years. About 1/3 of the 93,000 recipients of the DePuy ASR reside in the United States […]

January 29, 2013Jamie

FDA Panel to Examine DePuy ASR and Metal on Metal Hip Failures

On June 27-28, 2012 the FDA will impanel its Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Devices Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee in Gaithersburg, MD. According to the FDA, “ the agency is seeking additional expert scientific and clinical advice on the risks and benefits of these devices so that the agency can continue to make reliable […]

June 1, 2012Jamie

FDA Edges Closer Towards Action on Metal Hip Implants

Previously we have chronicled some of the problems surrounding the De Puy ASR metal on metal hips that have required revisions by countless people in the USA and elsewhere. Depuy ASR Hip Replacement Linked To Metal Toxicity and Additional Surgery [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep0r5h7VNZQ?rel=0&w=560&h=315] In April 2010, the United Kingdom’s (U.K.) Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency […]

April 6, 2012Jamie

The FDA Medical Device Fasttrack Approval Process Draws New Fire

35 years ago, Congress passed the Medical Device Amendments of 1976 which established the framework of the current FDA regulatory system. This set of laws included one commonly known today as the 510(k) process. This 510(k) process allows medical devices, from tongue depressors to pacemakers to artificial hips, to be cleared for sale in the […]

August 19, 2011Jamie