U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade bestowed $245 million on six plaintiffs involved in the lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson and its DePuy Orthopaedics, over the alleged Pinnacle Hip Implant defects. The verdict was declared in November 2017, by a federal jury in Dallas.
All these plaintiffs had similar allegations against the company for wrongfully marketing the hip implant used to treat osteoarthritis-related joint failure. The first trial over the Pinnacle Hip Implant defect ended in J&J's favor in 2014; however, subsequent jury trials found the company liable for the design defects in their Metal-on-Metal (MoM).
J&J and DePuy have been accused of failing to warn about devices getting eroded and releasing metal ions, which can lead to metallosis often requiring revision surgery. Over 9,400 Pinnacle Hip lawsuits are pending in the federal court for the complications caused due to the Metal-on-metal (MoM) hip implant. About 28,000 lawsuits have been filed against hip implant makers, involving defendants Zimmer, Stryker, Biomet, Wright, and Smith & Nephew.
