Ethicon Inc. and Johnson & Johnson have submitted a request on September 6 with the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reconsider their motion for summary judgment and a new trial for a Prolift transvaginal mesh lawsuit. The motion was denied earlier by Judge Philip P. Simon of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana in an August 8 ruling.
In March 2018, a plaintiff was awarded $10 million in damages and $25 million in punitive damages by an Indiana jury for the complications caused by the transvaginal mesh. Later in August, the jury asked the plaintiff to accept a $15 million reduction in punitive damages or face a new trial for the same. The plainitff was implanted with the Prolift mesh in 2009 to treat her pelvic organ prolapse. She experienced chronic pain after undergoing the repair surgery and sued the manufacturers in 2012. In her lawsuit, she blames the device makers for negligence in designing and marketing the Prolift transvaginal mesh.
J&J and its subsidiary Ethicon face more than 13,000 vaginal mesh lawsuits and 55,000 product liability claims across the country. A multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 2327 | In Re Ethicon, Inc., Pelvic Repair System Products Liability Litigation) is overlooked by Judge Joseph R. Goodwin in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
