A federal jury in Dallas has ordered Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and its subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics to pay $1.04bn in compensatory and punitive damages to patients who were injured by the metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implants.
The jury from the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas has ordered to pay more than $30m in actual damages for the plaintiffs, in addition to $1bn in punitive damages assessed against J&J and its subsidiary.
In March this year, the Dallas jury also ordered to pay around $500m to five individuals, who underwent similar physical and medical complications with the Pinnacle hip implant.
According to Lanier Law Firm, Pinnacle implant features a metal rather than a safer ceramic or polyethylene socket.
The metal-on-metal design makes the socket to rub against the ball head, which is expected to result in corrosion and cause bone and surrounding tissue to damage over time.
The law firm noted that each of the six plaintiffs in the trial had to undergo revision surgeries to replace the implants and repair the damage.
J&J and DePuy announced that they will immediately start preparing post-trial motions challenging the verdict returned against the companies by the jury.
The trial consolidated six individual cases selected by the plaintiffs’ executive committee concerning DePuy’s Ultamet metal-on-metal articulation hip replacement, said J&J.
Ultamet is a product of the Pinnacle acetabular cup system.
DePuy spokesperson Mindy Tinsley said: “We have no greater responsibility than to the patients who use our products, and our goal is to create medical innovations that help people live more active and comfortable lives.”
Image: Dallas jury has ordered J&J and DePuy Orthopaedics to pay about $1bn for defective Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip implants. Photo: courtesy of The Lanier Law Firm.