Australian law firm Shine Lawyers has announced a $204.90m (A$300m) settlement has been reached in two class action suits against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Medical for the sale of defective pelvic mesh implants.
J&J Medical and its subsidiary Ethicon faced several lawsuits from women who claimed they suffered urinary problems, bleeding, pain and other serious injuries from the implants.
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The settlement comes after an Australian federal court judge found that Ethicon had released the products into the market without conducting proper testing and sold them without disclosing the risks involved.
Shine Lawyers filed two class actions on behalf of women who had suffered difficulties after getting one or more Gynecare prolapse mesh and incontinence tape implants.
The class actions were filed against Ethicon Sarl, Ethicon and J&J Medical.
Filed in the Federal Court on 15 October 2012, the first class action took seven months, from July 2017 to February 2018.
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By GlobalDataWomen who had received their implants on or after 4 July 2017, and were therefore not eligible to join the first class action, filed the second class action last April.
Shine Lawyers’ Class Actions Practice leader Rebecca Jancauskas said: “We welcome this settlement which brings the litigation to an end.
“If the Federal Court approves the settlement our focus will shift to the important task of distributing the settlement to group members.”
J&J has faced similar lawsuits in the US, Europe and Canada, Reuters reported.
Earlier this year, a California court ordered the pharmaceutical company to pay $302m for concealing the risks of Ethicon’s pelvic mesh products.
