Last week, a jury considering the bellwether cases of five patients implanted with DePuy Pinnacle artificial hip-replacement products found the company liable for medical bills and personal injuries caused by the defective devices. The jury arrived at a verdict of $502 million, which will be distributed among the five patients and healthcare payers involved. These cases are only several of thousands that have been filed against DePuy concerning the Pinnacle device. It is anticipated that additional claims will be asserted by both individuals and healthcare payers if more of these devices continue to fail.

In matters, such as this, involving multi-district litigation and thousands of claims, bellwether trials are often used to reach a settlement of all claims. This most recent large verdict will be balanced against an earlier bellwether trial involving the same product, where a jury found that DePuy had properly tested the implant and was not liable for the patient’s damages or medical bills.

DePuy’s Pinnacle hip system is one of several metal-on-metal hip replacement products that were first introduced in the early 2000s. Although it was never officially recalled, the Pinnacle hip is known as the precursor to DePuy’s failed ASR Acetabular System. The ASR was another metal-on-metal hip replacement product that was recalled in 2010.  After voluntarily recalling the ASR devices, DePuy faced over 10,000 individual lawsuits, and has maintained a settlement program of over $4 billion to compensate patients and health care payers for damages caused by the ASR.

HRS has the technology to allow healthcare payers to recover expenses associated with dangerous drugs and medical devices like the DePuy Pinnacle Hip Replacement System. Our targeted system identifies precisely which patients have been affected by these products, allowing healthcare payers to effectively maximize their recoverable healthcare expenses. For more information, contact jlantieri@hrs-recovery.com.