Could DePuy Executive’s Promotion Hurt Company?

Posted on January 31, 2013

The New York Times suggests that new details revealed at a trial in Los Angeles this week could hurt Johnson & Johnson’s ability to move forward from the controversy surrounding the ASR XL hip implants.

The executive who oversaw the implant’s introduction in the United States has since been promoted to president of the DePuy unit. Evidence presented at trial shows he personally received emails as far back as 2008 warning him of serious problems with the device. One surgeon wrote that the product needed a redesign.

The device was not recalled until 2010. In a videotaped testimony, the new president refused to say that the implants are unsafe. He said they decided to recall the product because it did not meet their “clinical standards.”

DePuy now faces 10,000 lawsuits in the United States. The bellwether trial is ongoing in Los Angeles this week.

Internal projections from the company found that 40 percent of ASR implants would fail within five years. That is approximately eight times the failure rate for other hip devices on the market.

Read more here: During Trial, New Details Emerge About Hip Maker

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