J&J Unit Wins Texas Suit Regarding All-Metal Hip Implant

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) received a favorable verdict Thursday from a Texas jury in a trial regarding the company's all-metal hip-implant product.

The company was found not liable in a suit concerning Ultamet's metal-on-metal hip-replacement product, made by J&J's DePuy unit. Sales of the product were discontinued in May 2013 because of low demand and alternative hip products.

In a statement, a DePuy spokeswoman said the company was pleased with the jury's decision.

As of June 29, about 6,600 lawsuits involving Ultamet had been filed in state and federal court, most of which have been coordinated in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

J&J, which expects additional cases to be tried in the coming months, has said it is committed to fighting the allegations.

It was the second trial among about 10,750 product-liability claims against J&J's DePuy unit, which recalled the ASR hip-replacement devices in 2010 because an excessive number of patients needed follow-up surgeries to repair problems. The company had sold 93,000 ASR implants worldwide.

J&J lost the first such trial in March when a Los Angeles jury awarded $8.3 million in damages to a man who said he was injured by the ASR product, which the jury found was designed defectively. The second trial was in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill.

"DePuy's actions concerning the product were appropriate and responsible, including the program to address patients' medical costs related to the recall," said DePuy spokeswoman Lorie Gawreluk.

The plaintiff's attorney in the case couldn't immediately be reached.

J&J has set aside hundreds of millions of dollars in legal costs and reimbursements to patients for treatment costs associated with the ASR product.

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