J&J Pays $120 Million to Resolve State Suits Over Hip Marketing
- Attorneys general say J&J unit deceived consumers on devices
- Accords help double J&J’s fourth-quarter litigation expenses
An attorney holds up an ASR XL hip implant made by Johnson & Johnson during trial at the California Superior Court in Los Angeles on Jan. 25, 2013.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $120 million to resolve state attorneys generals’ claims of deceptive marketing in metal-on-metal hip implants some consumers said were defective.
The settlement resolves claims J&J and its DePuy unit misled artificial-hip recipients about how long the devices would last and requires the companies to change the way they market the implants, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James. The state attorneys general alleged DePuy officials wrongly marketed the devices as having a five-year survival rate of more than 90 percent, when European health regulars found the rates were around 5 percent, according to James.