Stryker Pays to Settle Hip Implant Lawsuits

Orthopedic company Stryker Holdings Inc. will pay at least $1.43 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits related to its Rejuvenate and ABGII hip implants. The company recalled this hips in 2012 because of the potential for the devices to corrode and cause inflammation in tissue in and around the implant.

“The health and well-being of patients is Stryker’s top priority,” said Bill Huffnagle, president, Reconstructive Division, Stryker Orthopaedics. “Following our voluntary recall and our patient support program for recall related care, this settlement program providespatients compensation in a fair, timely and efficient manner.”

The Settlement Agreement follows from a successful early mediation program initiated by New Jersey Superior Court Judge Brian R. Martinotti and efforts by the chief mediator, former United States Magistrate Judge Diane M. Welsh.

The deal was announced on Nov. 3 in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minn.

Stryker officials said the $1.43 billion figure represents the “low end of the range of probable loss to resolve these matters. The ultimate cost to entirely resolve these matters will depend on many factors that are difficult to predict and may be materially different than the amounts accrued to date. Further charges to earnings may need to be recorded in the future as additional information related to patient enrollment in the Settlement Program becomes available.It is expected that a majority of the payments under the Settlement Agreement will be made by the end of 2015,” according to a company statement.

Plaintiffs in 39 states alleged that Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Stryker sold defective hips that corroded while in patients’ bodies and caused illness, including pain and swelling in the tissue around the implant.

“The settlement represents one of the largest medical device settlements with an unlimited compensation fund,” Minneapolis, Minn.-based lawyer Charles Zimmerman, who helped negotiate the deal as part of the lead-counsel committee for the case, told the Associated Press. “We are pleased that we were able to reach a settlement with such meaningful relief.”

Thousands of cases from patients across the country were consolidated under a single federal judge in Minnesota in a “multi-district litigation,” a common type of mass lawsuit filed against healthcare companies, according to the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.