Recently Cook Medical, the makers of Surgisis Biodesign transvaginal mesh device implants was faced with a lawsuit over the complications linked to the implant. Now Cook Medical is in opposition of having the many lawsuits that have been filed against be consolidated in the federal courts.
On May 30, the arguments will be made to the panel of federal judges as to whether or not the Cook Surgisis mesh litigation is going to be centralized for coordinated pretrial proceedings in front of the judge who is currently presiding over numerous other lawsuits. The response was filed at the end of April and had Cook and their subsidiaries explaining that they were against the creation of an MDL as a means of handling all of the lawsuits filed against them. As part of the company’s argument, they cited that many of the claims against them were dismissed and that there just aren’t enough cases remaining to justify the move to making the proceedings into an MDL. The company is also arguing that their vaginal mesh products are different from the other devices that are involved other cases.
Cook is referring to the five vaginal mesh MDLs that are currently taking place against numerous manufacturers of vaginal mesh devices including CR Bard, Coloplast, Ethicon, American Medical Systems, and Boston Scientific. Judge Joseph Goodwin currently presides over the other MDLs and it was requested that Goodwin also preside over the Cook Proceedings if they are centralized as well. Complications linked to the devices include: erosion, infections, painful intercourse, vaginal scarring and more. Most of the time, these complications can’t be corrected without surgical removal of the implant. Only two of the vaginal mesh cases that have actually gone to trial resulted in an award for the plaintiff. The case against Ethicon (over the Gynecare Prolift vaginal mesh) resulted in an $11.1 million award for the plaintiff, and the case against Bard Avaulta, resulted in a $5.5 million award.
