DePuy Synthes
[5] In August 2013, attorneys for thousands of patients who received the implants sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration accusing the company of breaking federal law by hiding experts’ misgivings about the device, and called on the agency to investigate.“We believe almost all of these injuries would have been avoided had DePuy complied with the reporting requirements and informed your agency about the adverse events and concerns about the safety of the ASR which came to the company’s attention,” the attorneys said.[6] DePuy faces more than 11,000 plaintiffs nationwide over the ASR XL, which generally allege that the product is prone to degrading prematurely and shedding toxic metal debris, causing pain and necessitating revision surgeries that can be more invasive than the initial total hip replacements.In the first trial related to the product, a California jury awarded $8.3 million in compensatory damages to a retired prison guard, finding the implant's design to be faulty and DePuy to have acted negligently.In the second trial, an Illinois jury returned a verdict in favor of DePuy in a lawsuit brought by a nurse who had sought $5 million in damages.