A minimum of four class action lawsuits have been filed in Canada against Johnson and Johnson regarding the DePuy Hip Recall. The four plaintiffs involved have all testified that the implants failed drastically, causing them severe pain and loss of mobility. In addition, they failed far earlier than both the estimated replacement time for metal on metal implants like the DePuy Hip Recall covers, as well as failing earlier than a more traditional implant would have.

“The risk to people has been huge in relation to the benefit, particularly bearing in mind that there were effective products on the market that were working for decades before these new products came out. In this case, newer was not better,” stated one of the plaintiffs’ representatives in an interview with Canada’s CBC news.

The lawsuits are also arguing that the products were rushed to market. Approved under a controversial clause in the FDA’s testing process in the U.S. — a clause saying products that are very similar to existing ones need not be tested as much — the metal on metal ASR hip replacement device went to market without crucial testing that would have revealed the shedding chromium that caused such early failures and gave patients cases of heavy metal poisoning, pain and loss of mobility. Health Canada has a similar approval policy.

The FDA has ordered 21 makers of such hip replacement products to conduct in-depth studies of their devices to see if there are any similar issues that need to be examined. In Canada, of the 33 companies that have licenses to manufacture the products, 12 have issued product recalls on their hip replacement devices in recent years. Again, this is for devices that were intended to last for 15 years or more, with recalls occurring after only approximately 3-5 years of general usage.

The Canadian lawsuits’ addition to the tort case should increase the pressure on Johnson and Johnson, and may bode well for plaintiffs seeking a favorable settlement.

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