12/09/2013 // West Palm Beach, Florida,
West Virginia –Johnson& Johnson officials have been accused of getting rid of files linked to its transvaginal mesh implants that they were ordered by executives to maintain. As reported by Bloomberg, patients’ attorneys have asserted in a court filing that the company should not be allowed to rely on certain defenses in pending trials over the implants due to the loss of the documents, which are stated to potentially be hundreds of thousands.
The attorneys are quoted as writing in the recent court filing, “Ethicon’s document destruction has severely prejudiced the plaintiffs for the upcoming bellwether trials…Defendants should not benefit from the gaps in plaintiffs’ story that defendant created.”
Matthew Johnson, a spokesman for Ethicon, is quoted in the report as stating in an emailed statement in response to the claims, “We have never intentionally destroyed, withheld or failed to produce relevant documents.”
As noted in the report, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered J&J and other mesh manufacturers to study organ damage rates and other health complications linked to vaginal mesh implants last year.
This report is provided by Justice News Flash –