The federal judge overseeing a consolidation of transvaginal mesh lawsuits has set a case schedule for some of the oldest claims in the group.

Judge Joseph R. Goodwin is overseeing the transvaginal mesh multidistrict litigation in the Southern District of West Virginia. His order applies to 200 of the oldest claims against Ethicon and Johnson & Johnson. Discovery in these cases must be wrapped up by February 2016. Motions following discovery are scheduled to be completed by March 2016, at which point these vaginal mesh lawsuits will presumably be ready for trial.

Judge Goodwin also ordered the parties in each case to agree by January 2016 on the appropriate district court to which each vaginal mesh lawsuit should be transferred for trial. Cases that had been transferred to Judge Goodwin’s court by the MDL panel would return to the courts from which they were transferred. Some vaginal mesh lawsuits will remain in the Southern District of West Virginia.

This multidistrict litigation, or MDL, is a consolidation of hundreds of individual transvaginal mesh lawsuits. The federal court system sometimes consolidates a group of similar cases, such as claims over a particular consumer product, into a single MDL for purposes of efficiently and consistently resolving issues common to all the claims.

Transvaginal Mesh Complications

The transvaginal mesh at issue in these claims is a product made by Ethicon and its parent company Johnson & Johnson. Transvaginal mesh is an implant used to remedy pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence in women. Pelvic organ prolapse results from a weakening of the pelvic muscles that allows the pelvic organs to drop. Both conditions sometimes happen following childbirth, hysterectomy, or menopause. To correct these problems, the mesh is inserted through the vagina and positioned so that it supports the descended organs.

Use of surgical mesh to treat these conditions developed from similar techniques used to repair abdominal hernias. The first device specifically made for transvaginal use was approved by the FDA in 1996. Other, similar devices have been approved since then.

The problems arise from the numerous complications associated with these devices. In some women, the mesh erodes through the surrounding tissue. In more severe cases of mesh erosion, the device may perforate the tissue of surrounding organs, upping the risk of infection.

By 2011, the FDA said it had received almost 4,000 reports of adverse events associated with transvaginal mesh implants from 2005 to 2010. Studies conducted around that time found a significantly higher rate of complications in patients who underwent transvaginal mesh implantation compared to those who chose alternative procedures.

Today, the number of transvaginal mesh lawsuits filed is estimated to be around 70,000. Some of the first such claims to go to trial resulted in multi-million dollar damage awards.

Since then, some manufacturers have been much more amenable to settling claims out of court. Endo International, parent company of mesh manufacturer American Medical Systems, reportedly agreed to pay around $1.6 billion to settle all mesh-related claims against it. Johnson & Johnson, however, has not been so quick to settle and continues to face thousands of transvaginal mesh lawsuits.

The Transvaginal Mesh MDL is MDL No. 2327, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.