Covidien will settle some of the 11,000 vaginal mesh lawsuits it has pending in federal court, according to court documents. This would be the third vaginal mesh maker that has entered into settlement discussions to end a number of vaginal mesh lawsuits.

Covidien makes transvaginal mesh and bladder slings that are sold by different companies, particularly C.R. Bard.

What is Vaginal Mesh?

Vaginal mesh is a device used to offer additional support when repairing weakened or damaged tissue. It is frequently used for urogynecologic procedures, such as repair of pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence. Vaginal mesh is permanently implanted to reinforce the weakened vaginal wall in patients suffering from POP and to support the urethra or bladder neck to repair SUI.

Covidien Vaginal Mesh Settlement

Covidien agreed to the transvaginal mesh lawsuit settlement on June 23, involving vaginal mesh devices that allegedly caused patients to suffer severe and painful side effects. According to a recently filed regulatory ruling with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from Medtronic, roughly 11,300 filed and unfiled Covidien vaginal mesh claims were involved.

Transvaginal Mesh Multidistrict Litigation.

In the federal court system, seven different multidistrict litigations (MDLs) have been established for consolidated pretrial proceedings against the various vaginal mesh manufacturers to reduce duplicative discovery, avoid conflicting pretrial rulings from different judges and to serve the convenience of the parties, witnesses and the courts. All of the vaginal mesh MDLs are centralized before U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin in the Southern District of West Virginia.

According to the latest case list released by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) on July 15, Judge Goodwin is currently presiding over 8,667 C.R. Bard Avaulta pelvic mesh lawsuits, 18,501 Ethicon mesh lawsuits, 17,901 American Medical Systems (AMS) mesh lawsuits, 12,199 Boston Scientific mesh lawsuits, 1,506 Coloplast mesh lawsuits, 213 Cook Medical mesh lawsuits and about 74 Neomedic mesh lawsuits.

As part of the coordinated proceedings, small groups of cases involving many of the manufacturers have been prepared for early trial dates, known as “bellwether” cases. While the outcomes of these trials are not binding in other cases, they help the parties gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence that could be offered throughout the litigation and are designed to facilitate vaginal mesh settlement agreements to resolve the litigation.

Some devicemakers such as Coloplast and Endo have decided to settle vaginal mesh lawsuits. In March 2014, Coloplast said it would pay $16 million to settle lawsuits over vaginal mesh inserts. Endo followed suit and said in October that it would add $400 million to its $1.2 billion reserve to resolve “substantially all” claims related to vaginal mesh implants sold by its American Medical Systems (AMS) subsidiary.

But other companies including Johnson & Johnson, Boston Scientific and Bard are still wading through vaginal mesh claims, with recent jury verdicts favoring the plaintiffs.

J&J and its Ethicon unit face more than 36,000 vaginal mesh lawsuits in state and federal courts. Boston Scientific is dealing with more than 23,000 lawsuits related to vaginal mesh implants in U.S. state and federal courts, including cases consolidated before U.S. District Judge Goodwin. In May, a Delaware jury awarded a plaintiff $100 million against Boston Scientific, the sixth jury verdict against the company.

Transvaginal Mesh lawsuits

In total, approximately 100,000 transvaginal mesh lawsuits have been filed in state and federal courts against companies that make the devices. Plaintiffs share the belief that poor design and the use of subpar materials have caused serious vaginal mesh complications. The majority of the 100,000 vaginal mesh lawsuits remain pending, many in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of West Virginia.