Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay as much as $420 million to resolve 1,400 defective metal hip implant lawsuits over the company’s recalled ASR metal hip implants that were excluded from a $2.5 billion settlement reached in 2013.

According to a motion filed in federal court in Toledo, Ohio, Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy subsidiary had agreed to extend the deadline for hip implant recall claims regarding its ASR metal hip implants to Jan. 31.

This extension allowed 1,400 plaintiffs who received the hip implant but were previously ineligible to file a metal hip implant lawsuit against the manufacturer the opportunity to seek compensation for their injuries. Along with the original accord, the new DePuy Hip Implant settlement resolves more than 90 percent of current metal hip implant lawsuits that the DePuy ASR metal hip implant devices were defective and caused metal poisoning in patients.

The patients eligible for a portion of the DePuy hip implant settlement funds are those who underwent a removal of their ASR metal hip implant after Aug. 31, 2013, but were excluded from the 2013 settlement of $2.5 billion. A DePuy representative says that the 1,400 patients will each receive approximately $300,000 under the original agreement.

Settling the additional hip implant lawsuits will cost Johnson & Johnson an estimated $420 million. By the time Johnson & Johnson settles all metal hip implant lawsuits against it, the company will have paid out over $4 billion in total damages.

DePuy Hip Recall

ASR metal hip implant devices produced by DePuy, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, have been recalled since 2010, due to a high failure rate. The metal-on-metal hip implant is comprised of a metal ball and metal socket which mimic the movement of the hip joint.

Upon discovering that 12 percent of the devices failed within the first five years, more than 93,000 ASR metal hip implants were recalled worldwide. Patients claimed the devices caused dislocations and pain, forcing them to have hip revision surgery, and alleged the metal hip implants, which are made with chromium and cobalt, were defectively designed, allowing metal ions to build up in the bloodstream.

The corrosive metal caused a dangerous disease called metallosis. Plaintiffs have also suffered from injuries due to removal of their implant, multiple revision surgeries, and even paralysis following complications with the DePuy hip device.

After an initial wave of metal on metal hip implant lawsuits after the recall, Johnson & Johnson settled the defective DePuy ASR metal hip implant lawsuits in 2013 for $2.5 billion.

Under the terms of the 2013 metal hip implant settlement, only patients whose hip implant devices were removed by the end of 2013 were allowed to recover.

Hip Implant Lawsuits

DePuy faces nearly 12,000 hip implant lawsuits filed by people who received the ASR metal hip implant and another 3,000 from recipients of its Pinnacle hip. The metal-on-metal hip devices were supposed to last longer than other hip implants on the market. Instead, plaintiffs allege that they failed prematurely in thousands of people.

While the DePuy hip implant settlement may offer compensation as part of a recall, they will likely limit compensation to certain medical treatments and revisions. They may not address potential losses like lost wages and pain and suffering. According to some patients, DePuy only covered a fraction of revision costs under their recall settlement, leaving injured patients to incur the rest.