Women who want to sue Ethicon Inc. for injuries sustained from vaginal mesh complications will no longer be able to file joint lawsuits with other plaintiffs, according to an order issued today by the judge overseeing the federal Ethicon vaginal mesh MDL.

U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin ruled Oct. 16 that multiple plaintiff complaints, except those that include a “derivative plaintiff (e.g., cases in which a spouse is asserting only a loss of consortium claim), should be severed.”

The ruling was in response to an Ethicon vaginal mesh lawsuit (Brannen v. Ethicon) filed in July 2013 that listed 80 “derivative” plaintiffs in addition to lead plaintiff Isabell Brannen.

Judge Goodwin found that the only connection the women shared was they they were injured by a pelvic mesh product manufactured by Ethicon.

All of the remaining plaintiffs in the case except for Brannen will be dismissed without prejudice on or around Nov. 3. They will have the opportunity to file their own individual vaginal mesh lawsuit within 30 days. Any plaintiffs who object to Goodwin’s order must do so by Oct. 27.

Ethicon’s Vaginal Mesh Problems Not Going Away

A total of 22,110 product liability lawsuits have been filed by women accusing Ethicon and it’s parent company Johnson & Johnson of manufacturing and selling defective pelvic repair products used for treating pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence.

Plaintiffs allege they suffered a wide range of vaginal mesh complications ranging from pain during sex and continuing incontinence to more severe complications such as mesh erosion, infection, organ injuries, and even recurring pelvic organ prolapse.

A number of Ethicon pelvic mesh products have been named in these lawsuits, including the:

• Gynecare Prolift
• Gynecare Prolift+M
• Gynecare Prosima Pelvic Mesh
• Gynecare Gynemesh
• Ethicon Prolene Mesh
• Prolene Polypropylene Mesh Patch
• Gynecare TVT Sling
• Gynecare TVT Secur System

The first of these transvaginal mesh devices were introduced to the market in March 2005. Just three years later in 2008, the FDA issued a Public Health Notification regarding serious complications associated with transvaginal mesh products used to repair pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence.

Plaintiffs in Ethicon vaginal mesh lawsuits accuse the company of sidestepping the rigorous testing required for new medical devices to enter the market by utilizing the FDA’s 501(k) clearance method, which allows companies to forgo testing by basing the product on an existing and approved device. As a result, these transvaginal mesh and bladder sling implant products were not properly tested before being used in thousands of women, plaintiffs claim.

In 2011, the agency updated the warning after receiving more than 1,000 adverse event reports related to transvaginal mesh products manufactured by not just Ethicon but other vaginal mesh manufacturers. The companies were subsequently ordered to perform additional testing and research the safety of their products.

In June 2012, following this testing, Johnson & Johnson removed four Ethicon vaginal mesh products from the market following these tests: the Gynecare TVT Secur, Prosima, Prolift and Prolift+M.

Vaginal Mesh Settlements Reached

Over 60,000 vaginal mesh lawsuits have been filed nationwide against manufacturers like Ethicon, American Medical Systems (AMS), Bard, Boston Scientific, Coloplast and Endo. Many of these companies, including Ethicon, have reached settlement agreements with plaintiffs.

In September, a jury awarded $3.35 million to a woman who had to undergo 18 operations to correct complications caused by her Ethicon Gynecare Prolift mesh implant. This is in addition to a $1.2 million Ethicon vaginal mesh settlement awarded to a woman in April, and an $11.1 million Ethicon vaginal mesh settlement awarded in March 2013.

In early October, Endo International PLC announced it had set aside $400 million to settle over 10,000 vaginal mesh lawsuits filed against the company. Average plaintiff payouts will be $48,000 per case.

Danish manufacturer Coloplast also recently announced it had set aside $16 million to settle 400 Coloplast mesh lawsuits for an average payout of $40,000 per plaintiff.

The Ethicon Vaginal Mesh MDL is In re: Ethicon, Inc., Pelvic Repair System Products Liability Litigation MDL no. 2327 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.