Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy division faces more than 6,000 metaL hip implant lawsuits in a federal multidistrict litigation from Pinnacle hip recipients who claim injuries that include metal poisoning in their blood and infections.

According to the hip implant lawsuits, patients say the metal-on-metal hip replacement system was defective because pieces rubbed together, causing metal to leach. Pinnacle hip implant recipients say the device caused dangerous levels of chromium and cobalt in the bloodstream.

What is the Problem with DePuy Pinnacle Hip Implant?

When the Pinnacle hip implant entered the market in 2000, it was marketed as a hip implant with a 20-year lifespan. Instead, patients said the metal components rubbed together, resulting in problems that include severe bone and tissue damage.

The DePuy Pinnacle hip implant is made from an alloy of cobalt and chromium. The metal-on-metal components lead to the release of metal debris by the grinding action of the ball upon the cup during normal activity. The release of metal, particularly cobalt and chromium, is especially inflammatory to the local tissue and causes early failure of the hip replacement and metal blood poisoning or metallosis.

While the Pinnacle device was never been recalled, Johnson & Johnson discontinued sales of it in August. In doing so, Johnson & Johnson made it clear it was not a device recall. Despite using the controversial U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 510(k) “fast track” approval to get the system to market, Johnson & Johnson insists the hip implant was thoroughly tested over more than a decade.

First Bellwether Texas Trial

The first DePuy Pinnacle Hip Implant trial commenced in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, where the federal litigation is centralized for coordinated pretrial proceedings as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation.

A complaint filed by Kathleen Herlihy-Paoli was selected as one in a series of “bellwether” cases scheduled in the DePuy Pinnacle MDL. The 58-year-old woman from Montana received a DePuy Pinnacle metal hip in 2009, but allegedly had to have it removed in 2011 because of pain and testing that showed she had extremely high levels of cobalt and chromium in her blood. Her cobalt blood levels were reportedly 85 times above normal range.

DePuy Pinnacle bellwether trials are scheduled in the coming months, with other trials set to begin on Nov. 3 and Jan. 12, 2015.

On July 18, Judge Kinkeade issued a 32-page opinion denying DePuy’s efforts to strike expert witness testimony in the upcoming bellwether trial cases.

Ultimately, the jury in the first MDL bellwether trial will be asked to determine whether the plaintiffs have provided sufficient evidence to meet the legal standards with regard to their claims of product defect, fraud, misrepresentation, and infliction of emotional distress.

Pinnacle Hip Implant Lawsuits

Many of these metal hip lawsuits allege that the injured plaintiffs suffered premature metal hip implant failure and metal blood poisoning from the defective DePuy Pinnacle hip implant devices.

The coordinated metal hip implant lawsuits over Pinnacle metal-on-metal hip implants pending before Judge Kinkeade is also known as MDL No. 2244. The MDL was established in May 2011.

Since then, more than 60 million pages of documents have been produced and nearly 100 depositions have also been completed so far. As of June 30, more than 6,400 individual lawsuits have been filed in the national multidistrict litigation proceedings that are pending before Judge Kinkeade in federal court in Dallas.

There are also a number of metal hip lawsuits filed in coordinated proceedings pending in state court in Southern California as well as other state court jurisdictions.

The Pinnacle Metal Hip Implant Lawsuit is Herlihy-Paoli v. DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., et al., Case No. 3:12-cv-04975, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.