J&J Feared Metal Backlash Would Hurt Hip Sales, Jury Told
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Three years before Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy unit recalled its chromium and cobalt hip implants, company marketers feared the backlash over metal ion debris in patients, a jury in Los Angeles was told.
A DePuy marketing executive, Randall Kilburn, testified today in California state court at the first of 10,000 lawsuits to go to trial over the ASR hips, which J&J withdrew in August 2010 when their failure rate reached 12 percent. Kilburn was asked about a meeting in July 2007 in Chicago, where the marketing team discussed several hip devices.