DePuy Hip Recall Lawsuit Could Change Policies

The Institute of Medicine is preparing to release a report criticizing the Food and Drug Administration’s current method of approving certain types of orthopedic devices, including hip replacement systems like the DePuy ASR hip replacement system. As discussed by many a Depuy hip lawyer, certain medical devices are rushed through the approval process, which usually takes several months of grueling clinical testing if they are proven to be similar enough to a device that is already on the market. This is the case with the DePuy ASR system, which bears resemblance to an earlier DePuy hip replacement system, called the Pinnacle.

Through the Food and Drug Administration’s 510(k) approval process, the ASR devices were approved more quickly than they might have been otherwise. However, this has been proven disastrous for many patients who have been experiencing Depuy hip complications and adverse side effects related to the hip replacement systems, resulting in Depuy Hip lawsuits across the country. Both the Pinnacle and ASR systems come with a set of problems which some medical experts think could have been avoided, at least for some patients, had the approval process been less lenient.

Business advocacy groups, whose interests are aligned with those of the manufacturers of such devices, are trying to reduce the impact of the results of the study. A change in the Food and Drug Administration’s policies could be detrimental to the profits of such manufacturing companies, including DePuy Orthopedics, one of the biggest orthopedics device manufacturers in the world. The companies would have to see their products through rigorous clinical trials that would take many more months than they used to, which could cut the productivity of the companies.

The results of the Institute of Medicine’s study could have an impact on the results of the many lawsuits currently filed across the country in regard to DePuy’s various problematic hip replacement systems. Plaintiffs in these cases could actually benefit from the study, which virtually confirms that the DePuy ASR hip replacement systems were not tested as thoroughly as they should have been, a move which resulted in significant and painful complications and consequences for many hip replacement patients across the country.  These pateints could be entitled to Depuy Hip lawsuit settlements for pain and suffering.