DePuy Says Stopping Research on Hip Issues was a “Business Decision”

It’s been a bad week for the PR department at DePuy.  The orthopedic maker is on the defensive again after the NY Times published a confidential internal email from a DePuy vice president.

That email notifies other DePuy execs that FDA did NOT approve the ASR hip.  NY Times reporter Barry Meier writes that “the statements in that email contrast with those made by the company in recent years about the all-metal hip.”  DePuy fired back later in the week saying the hip was never “rejected” (sic) by the FDA.  However, a “non-approvable” letter from the FDA sounds like a rejection, right? It’s certainly not a glowing endorsement.

One of the best quotes from DePuy’s defensive statement shows how focused this corporation was on making money rather than healing patients:

“DePuy chose not to move forward with gathering additional data based on the declining demand for hip resurfacing. This was purely a business decision for the U.S. market.“

How many victims does it take before DePuy will gather additional data when the FDA asks it to?  One?  100?  Maybe 93,000, because that’s about how many people worldwide were implanted with a DePuy ASR hip.

Patients should be outraged that DePuy and Johnson & Johnson have put business before safety.  Even now, rather than settling cases with its victims, Johnson & Johnson continues to worry more about their corporate profits instead of the lifetime effects of metal poisoning, pain, and multiple major surgeries on their victims.

For more information about the DePuy ASR hip recall, contact us at (877) 284-6600.