Appeals Court Orders New Trial Against C.R.Bard

Introduction

A three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals in Kansas City granted a new trial in C.R. Bard's transvaginal mesh lawsuit. The jury allowed the plaintiff to question the company’s executive John Weiland, regarding their guilty plea in 1994, against the charges that they concealed information from the U.S. FDA about the defective Align transvaginal mesh (TVM) device.

The Missouri Appeals Court ordered a new trial in the pelvic mesh case, stating that the judge ruled in favor of the defense party and wrongly excluded testimony about the company's earlier criminal convictions. The plaintiff was implanted with Boston Scientific's Solyx pelvic mesh device to treat pelvic organ prolapse in 2010. Shortly after two months, the implant allegedly failed and an Align pelvic mesh manufactured by C.R.Bard was implanted in a correction surgery. In her lawsuit against Truman Medical Center Inc., she argued that the failure of the Align device caused her chronic pain and blamed Boston for using Marlex brand polypropylene mesh, which is unsafe for human implantation. The Missouri Court of Appeals on August 21, denied the plaintiff a new trial to her claims against co-defendant Boston Scientific, stating that the error conducted by the trial court did not rise to reversible error.

Pelvic mesh manufacturers across the U.S face thousands of lawsuits all claiming design flaws in the device causing organ perforation and devastating internal organ damage. Apart from C.R.Bard and Boston Scientific, other defendants include Ethicon, Coloplast, Cook Medical and American Medical Systems. TVM multidistrict litigation is overlooked by U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin in the Southern District of West Virginia.

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