Supreme Court closes case against Johnson and Johnson

Centre informs Bench that compensation will be given to victims of faulty hip implants.

January 11, 2019 09:09 pm | Updated 09:09 pm IST - NEW DELHI

 Security guards stand outside the office of Johnson&Johnson in Mumbai on August 29, 2018.

Security guards stand outside the office of Johnson&Johnson in Mumbai on August 29, 2018.

The Supreme Court on Friday closed the case seeking action against the U.S.-based pharmaceutical major Johnson and Johnson for faulty hip implants in India that left several patients disabled.

A Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, was satisfied with the Centre’s response that a scheme was framed to provide compensation of up to ₹1.22 crore to the victims.

At the previous hearing, the court asked the Centre to respond to the petition for action against the government officials who had cleared the sale of the “faulty” DePuy ASR hip implants “without proper clinical trial.”

The petition, filed by A.K. Goenka, represented by advocate Vivek Narayan Sharma, said the lives of 14,525 patients were in danger owing to the “large-scale and illegal implantation of faulty, deadly and poisonous DePuy ASR Hip Implants.” The petition arraigned the Centre, through the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), the Mumbai police, Johnson & Johnson and DePuy Orthopaedics based in the U.S. as respondents.

The petition said 15,820 units were imported and sold from 2005 till 2010. Of these, 4,700 units were implanted in patients. After the recall of the implants, only 1,295 units were returned. The rest were “untraceable,” according to the records. “These implants were to help the people around the world with an active lifestyle. More than success, its failure has caused a serious damage to the body and spirit of patients,” Mr. Sharma said.

The petition asked the court to ask the government to advertise nationally about the faulty units so that patients might be made aware of the serious danger they were in. “Most patients do not even know that their bodies have poisonous contents… They may bear unknown and grave medical conditions,” it said.

The court also asked the government to respond to a plea to set up a special investigation team of medical officers and senior police officers. The petition asked for an inquiry against CDSCO officials responsible for issuing the clearance certificate for the faulty product without a proper clinical trial.

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