Johnson & Johnson Chairman and Chief Executive Alex Gorsky’s total pay rose 48 percent in 2014, an article from the Wall Street Journal Reports. Board members say they made the decision based on Johnson & Johnson’s success in achieving short- and long-term financial goals and building on the momentum of its pharmaceutical business.
Despite these positive reviews, 2014 was a year fraught with legal trouble for the pharmaceutical giant. Johnson & Johnson continued to face lawsuits for defective hip implants after announcing some $2.5 billion spent in settlements at the end of 2013. The company recently extended the window in which hip replacements occurred for those filing lawsuits. As many as 1,400 patients who have had ASR hips removed since 2013 can now seek compensation of up to $300,000 each. DePuy’s all-metal model has been shown to cause premature failure of the ASR hip implant as well as health complications resulting from the deterioration of the implant.
Johnson & Johnson has also been busy settling transvaginal mesh lawsuits concerning pelvic mesh implants produced by the company’s Ethicon unit. In February of this year, the company settled over one hundred transvaginal mesh lawsuits. Plaintiffs in transvaginal mesh lawsuits claim that Johnson & Johnson’s Ethicon transvaginal mesh devices, which are intended to treat urinary incontinence and organ prolapse, are defective and dangerous to the women who use them, potentially leading to horrific and sometimes untreatable side effects including severe pain, organ erosion, bleeding, infection, nerve damage, and sexual dysfunction.
The company has also recently come under fire for its antipsychotic drug Risperdal, manufactured by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary. In February, Johnson & Johnson was forced to pay $2.5 million in damages to a man who claimed the drug led him to develop gynecomastia, a condition wherein males grow enlarged breasts. This was the first of roughly 1,250 pending Risperdal lawsuits in a mass-tort case in Philadelphia’s courts, and experts have said it sets the stage for future settlements.
Be sure to consult your doctor or physician whenever you decide to change medications. If you or a loved one has been injured by a Johnson & Johnson product such as Risperdal, a DePuy hip implant, or an Ethicon transvaginal mesh implant, contact the lawyers at Lopez McHugh for a free consultation. You may be eligible for compensation through a product liability lawsuit.
