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| Endo agreed to settle the remainder of its vaginal mesh lawsuits.--Courtesy of Endo |
Endo International ($ENDP) is approaching the end of the road in its vaginal mesh saga, agreeing to pay an additional $400 million to settle "substantially all" of the remaining claims related to its vaginal mesh implants.
The Dublin-based company will add $400 million to its $1.2 billion liability reserve to resolve claims over vaginal mesh products sold by its American Medical Systems (AMS) subsidiary, Endo said in a statement. AMS will fund the payments through 2017, settling more than 10,000 suits for an average of approximately $48,000 apiece, Bloomberg reports.
"These settlements will allow us to continue to invest in the growth of our business segments and pursue accretive M&A opportunities. We believe that these settlements will also allow the AMS business to continue its return to growth and enhance focus on the operations and profitability of this leading medical device franchise," Endo CEO Rajiv De Silva said in a statement.
The master settlement marks a bright point for Endo, which has faced its fair share of legal woes over its vaginal mesh implants. In May, the company said it would pay $830 million to settle 20,000 lawsuits, resolving a "substantial majority" of its vaginal mesh-related cases. Endo had previously stockpiled $520 million to cover legal costs related to its vaginal mesh suits but disclosed in a regulatory filing in February that this amount would likely grow.
The company still faces 5,000 suits related to its vaginal mesh implants, and its first trial is scheduled for early next year in Texas state court, according to court filings obtained by Bloomberg.
Endo is not the only devicemaker laying vaginal mesh-related claims to rest. In March, Danish device outfit Coloplast said it would pay $16 million to settle lawsuits over vaginal-mesh inserts, spurring talk of a global settlement. Some of the cases--including those faced by Endo--have been consolidated in Charleston, WV, before U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin.
Meanwhile, big names like Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ), Boston Scientific ($BSX) and C.R. Bard ($BCR) continue to wade through their own vaginal mesh claims. In September, a federal judge ordered J&J's Ethicon unit to pay $3.27 million to a woman who claimed that the company's transvaginal mesh device caused undue pain and serious side effects. The same month, a Texas state jury found that Boston Scientific's vaginal mesh implant was defectively designed and awarded a plaintiff $73 million in damages.
- here's Endo's statement
- read the Bloomberg story