California AG sues Johnson & Johnson over marketing for pelvic mesh

NEW YORK California’s attorney general filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing Johnson Johnson of failing to warn doctors and patients about the severity and frequency of complications associated with its pelvic mesh devices.

According to the lawsuit, JJ and its Ethicon unit falsely marketed the devices as a safe and superior option to non-mesh treatments for pelvic floor disorders, when it was aware that the devices could cause devastating side effects like pain, bleeding, infection and loss of sexual function.

“Johnson Johnson put millions of women at risk of severe health problems by failing to provide critical information to doctors and patients about its surgical mesh products,” California Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement. Her office led a multi-state investigation into JJ’s mesh products, which included 46 states and the District of Columbia.

The lawsuit is seeking monetary penalties and an order halting any unfair advertising practices by JJ, which sold the devices to treat stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse in women.

JJ is one of several medical device makers currently facing tens of thousands of individual lawsuits from plaintiffs who said they were injured by mesh.

According to the California AG, JJ sold more than 787,000 pelvic mesh devices in the U.S. from 2008 until 2014, including more than 42,000 in California. The company did not immediately return a request for comment.

(Reporting by Jessica Dye and Nate Raymond; Editing by Chris Reese, Bernard Orr)