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| | Hip/Knee Implant Maker Faces over 1,000 Liability Suits By John Millrany - July 10, 2001A Swiss maker of hip and knee implants now faces about 1,000
lawsuits over a product recall and said insurance probably won’t cover all the
related costs, Bloomberg News reported today.
The company, Sulzer Medica, has insurance coverage
capped at $223 million, but analyst estimates indicate costs already have
exceeded twice that amount since the number of suits jumped from 800, Bloomberg
said.
Analysts predict Sulzer Medica will have to pay punitive
damages along with the costs of 2,600 patients undergoing surgery to replace
hip implants—plus 160 procedures for knee implants found to be faulty.
Max Link, the company’s chairman, said approximately
1,600 of the implants were sold in the US.
According to the Bloomberg report, the number of patients needing
surgery to replace the knee implant will probably climb to “several hundred,”
said Medica spokesman Henner Alms.
At least one lawsuit relating to the hip implant situation
has been filed in California, among about 60 other suits filed as a class
action.
Bloomberg said sportscaster Jim Lampley also sued the
Swiss company and said he suffered “agonizing” pain when standing up.
Medica has lost more than two-thirds of its market value
since mid-May. Bloomberg quoted Patrick Stutz, an analyst at Bank
Sarasin in Zurich, as saying, “The risks are just too high and nobody is
going to jump into this stock.”
Chairman Link said the company’s orthopedics division, based
in Austin, TX, “is responsible for all consequences. We’re working day and
night to hold the course of our boat.” |