Johnson & Johnson pays $117M to settle surgical mesh device lawsuit

Johnson & Johnson is agreeing to pay $117 million to settle a lawsuit for issues stemming from transvaginal surgical mesh devices.

The lawsuit, brought by the attorney generals for 41 states, alleged that Johnson & Johnson made "misrepresentations and failure to include serious risks in the instructions and marketing materials for surgical mesh devices."

West Virginia was one of the states not included in the lawsuit, and it filed its own legal action a month ago against Johnson & Johnson. The lawsuit, "The complaint said mesh removal is the only treatment option for most continuing mesh complications and more than 30% of women require more than one surgery to deal with complications."

This has been an ongoing issue in the industry, culminating in these legal actions against Johnson & Johnson. Several states still have pending suits against the company.

In April. the U.S. Food & Drug Administration "ordered the manufacturers of all remaining surgical mesh products indicated for the transvaginal repair of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) to stop selling and distributing their products in the U.S. immediately."

As part of the settlement, Johnson & Johnson admitted no culpability.

The first state to go after Johnson & Johnson was Washington, where it is estimated that 14,000 women have had a procedure to insert a transvaginal surgical mesh device. In April, Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $9.9 million after settling Washington's lawsuit.

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"While precise information is not available, the Attorney General’s Office believes hundreds of those have been adversely impacted so far, ranging from having to go back for another procedure, to having their quality of life impacted dramatically," Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in April.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.