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On Friday, the Supreme Court sought the Centre’s response on a plea alleging that “deadly” and “faulty” hip implants, made by US-based pharma major Johnson and Johnson, have been fitted into the bodies of 14,525 Indian patients.
A bench, comprising of Chief Justice RanjanGogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, asked the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to notify it within two months about the actions, if any, taken after an expert committee found the pharma firms guilty of “medical negligence”.
Advocate Vivek Narayan Sharma and senior lawyer Salman Khurshidreferred to the fact that the central government had set up a committee in 2017, headed by Arun Agarwal, to investigate the aftermath of the disaster caused by the faulty Hip Implant produced and distributed by the US firm,DepuyOrthopaedics INC and its Indian subsidiary collectively.
As per the plea filed by one Arun Kumar Goenka, whose mother had died following a faulty hip implant surgeries, the Committee found Johnson and Johnson guilty of medical negligence, however, till date no effort has been undertaken to discover the vast number of patients who had undergone hip transplant. The court, after taking note of the PIL, sought the assistance of one of the Additional Solicitor Generals and listed the matter after 2 months.
The plea has provided a direction to the Centre and Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation for taking effective measures and save the lives of those who have undergone Depuy ASR hip implant surgeries and would be unknowingly living a life in hell, if alive or may be dead, due to the negligence of the respondents.
The plea said that DePuyOrthopaedicsInc (USA), a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, has been engaged in the business of manufacturing, selling and exporting medical implants including articular surface replacements (ASR) hip implantsadding that the hip implants were withdrawn by the firms on their own in 2010 on the ground that they were defective.
The plea also said that the firms were illegally sellingDePuy ASR Hip Implants in India from 2005 to 2006. In fact, the import license was applied by Johnson and Johnson 0only on December 6, 2006 and was granted license by Drug Controller (India) on December 15, 2006; however, showing disregard and contempt to the Indian Laws for safety of Indian Citizens, Respondents (the firms) imported and sold the implants even without Imports License.
The plea, which seeks a SIT probe to oversee the effective measures for implementation of immediate actions to save the lives of patients of DePuy ASR Implants, also referred to the fact that the company had to pay USD 4.40 Billion to over 9,000 victims of faulty implants in the USA,while in India no such measures have been undertaken. The plea has sought a direction to the Centre to advertise regarding the recall implants by the firms and for devising a mechanism to ensure safety of 14,525 Indian Patients who have undergone the hip replacement surgeries since 2005.
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