SC seeks Centre's response on faulty hip implants by Johnson & Johnson

The Supreme Court Friday sought the Centre's response on a plea alleging that "faulty" and "deadly" 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 Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph asked the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to apprise it within two months about the actions, if any, taken after an expert committee found the pharma firms guilty of "medical negligence".

Senior lawyer Salman Khurshid and advocate Vivek Narayan Sharma referred to the fact that the central government had in 2017 set up a committee, headed by Arun Agarwal, to look into the aftermath of the disaster caused by the faulty Hip Implant produced and distributed by the US firm, its Indian subsidiary and Depuy Orthopaedics INC collectively.

"The Committee has found Johnson and Johnson guilty of medical negligence, however, till date nothing has been done to discover vast number of patients who had undergone hip transplant," said the plea filed by one Arun Kumar Goenka, whose mother had died following faulty hip implant surgeries.

The court, taking note of the PIL, sought the assistance of one of the Additional Solicitor Generals and listed the matter after two months.

The plea has sought a direction to the Centre and Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation for taking effective measures to save 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 negligent acts of respondents."