Pelvic Mesh Implant Appeal Begins in Sydney

A Sydney court will begin hearing a multinational pharmaceutical giant’s challenge to a landmark ruling that pelvic mesh implants caused debilitating injuries to hundreds of Australian women. The November 2019 ruling found three companies in the Johnson & Johnson group had acted negligently and concealed the true extent of complications from the pelvic implants. More than 1350 Australian women had joined the class action, launched in 2012. But Johnson & Johnson on February 1 is expected to tell the Full Court of the Federal Court the trial judge made more than a dozen errors. Those errors include giving inadequate weight to pelvic surgeons’ evidence and reversing the onus of proof, according to court documents. One plank of the medical giant’s appeal takes aim at a finding concerning the injuries suffered by Kathryn Gill and other lead litigants. Gill, a mother-of-two, was aged 36 when implanted with a device called Prolift …