Negligence on faulty implants

Guilty must be held accountable

An expert committee report on faulty hip prosthetics sold by a subsidiary of the US firm Johnson & Johnson has revealed incriminating details about its negligence in dealing with Indian patients. The report, commissioned by the Union health ministry in 2017, was published this week. Though it restricts its criticism to J&J, the report makes it clear that the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation also failed in its job of protecting Indian patients. It began in 2006, when DePuy International Ltd., a subsidiary of J&J, registered three types of articular surface replacement implants with the CDSCO. By 2007, the first indication that something was wrong came from the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry. It emerged that the device was leaking cobalt and chromium, causing sideeffects. Australia recalled the product in 2009.

Yet, the report says, J&J did not inform the Indian regulator and Indians kept using the implants until the firm began a voluntary global recall in 2010. J&J paid $2.47 billion in claims to about 8,000 patients in the US, but no Indian patient received compensation. Though the global recall occurred in 2010, the drug regulator did not issue an alert until 2013. The authorities must show that when private corporations fail to protect patient interests, they will be held accountable.