Have reached out to 50% affected patients, says J&J
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has said it has the global expertise to arrive at a compensation mechanism on a case-to-case basis for each patient, even as senior government officials claim that the firm has agreed, in principle, to recompense the patients affected by its faulty hip implants.
The government has fixed a minimum compensation amount of ~2 million for each affected patient, but J&J wants to arrive at a ‘mutually agreeable’ figure that need not be the same as recommended by the government.
Meanwhile, J&J has also claimed that it has reached out to almost 50 per cent of patients, who had an ASR hip implant made by DePuy, a J&J subsidiary. Its aim is to have all the 4,700 patients (who underwent ASR hip implant surgeries in India) register on the ASR helpline soon with help from the government, the company said.
Sushobhan Dasgupta, managing director, J&J Medical India, said, “We want to arrive at a compensation amount that is fair and equitable for each patient. We have the global expertise to arrive at a compensation mechanism for the same, and would work closely with the Indian government on this.”
DePuy set up a helpline and initiated the reimbursement process for ASR patients in India in September 2010. He also said while 2,300 patients had already been reached out to and 277 revision surgeries had been conducted, not all patients were unhappy with the ASR hip implant. "There are happy ASR-hip implant patients too. My mother, an 87year-old lady, had undergone an implant surgery (using ASR implant) about 11 years ago, and she is doing fine. In fact, she travelled alone from Kolkata to Mumbai recently," Dasgupta quipped. The first hip implant (a locally made one and not a J&J product) that was administered to his mother had failed within three months, after which she had gone for a revision surgery and received an ASR hip implant, he said.
There has been a five-year revision rate of 12-13 per cent for ASR hip implants globally, which is higher than the expected rate. So far in India, the company has paid around $2 million to patients for revision surgeries, and around $250,000 in related diagnostic costs, under its ASR reimbursement programme.
“We are open to pay for revision surgeries, if needed, and diagnostic costs, loss of wages, physiotherapy and other needs. The patients can choose to go to surgeons of their choices. We are already running a reimbursement programme.
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