The $1 billion December jury award over bad hip implants against Johnson & Johnson and subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics has been slashed to $500 million by U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade in Dallas.

He stated in his final report that “although the jury awarded $84,000,000 in punitive damages from Defendant DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., and $84,000,000 in punitive damages from Defendant Johnson & Johnson, constitutional considerations limit the amount a plaintiff may recover in punitive damages."

The legal context, he observed, concerned a prior 2003 case (State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Campbell, 538 U.S. 408, 42), which held that “[f]ew awards exceeding a single-digit ratio between punitive and compensatory damages, to a significant degree, will satisfy due process...“

Kinkeade noted that in this ruling, “single-digit multipliers are more likely to comport with due process, while still achieving the State’s goals of deterrence and retribution.”

As a result he followed this consideration and reduced the punitive damages.

For plaintiff Marvin Andrews punitive damages were cut from $84 million against J&J and $84 million against DePuy to “$37,064,922.66 against Defendant DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., and $37,064,922.66 against Defendant Johnson & Johnson.”

The court also rendered a judgment for Elizabeth Andrews “for punitive damages in the amount of $125,000 against Defendant DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., and $125,000 against Defendant Johnson & Johnson.”

The decision will lower the awards for all plaintiffs who are in California, in similar fashion.

The implants led to tissue death, bone erosion and other injuries they attributed to design flaws, according to Reuters.

The metal-on-metal devices were touted as lasting longer than ones made with ceramics or plastic. Sales were halted in 2013, and at that time J&J and DePuy settled over 7,000 lawsuits for about $2.5 billion.

In December 2016, a federal jury in Dallas returned the $1 billion decision.

The suit was filed on behalf of six people who got the devices, according to lead plaintiff attorney Mark Lanier of the Lanier Law Firm in Houston

"Once again, a jury has listened to the testimony of both sides, and returned a verdict affirming what we've known all along: a responsible company would settle these cases and take care of their injured consumers, rather than forcing them through expensive and vexatious litigation just to delay justice," said Lanier at the time. "This jury spoke loud and clear, and I hope J&J will finally listen."

This was the third test case for the implants. One earlier led to a $500 million verdict. In 2014 the two firms were cleared in the initial case over the devices.

The next bellwether trial concerns 10 patients, and has been slated for September 2017 in Dallas, according to the Lanier Law Firm.

Lanier said the verdict was "a message loud and clear" that J&J has "a really nasty part of their business they need to clean up," according to Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-johnson-johnson-verdict-hipimplants-idUSKBN13Q5XF

According to the wire service, a plaintiffs' offer to settle for $1.8 million before trial had been refused by the company.

Although Johnson & Johnson and DePuy deny wrongdoing, they now face almost 8,400 metal-on-metal implant suits. These are now “consolidated” in federal court in Texas.

Test cases such as this one help to establish the price of the remaining claims.

J&J announces array of new projects and partnerships

Despite the legal troubles with implants, J&J continues to forge ahead with 15 new research collaborative projects, which it announced yesterday.

These include efforts on a number of fronts, including 3-D printing, the microbiome and immunotherapy to address challenges such as depression, cancer and diabetes.

So far, over 300 such efforts have begun under the auspices of Johnson & Johnson Innovation.

"We continue to pursue transformative health care solutions and form collaborations that explore the cutting edge of scientific research to achieve our primary goal of improving the quality of patients' lives," Dr. Paul Stoffels, Chief Scientific Officer, Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement. "Through Johnson & Johnson Innovation, we are committed to identifying and advancing novel solutions in areas of significant need and creating customized deal structures with innovators, in an effort to accelerate products to market."

The new deals are in the form of investments, out-licensing and strategic alliances.

One such alliance involves the use of 3-D printing of the knee meniscus. DePuy Synthes Products has formed a collaboration with Aspect Biosystems to develop a prototype artificial meniscus.