(PRWEB) February 13, 2013

More testimony during the DePuy ASR trial points toward potential problems for Johnson & Johnson. The company’s marketing department allegedly encouraged its sales staff in emails and at a conference to be “ruthless” about selling the later-recalled DePuy ASR hip replacement system, the Rottenstein Law Group reports after reviewing videotaped testimony* given on Feb. 13 at the trial currently underway in Los Angeles.

The Rottenstein Law Group, which finds this news troubling, will continue to offer analysis of and monitor progress from the nation’s first ASR trial, In re: Loren Kransky and Sheryl Kransky v. DePuy, Inc., et al. (BC456086, Los Angeles Superior Court). Additional testimony at the trial, according to a Bloomberg** report, indicated that emails between employees of Johnson & Johnson subsidiary DePuy showed they were worried in 2007 about how the metal ions would affect sales. The DePuy ASR, which went on the market in 2003, was recalled in August 2010. The metal-on-metal design of the hip components can potentially cause metal particles to enter a hip recipient’s bloodstream because of friction.

“Thousands of hip implant recipients could have been spared pain and serious side effects if DePuy did in fact know about the alleged risks of its ASR hip implant and acted in a responsible manner,” said Rochelle Rottenstein, principal of the Rottenstein Law Group, which is actively filing ASR lawsuits on behalf of hip implant recipients. “The people who call us daily with alleged side effects such as metal poisoning could have used this information years ago.”