$105 million mesh class action settlement approved

The Federal Court of Australia has today approved the $105 million in-principle settlement in the Boston Scientific Mesh Class Action.

The settlement was reached in July 2022, sixteen months after the class action was launched. 

Shine Lawyers’ Joint Head of Class Actions, Vicky Antzoulatos, welcomed this morning’s decision.

This settlement does not reflect any admission of misconduct or liability by Boston Scientific, nor has there been any finding of liability by the Court against them. The respondents deny the allegations made in the class action.   

 This class action includes any person who was implanted with one or more of the mesh and sling implants listed below in Australia between 2005 and 1 June 2022:    

• Pinnacle™ Pelvic Floor Repair Kit;  

• Pinnacle™ Lite Posterior;  

• Uphold™ Vaginal Support System;  

• Uphold™ LITE Vaginal Support System;  

• Upsylon™ Y-Mesh;  

• Advantage™ Transvaginal Mid-Urethral Sling System;  

• Advantage Fit™ Transvaginal Mid-Urethral Sling System;  

• Obtryx™ Transobturator Sling System;  

• Obtryx™ II Transobturator Mid-Urethral Sling System;  

• Lynx™ Suprapubic Mid-Urethral Sling System;   

• Solyx™ Single-Incision Sling System; and/or  

• Polyform™.  

About the class action   

• By the end of 2017 and into 2018 and 2019, different mesh products were being recalled from the market, including three made by Boston Scientific, which represented a few products in the company’s mesh product portfolio.  

• In early 2018 the TGA ordered the company to add warnings about possible adverse side effects such as severe chronic pain, groin pain and bladder perforation.  

• A 2018 Senate inquiry concluded surgery with mesh, which it estimated had been performed on about 150,000 women in Australia, should be a last resort.   

• The first mesh class action was brought by Shine Lawyers on behalf of thousands of women in the Federal Court against Johnson & Johnson and two subsidiaries, including Ethicon, culminating in a trial that ran for seven months. This class action was successful in 2019, the matter was appealed by Johnson & Johnson & Ethicon but the Full Court of the Federal Court dismissed the appeal on Friday 5 March, 2021 in favour of Shine’s case. On 5 November 2021 the High Court dismissed Johnson & Johnson’s application for special leave to appeal.  

• Shine Lawyers funded this action.