Class action suit vs. Nobel Biocare

Wow.

http://in.reuters.com/article/idINTRE6641BV20100705

Dentist seeks U.S. class action suit vs. Nobel Biocare

STOCKHOLM | Mon Jul 5, 2010 4:05pm IST
(Reuters) - Swiss dental implant maker Nobel Biocare has been sued by a California dentist seeking class-action status on behalf of dentists whose patients have suffered complications such as bone loss from one of its products.

A company spokesman said on Monday the NobelDirect dental implant was safe and that Nobel Biocare would fight the lawsuit, which was filed on June 30 in the U.S. District court in Los Angeles.

The suit by Jason M Yamada seeks compensation for dentists who have had to perform surgery on their patients, or pay for restorative surgery, after complications from the implants, which it said were defectively designed.

"Because of Nobel's practices, plaintiff and the class members now face a flood of complaints from injured dental patients who have needed, and will need, immediate intervention to remove the defective implants," the lawyers Lopez McHugh and Audet & Partners wrote in the 26-page complaint.

The suit proposed a class action to cover thousands of dentists in the U.S. who have used the NobelDirect implant, adding that Nobel Biocare had knowledge of the defect, but marketed the implant as safe and effective.

The Swedish Medical Products Agency investigated the same implants in 2005 to 2006 after complaints about bone loss. The company got approval to continue sales, but the agency told it to revise instructions and marketing material.

Nobel Biocare spokesman Nicolas Weidmann said NobelDirect was probably the most well documented product in the entire industry as a result of the Swedish investigation, and that it was safe if correctly used.

"We have very, very comprehensive material and data, including the clearance from the SMPA in Sweden, that the product is absolutely safe," he told Reuters.

"We have the information to prove that NobelDirect is a good product, is a safe product, and in that respect we will fight against the lawsuit, definitely."

 

Next up 3i.

 

That will never hold up in court......every implant system sees bone loss. I dont want to hear about that study regarding morse taper and how they dont leak. That study is flawed since they only looked at the implant from a horizontal view not from the top. That is when you would see movement on a morse taper. I know a couple of people who have Astra implants placed and the doc had mentioned that they saw bone loss in those.

 

yamada was one of nobels larger users in the orange county area and his partner was even a bigger placer, now he with neoss - the rep Jimbo probably gave him the implants - a little late for yamada to have a suit given this direct stuff happened years ago.....

 

I would bet a month's salary that Niznick is behind this in some way!

 

This guy is only 5 years late to stir the pot. As much as I dislike Nobel the fact that they still sell the implant and that they got cleared in Europe makes this lawsuit BS.

 

The only winners in a class-action law suit: lawyers. They get fees. Of the huge bulk payout for damages, each of the hundreds or thousands of participating plaintiffs get only a sliver. If you have a beef with an implant manufacturer and you want restitution, sue them yourself.

Signed,
Not a Nobel Rep

 

The reality is that ALL implants have a certain failure rate and sometimes, it is very difficult to ascertain why an implant failed. The problem here is that the doctor who initiated this case will be hung out to dry as Nobel will be crawling up this doctor's ass as well as the others involved to make it look as if they are the reason to blame for the failures. I really think this is a bad move on the part of these doctors. Worse yet is that Nobel will sue them all, and they will need to defend themselves from the countersuit that Nobel initiates. In the end they are looking to replace a couple thousand dollars worth of failed implants. Part of doing business. The only winners will be the attorney's which is always the case in these class action cases. Additionally, since there are no patients filing suit, the court will look at this case as suspect. No jury is going to have any sympathy for a bunch of wealthy dentists.

 

NobelDirect is the only implant in the history of the industry to ever carry a rough textured surface into the gingival area and then to have a 1-piece implant that required preparation immediately after insertion just to remove the TiUnite that was above the tissues. TiUnite will go the way that TPS did because both are too rough and have pours so if they become exposed to the soft tissue, they present a hygiene problem. The guy that invented the NobelDirect stopped using them because of the TiUnite. This lawsuit could expand to everyone dentist who experienced excessive and unexplained bone loss. Maybe Nobel will argue that the bone loss is due to their non-sterile packaging instead of their TiUnite. That will be an interesting defense.

 

Nobel used to have Yamada (the doctor) have Japanese doctors come in from japan, learn about the implants and then Yamada would sell it to them and the doctors would return to Japan with them avoiding tax and duties etc. nobel management knew about this so I guess these docs should also have a lawsuit- hell why doesnt everybody sue nobel

 

What you are saying doesn't make much sense. If you claim that the Tiunite was too tough, and caused hygiene issues, then it would be a safe assumption that when the Tiunite was removed-or "prepped" as you state, then a machined titanium surface would be what connects to the soft tissue. Everyone knows that pure or even alloy titanium is a great medium to attach to soft tissue. What you are posting is a contradiction. If in fact a Dr did remove the Tiunite by using a diamond bur, and then experienced failures, then it would be a simple argument to make that he was not following the stated surgical protocol as removing the tiunite could have caused the failure. Excessive heat, vibration, etc, during the prep could be the reason. I think the doctors in this case are really exposing themselves to great financial risk here. Overall the Nobelperfect represented less than 2% of Nobel Sales. It is an extremely low number. If there are no patient lawsuits, then how is it that the dentists are claiming damages? What is the failure rate for the 3I Nanotite? Did any of those Dr's sue 3I? The doctors behind this lawsuit are going to be crucified both financially and professionally by Nobel. The potential benefit? Their lawyers make a killing if they prevail. If someone is claiming their practice was significantly impacted by the failures of NobelPerfect, they are just plain lying. No one practice did any huge volume of Nobel Perfect to cause a practice any great damages, it was a niche implant used by very few doctors. If there were failures, it was to the extent of other implants, which falls into the cost of doing business in any dental practice.
I don't work for Nobel, but the whole premise of this lawsuit seems to be propagated by the lawyers, and ultimately that is not a good enough reason to initiate a lawsuit against a very well funded, aggressive multi national company.

 

In having interacted with Dr. Yamada a bit, I will suggest it's a safe assumption he is smarter than the majority posting on this board.

He likely wouldn't be pursuing this if he had no chance. Not saying he'll win, but what I know is that this case won't be as simple as some of you are suggesting.

 

In addition, the attorneys took it on contingency and they have to spend a lot of time and money to fight it.They know what they are doing. This like so many other class actions will very likely settle and Nobel will pay.
The bigger question is how much.

 

First of all, it is the NobelDirect one-piece with a straight head that is involved, not the Nobel(im)Perfect. Secondly, the NobelDirect was covered by TiUnite over the implant and abutment. Since the abutment head was relatively straight, it required quite a bit of preparation to remove material. The purpose of extending the rough surface over the abutment portion was than the dentist would only prepare the part sticking out of the tissue resulting in the TiUnite in still in the soft tissue on the mistaken belief that they would get "soft tissue integration." Therefore the rough surface could become a plaque collector leading to excessive bone loss.

 

If you know Yamada, let us know how he is doing when Nobel files their multi million dollar counter suit against him, and slaps a lien on his practice and house while the counter suit is pending. Maybe Nobel's counter suit will be thrown out after 4 years, and a few hundred thousand dollars in legal fees, but at that point the damages have been done. Of course this very smart doctor who can read the future very well, can contact his genius lawyer who can ask him for a $100K retainer to address and defend the countersuit. He may be a smart dentist, but that doesn't mean he is a smart business man or knows for sure he will win this lawsuit. This is extremely risky business. These legal actions have a way of taking unexpected turns, and having unintended consequences.

 

I have met Yamada and I do not know if he is any smarter than any of the posters here. As the previous person posted I would not mess with Nobel - they have the legal depth and breadth to crush anyone and can spend the money and the resources to defeat anyone. Even if they do not "win" they can have their opposition spend millions in legal fees that they will figure out every way not to pay them and at the end of the day it is a completely losing proposition.....

what does Yamada really have to prove and what does he have to gain from this- is he thinking that he is somehow entitled to millions - so the case failed, so do many others, this is implant dentistry - the whole thing seems absurd and i bet he will think this as the case drags on, his bills add up, and nobel's smart and expensive lawyers figure out the one angle that will decide the case.....the only one winning are the lawyers and i do not like lawyers (except those that are my friends)

 

There will be no countersuit. What exactly would the claims be? "you sued me and damaged by reputation" or "you put my implants wrong"
Even if there was one, there is no lien on anything while a suit is pending because there is no verdict. Yamada knows exactly that he has a fight ahead of him but when it is over he will get money almost guaranteed. Nobel has a real problem because with over 90% probability there will be a settlement and that will be inscribed in Nobel's "guest book".
Stock price is not so good these days either but that could be also because of other things.
Nobel is loosing it. Average product at highest price in today's world will not make it forever.

 

Nobel sued 3i in the early 1990's on a Branemark patent that was ruled invalid by fraud. They ended up paying $10M in anti-trust fines and $5M in legal fees so they can lose. The lawyers of a class action case do not get paid by the clients. They get paid their fees from the proceeds of a judgement or settlement so they the name of the game is to run up the fees. Nothing will stop this case other than the court ruling that each doctor's case is too different to have a common cause of failure... which is not likely considering that the FDA already required Nobel to make a change to its IFU instructions, or Nobel settles making payments to all the doctors in the class. Anyone who ever did a NobelDirect and had a failure will be a member of the class with a claim. If there were only 1000 implant failures, that could ammount to 1000 x $10,000 = $10M. Add to that about $2M in legal fees and it still would not break Nobel's bank. Now if there were a class action suit on all failures of Nobel implants because of lack of sterility, that would break the bank.

 

A party being sued can and usually does file a counter suit even if that suit is for the most part without merit. Very coming legal tactic. Additionally you are also incorrect in stating that a lien can't be filed. It sure can it's called a lis pendens. It means in Latin that a lien is pending and that the property whether it's a home or business is involved with a lawsuit and said property maybe subject to a lien in the future. It essentially ties the property up until the lawsuit is resolved while keeping countersuit defendants property secure for liening in the case countersuit plaintiff prevails. You can't really sell a property that has a Lis pendens on it.
Yamada will see soon enough what he has gotten himself into. This is not a game for a small time local dentist. This is ruthless stuff here.

 

Nobel is in a bad place. Their own clients, the dentists, aren't happy with their products. They can't say "screw the patient"-like most big pharma companies say-they have to make right with the dentists who buy their product. They should just pay up and get the bad pr over with. If they don't pay up, there will likely be a bunch of dirt that is found through discovery that will create even more bad press and potentially another suit filed against them on behalf of their shareholders. Are we really surprised this is happening? I've heard of so many complaints it was just a matter of time before someone was going to sue as Nobel wasn't going to voluntarily give up huge profits if they didn't have to.