Johnson & Johnson’s hernia mesh settlements resolved roughly 4,000 lawsuits over its Ethicon Physiomesh Flexible Composite Hernia Mesh through a series of confidential agreements reached between May 2021 and late 2023. The federal multidistrict litigation, MDL 2782 in the Northern District of Georgia, officially closed in early 2026 with zero pending actions.1MDL Update. Ethicon Physiomesh Flexible Composite Hernia Mesh Neither Ethicon nor its parent has disclosed the total payout or any per-plaintiff figure.
The Product at the Center of the Settlements
Physiomesh was a five-layer device, polypropylene mesh sandwiched between films of poliglecaprone-25 and polydioxanone, made for laparoscopic ventral hernia repair. Ethicon pulled it from the global market in June 2016 after data from two independent hernia registries in Germany and Denmark showed higher rates of recurrence and reoperation than competing meshes.2Australia Therapeutic Goods Administration. Ethicon Physiomesh Flexible Composite Mesh The withdrawal covered only the laparoscopic version, not the open-surgical version or other Ethicon hernia products.
Plaintiffs alleged the multi-layer coating kept the mesh from integrating with surrounding tissue and that the polypropylene core was too weak for normal abdominal forces, letting hernias push back through. Reported complications included recurrence requiring another surgery, adhesions to internal organs, bowel obstruction, infection, mesh migration and shrinkage, chronic pain, and in rare cases sepsis and death.3Shouse Law Group. Ethicon Hernia Mesh Lawsuits
How the Settlements Were Structured
After the 2016 recall, cases against Ethicon and Johnson & Johnson piled up quickly. In June 2017, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated the federal actions into MDL 2782 before Senior U.S. District Judge Richard W. Story. A parallel group of cases was organized as a Multi-County Litigation in Atlantic County, New Jersey. Over the life of the MDL, 4,054 actions were filed.1MDL Update. Ethicon Physiomesh Flexible Composite Hernia Mesh No Physiomesh case appears to have reached a jury.
Resolution came in stages, all confidential:
- May 2021: Ethicon signed a term sheet covering about 3,600 cases and roughly 4,300 plaintiffs.4MassDevice. Johnson and Johnson’s Ethicon Settles Remaining Physiomesh Suits
- September 2021: A master settlement agreement was finalized for 3,729 cases across the Georgia MDL and the New Jersey MCL, with a qualified settlement fund established through Wells Fargo National Bank as escrow agent under continuing court supervision.5U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia. Order Establishing Qualified Settlement Fund – MDL 2782
- May 2023: Ethicon reached an additional agreement with 292 claimants excluded from the master settlement.6MedTech Dive. J&J Hernia Mesh Settlement Prompts Judge to Dismiss More Than 200 Cases
- Late November 2023: J&J and the remaining Georgia claimants jointly filed to dismiss. Judge Story dismissed more than 200 active cases with prejudice, ending the federal litigation.6MedTech Dive. J&J Hernia Mesh Settlement Prompts Judge to Dismiss More Than 200 Cases
By early 2023, 2,236 cases under the master agreement had already been dismissed with prejudice. By October 2023, pending Physiomesh plaintiffs had dropped from about 2,100 at the start of the year to roughly 720, with only five cases still subject to docket control orders.7Yahoo Finance. J&J Hernia Mesh Settlement
Johnson & Johnson has consistently said settling is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing.6MedTech Dive. J&J Hernia Mesh Settlement Prompts Judge to Dismiss More Than 200 Cases
How Much Plaintiffs Received
The dollar figures are not public. The court-approved escrow arrangement and the supporting memorandum were filed under seal, and neither Ethicon nor Johnson & Johnson has disclosed the total or per-plaintiff amounts.5U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia. Order Establishing Qualified Settlement Fund – MDL 2782 Johnson & Johnson’s 2024 annual report disclosed aggregate litigation-related charges of $5.45 billion for 2024 and $7.15 billion for 2023, but broke out no Physiomesh-specific figure.8Johnson & Johnson. Johnson and Johnson 2024 Annual Report Anyone quoting a per-plaintiff number for Physiomesh is guessing.
Other Ethicon Hernia Mesh Products
Physiomesh was not the only Ethicon hernia mesh device to draw lawsuits. Two other product lines remain in litigation.
The Proceed Surgical Mesh, a lightweight polypropylene product coated with oxidized regenerated cellulose, was recalled multiple times between 2006 and 2014 over risks that the coating could separate from the mesh and expose bowel to polypropylene, along with packaging sterility problems.9Drugwatch. Hernia Mesh Plaintiffs allege shrinkage, migration, and tearing during surgery. The Prolene Hernia System, a heavier polypropylene device, has drawn claims of chronic pain and nerve damage.3Shouse Law Group. Ethicon Hernia Mesh Lawsuits
In March 2019, the New Jersey Supreme Court centralized the Proceed and Prolene cases as a separate Multicounty Litigation in Atlantic County.10New Jersey Courts. Proceed Surgical Mesh/Proceed Ventral Patch – Case Information As of late 2024, at least ten plaintiffs had settled with Ethicon on undisclosed terms.11Motley Rice. Hernia Mesh The scope and pace of this litigation remain less defined than the closed Physiomesh MDL.
Can You Still File a Claim?
For Physiomesh specifically, the window is effectively shut. MDL 2782 is closed, and one of the last individual rulings, Hallac v. Ethicon in April 2024, showed the practical barrier: Judge Story granted Ethicon summary judgment after finding the plaintiff’s claims were barred by New York’s three-year statute of limitations, which began running when she first experienced symptoms rather than when she received a formal diagnosis.12FindLaw. Hallac v. Ethicon Inc. Because Physiomesh was withdrawn in 2016, most statutes of limitations have now run.
Claims against other Ethicon products, and against other manufacturers, are a different matter. State limitation periods for medical devices generally run from one to six years, and many states apply a discovery rule that starts the clock when the patient learns the mesh caused the injury rather than at the date of surgery. As of mid-2026, more than 26,000 hernia mesh cases were still pending across MDLs against C.R. Bard, Covidien, and Atrium Medical, and attorneys continue to accept new claims involving those products.13Drugwatch. Hernia Mesh Lawsuits If you had a hernia mesh implanted, the manufacturer, product name, and implant date matter more than any general headline about “hernia mesh settlements.” Your operative report or hospital records will identify the device.
Not to Be Confused With Pelvic Mesh
Search results for J&J and “mesh” often surface a much larger set of settlements involving pelvic (transvaginal) mesh, used for pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence in women. Those cases are legally and medically separate from Physiomesh; the industry-wide pelvic mesh litigation produced settlements totaling nearly $8 billion across seven manufacturers and more than 100,000 plaintiffs,14The New York Times. Pelvic Mesh Settlements with J&J alone paying $120 million in January 2016 to resolve roughly 3,000 pelvic mesh cases15TorHoerman Law. Vaginal Mesh Lawsuit and $116.86 million in October 2019 to settle multistate consumer protection claims from 41 states and the District of Columbia.16New York Attorney General. Johnson and Johnson and Subsidiary Pay $117 Million Settlement After Endangering None of those figures apply to Physiomesh or to hernia mesh generally.