STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with a giant hip check.
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INSKEEP: You know, sort of like you'd have in basketball or hockey. Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay out $2.5 billion to settle a lawsuit over faulty artificial hips. The medical products maker will reportedly pay 8,000 American patients $250,000 each for new hip replacement surgery. An additional $475 million will cover other health problems caused by the faulty device which is called the articular service replacement or ASR.
Introduced in 2003, the ASR caused tissue damage and crippling injuries. Americans made up about one-third of the 93,000 people worldwide who had the faulty device implanted. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.