The Food and Drug Administration, a government department, is a branch responsible for ensuring the general public that all food, cosmetic and health care products for sale in the market are safe, hygienic and effective. That said, products from different manufacturers also hold the same responsibility in creating their products according to the set standards of safety, sanitation and effectiveness that the FDA strictly requires. Moreover, the FDA has regulatory processes to ensure that these products pass their routine clinical testing procedures, and make sure that no defective product leaks into the market, be it a small pack of candies or an expensive metal implant.

Last August of 2010, however, the news broke out that DePuy Orthopaedics, a leading manufacturer of metal hip implants, let slip thousands of defective hip replacements. They have been selling these implants since 2003, so you can only imagine how many people were affected. To date, over 93, 000 Americans have complained about how the faulty prostheses are causing them pain and decreased physical mobility. The surprising thing about the whole issue is that it may be uncertain if the FDA even knew of the defects from DePuy’s hip implants.

It turns out that DePuy was able to spot a loophole in one of FDA’s policies, the 510(k) process, enabling them to outsmart the authorities. Simply put, they were able to gain FDA’s approval to sell their products for thousands of patients to use, and in turn gain millions in profit.

Apart from this, there are no implant registries in the United States, unlike those from United Kingdom and Australia, where the incidence of revision surgeries concerning hip replacements were noticed in due time. In fact, the US is now into talks of creating their own artificial implant registries to prevent issues like this to happen in the future.

Because of FDA’s sheer dereliction in allowing the equally irresponsible DePuy to market their products, people felt furious and betrayed that even a government agency has let this slip. Those affected should waste no time to file a DePuy recall lawsuit. Even if the FDA has contributed to this discreditable reality, pressing charges against DePuy will at least prove that you are strong enough to fight for your rights, and to claim the exact compensation for the physical and emotional damages that you have incurred.