$1.1 Billion Philips CPAP Settlement Reached to Resolve Cancer, Personal Injury Claims

Philips Respironics has agreed to pay $1.1 billion to settle personal injury lawsuits and medical monitoring claims stemming from a massive recall issued in 2021, for CPAP, BiPAP and mechanical ventilators that contained a defective sound abatement foam that breaks down, releasing toxic particles directly into the breathing machines’ air pathways.

The Philips CPAP settlement was announced by the company today, in an investor earnings report for the first quarter of 2024. The deal came after a mediation with Judge Diane M. Welsh, during which the manufacturer and plaintiffs’ leadership attorneys reached an agreement to resolve claims that the machines caused various types of cancer, respiratory injuries, lung damage and other injuries.

Tens of thousands of personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits have been filed since the Philips CPAP recall was first announced in July 2021, impacting millions of devices sold over the past few decades that contained a polyester-based polyurethane (PE-PUR) foam, which was intended to help reduce noise and vibrations while the machines were used at night. However, due to serious health risks from the CPAP foam, users were advised to stop using their devices, unless needed for life-sustaining treatment.

In September, Philips announced it will pay at least $445 million in a CPAP recall class action settlement to individuals who bought, rented or leased one of the impacted devices, and another $34 million to health insurance companies and others who paid to reimburse users to replace the machines. However, that deal did not resolve the individual injury claims being pursued by former users, nor class action claims that sought funding for medical monitoring in the future.

Philips CPAP Injury Lawsuit Settlement Agreement

In the investor report, Royal Philips CEO Roy Jakobs announced the Philips CPAP injury settlement payouts will total $1.1 billion, with the funding beginning in 2025. Insurers will pay $40 million of that settlement amount, but the rest will come from the company’s revenues, Jakobs indicated.

Other details of the agreement have not been released, including any average Philips CPAP settlement amounts that will be awarded for specific injuries, or information about options for claimants to continue to pursue lawsuits against the company in the future.

The announcement came just days after U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti of the Western District of Pennsylvania, who has been assigned to oversee the pretrial proceedings of all Philips CPAP lawsuits filed in federal courts nationwide, granted final approval on an economic loss settlement agreement following a conference held on April 25.

This new agreement appears to resolve most, if not all, Philips CPAP lawsuits being pursued throughout the federal court system. However, the company indicates that it will not admit any fault or liability in any of the settlement agreements.

Previously, Jakobs had indicated he expected the company to reach a global settlement for CPAP injury lawsuits sometime this year. And, earlier this month, the company agreed to a consent decree which prohibits the sale of Philips CPAP devices in the U.S. until it can prove the products meet FDA standards.

The personal injury and medical monitoring settlement agreement still needs to also receive final approval from Judge Conti.