Bloomberg News  (12/5, Feeley, 1.91M) reports Johnson & Johnson officials “destroyed or misplaced” hundreds of thousands of documents “related to its vaginal-mesh implants” and should be blocked “from relying on some defenses in planned trials over the devices,” according to patients’ lawyers. Attorneys for women “who blame the devices for their injuries” said in a court filing Dec. 2 that officials of J&J’s Ethicon unit, “which made the company’s Gynecare Prolift implant,” lost of destroyed the papers despite orders by executives “to preserve them.” Bloomberg says last year, the FDA ordered J&J, C.R. Bard Inc. and many other vaginal-implant makers to study rates of organ damage and complications stemming from the implants.