A Dallas federal judge has slashed a $1.04 billion verdict against Johnson & Johnson nearly in half, a month after a jury punished the company over a hip implant device made by its DePuy Orthopaedics division.

It took the jury less than a day on Dec. 1 to issue the billion dollar award to six plaintiffs after concluding that Johnson & Johnson misled them and their doctors about the safety of the Pinnacle hip implant.