October 9, 2019: Late yesterday a Philadelphia jury rendered an $8 billion punitive damages verdict against pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson for illegally marketing the antipsychotic drug Risperdal, putting young boys at risk for developing female-sized breast tissue. The condition, gynecomastia, is irreversible.
“The conduct the jury saw in the courtroom was clear and convincing that J&J disregarded the safety of children” said Tom Kline and Jason Itkin, Nicholas Murray’s attorneys in a statement provided to Bloomberg News. Murray took Risperdal as a child for autism.
Attorney Stephen Sheller, also counsel in the litigation, said the verdict shows that J&J “can’t get away with this kind of conduct anymore.”
“The conduct the jury saw in the courtroom was clear and convincing that J&J disregarded the safety of children” said Tom Kline and Jason Itkin, Nicholas Murray’s attorneys in a statement provided to Bloomberg News. Murray took Risperdal as a child for for autism. Attorney Stephen Sheller, also counsel in the litigation, said the verdict shows that J&J “can’t get away with this kind of conduct anymore.”
At nearly the same time, a J&J pharmaceutical representative came to Sheller in 2004 as a whistleblower with allegations that J&J was illegally marketing the use of Risperdal in children off-label, resulting in Sheller filing a False Claims Act complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice. In 2013 J&J settled the charges for $2.2 billion with the federal government, at the time the largest whistleblower settlement for a single drug.
There are now more than 7,000 Risperdal injury cases pending in Pennsylvania and 13,000 nationwide.
For more information on Attorney Sheller’s pursuit of justice for the boys and young men harmed by Risperdal, watch these videos: a CBS Evening News report “Risperdal Side Effects in Children” and in a profile of the two attorneys, Attorneys Sheller and Tom Kline of Kline & Specter, taking on the pharmaceutical giant. Jason Itkin, of the Houston, Texas law firm Arnold & Itkin joined Sheller and Kline in the most recent Risperdal cases.
According to Bloomberg News, “The $8 billion verdict is four times the size of the next-largest U.S. award so far this year. In May, a California jury awarded a couple $2.055 billion in compensatory and punitive damages over claims they got cancer from exposure to Bayer AG’s Roundup weed-killer. That award was later cut to $86.7 million.”
The Philadelphia case is Murray v. Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., Johnson & Johnson Company, and Janssen Pharmaceutical Research and Development LLC., 130401990, Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.
More information on the $8 billion verdict:
Johnson & Johnson Hit With $8 billion Jury Verdict in Risperdal Suit, The New York Times, October 8, 2019.
J&J Unit Ordered to Pay $8 Billion Over Anti-Psychotic Drug, Bloomberg, October 8, 2019.
J&J Hit with $8 Billion Jury Award Over Antipsychotic Drug, The Wall Street Journal, October 8, 2019.
Jury Told to ‘Send a Message’ in First Risperdal Punitive Damages Trial, Law.com/The Legal Intelligencer, October 8, 2019.
