Jury Hits Johnson & Johnson With $2.5 Million Verdict For Risperdal Reports Sanders Phillips Grossman, LLC.
Garden City, NY (PRWEB) February 27, 2015 -- A Philadelphia jury hit drug giant Johnson & Johnson with a $2.5 million verdict for its marketing of Risperdal. The case is Pledger v. Johnson & Johnson, case number 120401997 filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Risperdal, a powerful antipsychotic drug, was approved for adult schizophrenics in 1993. Plaintiffs argued J&J heavily marketed this potent antipsychotic to children, causing young boys and men to grow female breasts – a risk J&J hid from doctors and their patients.
This case follows $2.2 billion in criminal and civil fines Johnson & Johnson paid to the United States Department of Justice in October 2013 for its illegal marketing of Risperdal (United States of America v. Johnson & Johnson, United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, case number 04-cv-5184). This $2.5 million verdict marks the first individual Risperdal case to go to a jury. The jury agreed J&J hid the fact its drug causes boys and men to grow female breasts, a condition called gynecomastia.
J&J also suffered a staggering second blow from its fraudulent marketing of Risperdal. Today the South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed that State’s Attorney General’s Unfair Trade Practices Act verdict against J&J in the amount of $136 million. The original jury award was $256 million however the South Carolina Supreme Court reduced the award while upholding the jury’s finding that J&J “willfully fail[ed] to disclose known risks and side effects associated with Risperdal” according to court documents. The South Carolina Supreme Court case is State of South Carolina v. Johnson & Johnson, Appellate Case No. 2012-206987.
Attorney Robert Mosier, Co-Lead counsel for more than 800 Risperdal cases coordinated in Los Angeles Superior Court, stated “Johnson & Johnson marketed this powerful antipsychotic to the most vulnerable portion of our society, our children, causing a generation of young boys and men to grow female breasts. The jury’s verdict was a resounding message that what Johnson & Johnson did was wrong.”
There are more than 2,000 Risperdal cases filed in Los Angeles and Philadelphia and many more are expected to be filed. Attorney Marc Grossman, founding partner of Sanders Phillips Grossman, LLC, whose law firm represents more than 7,000 Risperdal victims stated “this jury verdict is the first step in getting compensation for the thousands of young boys and men harmed by this drug.”
The Risperdal cases are filed in two coordinated actions – one in Los Angeles Superior Court before the Honorable William F. Highberger (Risperdal and Invega Product Liability Cases, JCCP 4775) and a second in Philadelphia before the Honorable Arnold New (In re: Risperdal Litigation, March 2010 Term, Case No. 100300296).
The law firm of Sanders Phillips Grossman, LLC is a National Law Firm and represents thousands of young boys who grew female breasts as a result of taking Risperdal. To contact Sanders Phillips Grossman, LLC for information on how the firm and how they can protect you or your loved one harmed by Risperdal, please call (516) 741-5600 or visit http://www.thesandersfirm.com.
Marc D. Grossman, The Sanders Firm, http://www.thesandersfirm.com, (516) 741-5600, [email protected]
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