Pa. Jury's First Risperdal Punitive Damages Trial Begins

Pa. Jury's First Risperdal Punitive Damages Trial Begins

Introduction

A Risperdal punitive damages trial commenced last week in Philadelphia against Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals for illegally marketing drugs for off-label use in children. The trial is considered to be the first by a Pennsylvania jury to consider awarding punitive damages in a Risperdal case.

The lawsuit involves a plaintiff, who won $1.75 million in 2015, which was later reduced to $685,000, over claims against the pharmaceutical giant for causing his gynecomastia, an undesired growth of breast tissue in males after using Risperdal. The plaintiff started taking the powerful antipsychotic drug in 2003, at the time when the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) had not approved the drug for use in children. Following the New Jersey law, the Philadelphia judge barred Risperdal plaintiffs from seeking punitive damages in the litigation. The rule was later reversed by the Pennsylvania Superior Court, stating that, each plaintiff could apply the law of their home state on the punitive damages issue.

The stakes for the mass tort, which has around 7,000 cases pending in Philadelphia along with several multimillion-dollar verdicts, has been raised considerably.

There are two coordinated actions filed for Risperdal cases: one in Los Angeles Superior Court (Risperdal and Invega Product Liability Cases, JCCP 4775, presided by Honorable William Highberger) and the other in Philadelphia (In Re: Risperdal Litigation, March 2010 Term, Case No. 100300296).