New York: Johnson & Johnson must pay $8 billion (Dh29.4 billion) in punitive damages to a man who previously won $680,000 over his claims that it failed to warn that young men using its antipsychotic drug Risperdal could grow breasts, a Philadelphia jury said on Tuesday.
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The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas jury’s verdict in favour of Nicholas Murray came in the first case in which a Pennsylvania jury had been able to consider awarding punitive damages in one of thousands of Risperdal cases pending in the state.
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J&J and a lawyer for Murray did not immediately comment on the verdict.
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Extremely large punitive damages
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The extremely large punitive damages award is likely to be reduced on the grounds that it violates due process.
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In a 2003 case, the US Supreme Court threw out a $145 million punitive damage award and held that, “few awards exceeding a single-digit ratio between punitive and compensatory damages, to a significant degree, will satisfy due process.”
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Murray, like other male plaintiffs in the mass tort litigation over Risperdal, alleges that he developed breasts after being prescribed the medicine when he was a minor.
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Schizophrenia and bipolar mania
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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug in late 1993 for treating schizophrenia and episodes of bipolar mania in adults.
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Plaintiffs claim that J&J failed to warn of the risk of gynecomastia, the development of enlarged breasts in males, associated with Risperdal, which they say the company marketed for unapproved uses with children.
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In his lawsuit, Murray, now 26, alleged that he developed breasts after his doctors began prescribing him Risperdal off-label in 2003 after a psychologist diagnosed him with autism spectrum disorder. Doctors are allowed to prescribe medicines as they see fit, while companies are only allowed to promote their drugs for approved uses.
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A jury in 2015 awarded Murray $1.75 million after finding J&J was negligent in failing to warn of the risk of gynecomastia.
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A state appeals court upheld the verdict in February 2018 but reduced it to $680,000.
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Plaintiffs in the mass tort litigation had been barred from seeking punitive damages since 2014, when a state court judge ruled that the law of New Jersey, which prohibits punitive damages and is J&J’s home state, should be applied globally to the cases.
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But the Pennsylvania Superior Court 2018 ruling cleared the way for punitive damages awards, holding that the law of each plaintiff’s state should instead apply.
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