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 The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas jury's verdict in favor 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.
"This jury, as have other juries in other litigations, once again
imposed punitive damages on a corporation that valued profits over
safety and profits over patients," Murray's lawyers, Tom Kline and
Jason Itkin, said in a joint statement. "Johnson & Johnson and
(subsidiary) Janssen chose billions over children."
J&J said the award was "grossly disproportionate with the initial
compensatory award in this case, and the company is confident it
will be overturned." It added that the jury in the case had not been
allowed to hear evidence of Risperdal's benefits.
Professor Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond School of Law
said he expects the punitive damages to be lowered on appeal, citing
a U.S. Supreme Court decision which found that "few awards exceeding
a single-digit ratio between punitive and compensatory damages, to a
significant degree, will satisfy due process."
Tobias said the verdict was about sending a message.
"A jury, if it's outrageous enough conduct, will award a big number
and let the lawyers and judges work it out," he said.
Tobias added that the verdict could be a sign that J&J will face
more large damages awards in other Risperdal cases.
"The kind of evidence in this trial may persuade another jury or
judge to do something similar," he said.
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. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration 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.
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.
A jury in 2015 awarded Murray $1.75 million after finding J&J was
negligent in failing to warn of the risk of gynecomastia. A state
appeals court upheld the verdict in February 2018 but reduced it to
$680,000.
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.
But a Pennsylvania Superior Court ruling in 2018 cleared the way for
punitive damages awards, holding that the law of each plaintiff's
state should instead apply.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York and Nate Raymond in
Boston; editing by Bill Berkrot and Cynthia Osterman)
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