Johnson & Johnson hit with $8B verdict over antipsychotic

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia jury has awarded $8 billion in punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson and one if its subsidiaries over a drug the companies made that the plaintiff’s attorneys say is linked to the abnormal growth of female breast tissue in boys, an incurable condition known as gynecomastia.

Johnson and Johnson immediately denounced the award after the jury’s decision late Tuesday in the Court of Common pleas, saying it’s “excessive and unfounded” and vowing immediate action to overturn it.

Johnson & Johnson used an organized scheme to make billions of dollars while illegally marketing and promoting the antipsychotic drug Risperdal, plaintiff’s attorneys Tom Kline and Jason Itkin said in a statement.

Thousands of lawsuits have been filed over the drug, but the attorneys said this was the first in which a jury decided whether to award punitive damages and came up with an amount.

Johnson & Johnson said in a statement on its website it was confident that the award would be overturned, calling it “grossly disproportionate” with the initial compensatory damage award and “a clear violation of due process.”

Johnson & Johnson said the court’s exclusion of key evidence left it unable to present a meaningful defense, including what they said was a drug label that “clearly and appropriately outlined the risks associated with the medicine” or Risperdal’s benefits for patients with serious mental illness. They also said the plaintiff’s attorneys failed to present any evidence of actual harm.