Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has reached an agreement to close most lawsuits related to the antipsychotic drug Risperdal, in which the pharmaceutical group is accused by thousands of men of causing them excessive breast augmentation, the company revealing costs of 800 million dollars, Reuters reports.
J&J said in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it reached an agreement in principle in September to resolve “almost all” of the approximately 9,000 Risperdal-related lawsuits.
The company has reached an agreement with lawyers involved in lawsuits, including a lawsuit in Philadelphia, in which a man from Maryland, Nicholas Murray, obtained in 2019, from a jury, punitive damages amounting to $ 8 billion, subsequently reduced by a judge for $ 6.8 million.
J&J reported that in the third quarter it recorded legal expenses amounting to $ 800 million related to this agreement.
It is unclear which US trials were included in this agreement. Many lawsuits are still pending in Pennsylvania, and the company has other cases in California and Missouri.
The applicants’ lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit generally accuses J&J of failing to warn of the risk of a condition called gynecomastia, associated with the use of Risperdal, a drug the company has promoted for unapproved use, for purposes other than those listed in the leaflet, in children. J&J has denied the allegations.
The US Food and Drug Administration approved Risperdal in 1993 for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in adults, and it was not until 2006 that the drug was approved for the treatment of nervous irritation associated with children with autism.
The company separately agreed in 2013 to pay $ 2.2 billion to close criminal and civil investigations into the promotion of Risperdal and two other drugs.
The U.S. Supreme Court in May rejected Johnson & Johnson’s attempt to overturn a jury’s verdict, which ruled $ 70 million for failing to warn of the risks associated with using Risperdal for purposes other than those in the prospectus.
In 2019, the court rejected an appeal by Johnson & Johnson against a decision of the Pennsylvania Superior Court, which upheld a verdict in favor of a man from Tennessee who was prescribed the drug at the age of 4, in 2003.
source: News.ro, photo source: Video capture
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