According to Murray, the drug, which he took as a minor, caused him to develop breasts, a condition called gynecomastia.
Murray, along with other male plaintiffs in the case, claims that Johnson & Johnson failed to warn patients of the gynecomastia risk associated with Risperdral. The drug is used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in adults but was prescribed to Murray off-label in 2003 for insomnia, which doctors at the time associated with autism. Thousands of other plaintiffs have filed similar lawsuits against the drug manufacturer.
A jury in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas ruled in favor of Murray this week.
“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. Johnson & Johnson and [subsidiary company] Janssen chose billions over children,” Murray’s lawyers, Tom Kline and Jason Itkin, said in a joint statement obtained by Reuters.
Murray was awarded $680,000 in 2015 by a US judge, but that award did not include punitive damages, Forbes reported.
However, Johnson & Johnson has denied the allegations in the case, claiming that the drug label “clearly and appropriately outlined the risks associated with the medicine,” WBTV reported.
“This award for a single plaintiff stands in stark contrast with the initial $680,000 compensatory award and is a clear violation of due process,” a Johnson & Johnson spokesperson said in a statement following the ruling. “United States Supreme Court precedent dictates that punitive damages awards that are a double-digit multiplier of the compensatory award should be set aside.”
Johnson & Johnson’s legal troubles are not limited to Risperdral. The company is facing thousands of lawsuits alleging it knowingly used asbestos - an unsafe chemical - in its baby powders. Furthermore, in August, an Oklahoma court found Johnson & Johnson liable in a lawsuit claiming that the drug company helped create the opioid epidemic in the state and ordered it to pay $572 million to help ease the epidemic’s effects.
