Johnson and Johnson ordered to pay up by South Carolina Court (Photo : Yahoo News)
Johnson and Johnson won the lawsuit filed against them. However, the Supreme Court of South Carolina still required the giant manufacturing company to pay up a penalty of $136 million. This is because the jury found out that the Janssen unit of the company concealed the risk of Risperdal, an anti-psychotic drug that they have been producing for years now. This is according to a report made by Yahoo News.
This ruling by the South Carolina Supreme Court is in conflict with the decisions made by two other state's high courts. The Supreme Courts of Louisiana and Arkansas decided against J&J. Stating that the company's marketing of Risperdal is quite deceptive in nature.
Robyn Frenze, the spokeswoman of Janssen said to Bloomberg that the company did not violate the laws of South Carolina. The decision was made a day after someone in the Philadelphia jury ordered Janssen and J&J to pay $2.5 million to a man from Alabama and his family. The said man developed female breasts while he was taking Risperdal. This was the first case sued against the company's concealment on Risperdal's side effects. However, there are more than 3,000 cases now on boys having abnormal breast changes while on the said drug.
Once, Risperal was the biggest seller among the anti-psychotic drugs because of how it is capable of helping people with depression and anxiety have a better control over their emotions. The worldwide sales reached $4.7 billion. Sales of Risperdal drastically declined after the cases have been filed.
Justice John Kittredge mentioned that Janssen's desire for a better market share and better sale performance led to these issues. However, the absence of actual harm caused by the drug is quite manageable.
Right now, Pamela Van Houten, one of the spokespersons of Johnson and Johnson remains mum about the issue and said that she will make her comments public soon enough.
