A $70 million verdict won by a Tennessee teenager who blamed Johnson & Johnson’s Risperdal drug for causing him to grow female breasts dwarfs awards to other users of the antipsychotic medication who suffered the same side effect.
A Philadelphia jury Friday found J&J officials failed to properly warn the young man and his family that Risperdal could cause him to grow female-size breasts and awarded him damages for emotional distress, said Steve Sheller, one of the teenager’s lawyers. The verdict is about 30 times larger than the $2.5 million awarded to an Alabama man in 2015 who sued J&J after developing size 46 DD breasts.
Officials of J&J’s Janssen unit, which sells Risperdal, said the drug’s safety label contained proper warnings about the breast side effect. The company intends to challenge the verdict.
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