More Victims Filing Risperdal Lawsuits

Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a division of Johnson & Johnson, is facing 40 percent more Risperdal serious side effect lawsuits today than it did just a year ago.

The lead attorneys in Philadelphia have added more than 500 new suits to the docket since the beginning of 2017. J&J lawyers are now even more aggressive in the wake of a $70 million verdict in March 2017; before then, the company had settled many of these actions for as little as $2,000 a case. One source says that J&J is refusing to settle and doing “whatever it takes” to win cases, such as bringing a new stable of expert witnesses to court. On top of the Risperdal lawsuits, the company is dealing with multiple verdicts regarding the link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer, in addition to an ongoing parade of defective hip implant cases. There are more claims on the horizon as well, as the first Xarelto  trial is scheduled to begin in April 2017; these victims claim that the blood thinner causes uncrontrolled bleeding.

Still, J&J has an estimated $48 billion in cash on hand and share prices have only marginally declined in the past few years.

Risperdal Serious Side Effects

In 1993, the Food and Drug Administration approved this powerful antipsychotic drug to treat adult schizophrenia patients. Ten years later, the agency allowed J&J to market the drug as a way to treat children with autism and other emotional disturbances. However, numerous studies have linked Risperdal with serious side effects.

The aforementioned $70 million verdict involved a gynecomastia case. Although it is not a fatal condition, male breast enlargement has extremely serious consequences for victims. These men and boys face a greatly-elevated risk of breast cancer. Moreover, this condition has significant emotional consequences, especially among boys. These victims often develop uncontrolled physical symptoms as well, including lactation.

Next, as early as 2006, researchers found a link between Risperdal and pituitary tumors. Even if these tumors are benign, they often cause painful headaches and chronic vision problems. Since these effects make everyday tasks almost impossible to perform, the victims usually need aggressive and risky surgery to remove the tumors. Since the pituitary gland controls hormone levels, there are a host of other possible side effects as well, from depression and anxiety to heart problems and unaligned teeth.

All these side effects, along with the company’s history of aggressively marketing a drug that was probably too strong for children to patients in this age group, usually means significant compensation.

Risperdal use often has unintended consequences. For a free consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney in Mumfordville, contact Attorney Gary S. Logsdon. An attorney can connect victims with qualified medical professionals, even if the victims have no money or no insurance.