A Risperdal lawsuit payout of $1 million  was awarded to a 24-year old man from Troy, N.Y. recently. This case was the first gynecomastia lawsuit trial that was brought before a jury outside the state of Pennsylvania.

Up to 6,000 previous cases concerning this drug and the horrible side effect of male breast growth have been consolidated into a mass tort in the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas.

The Court of Common Pleas has tried four cases thus far and arrived at Risperdal lawsuit payout amounts of between $500,000 and $70 million. A few more of those gynecomastia cases reached settlements with Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals just prior to going to trial. The pharmaceutical giant is the developer, maker, and distributor of the psychiatric drug.

This Risperdal lawsuit payout is another win for victims of this supposedly rare side effect which was allegedly minimized by Johnson & Johnson. The defendants originally listed male breast growth or gynecomastia as a condition seen in approximately one in one thousand patients taking the drug.

Risperdal was approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1993 for the treatment of schizophrenia in adolescent and adult patients. The first pediatric uses were not approved until October 2006.

At that time, uses expanded to include treatment of autistic spectrum disorders from age 5-16, and bipolar disorder from ages 10-17. It was also at this time that the label was updated to read that 2.3% of males ingesting Risperdal will likely experience the gynecomastia side effect.

Specifics of this Risperdal Lawsuit Payout

According to the Risperdal lawsuit, plaintiff Shaquil B. started treatment with Risperdal 15 years ago, when he was nine years old. A few months after beginning to take Risperdal, he started to develop female-like breasts which grew excessively, and he was unable to hide them.

The central argument in this case is that the defendants fell significantly short in providing warning to medical professionals and potential patients about this socially stigmatizing side effect.

On Sept. 27, 2017, the jury came back with their verdict after Shaquil B. had essentially proven his negligence and failure-to-warn case. The verdict in this hearing amounted to a Risperdal lawsuit payout of $500,000 for past and present suffering and an equal amount for future suffering.

The plaintiff and former patient was represented by attorneys from Bernstein Liebhard LLP, a nationally-based product liability law group specializing in defective pharmaceuticals and medical devices. In a press release, a representing attorney from the law group said she was pleased with the decision of the jury and its award.

Risperdal is believed to cause gynecomastia or male breast growth by increasing the body’s level of prolactin, a hormone which stimulates breast growth and starts lactation in females.