A Pennsylvania state judge has ruled that punitive damages cannot be awarded in Risperdal lawsuits because New Jersey law precludes such awards for drug injury lawsuits related to drugs that were subject to pre-market approval by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Because Janssen Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Risperdal, is headquartered in New Jersey, Judge Arnold New ruled that the state’s Products Liability Act would apply to the Risperdal lawsuits.

Although the plaintiffs are prohibited from seeking punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson and Janssen, they will be able to seek compensatory damages for the injuries they allegedly suffered from Risperdal. There are currently more than 500 Risperdal lawsuits that are currently pending in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania.

Specifically, the most commonly mentioned injury in these lawsuits is gynecomastia, also known as male breast growth. Although the Risperdal gynecomastia lawsuits are being processed in Pennsylvania, Janssen Pharmaceuticals has two facilities in New Jersey, where marketing for Risperdal took place.

Janssen has agreed to settle approximately 80 Risperdal lawsuits. In 2012, the pharmaceutical company agreed to pay the U.S. government $2.2 billion over allegations it used deceptive marketing practices in order to promote Risperdal for unapproved uses.

Overview of Risperdal Complications

Risperdal is currently one of the most popular antipsychotic medications prescribed in the United States. It was approved by the FDA in 1993 to treat schizophrenia in adult and adolescent patients, and has been prescribed to more than 10 million people in the United States since its release.

Risperdal is unique among most antipsychotics in how it functions in the brain, because it works by blocking the neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopamine is the primary chemical in the brain that coordinates the brain’s motivation, pleasure, movement, and frontal cortex function. Other antipsychotics try to stabilize all the brain’s chemicals to stabilize it as a whole, rather than a steady streamline effect as Risperdal does.

As mentioned earlier, it has been recently discovered that Risperdal may cause an extreme side effect in young boys. This side effect, gynecomastia, has been featured in hundreds of Risperdal lawsuits, with the patients alleging that there had been no indications of this side effect on the drug’s label, and that they had suffered severe emotional pain and suffering.

The Risperdal lawsuit is In re: Risperdal Litigation, Case No. 100300296 in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.