Quoted from http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-10-29/janssen-faces-second-trial-over-drug-s-link-to-birth-defects-1
Janssen Faces Second Trial Over Drug’s Link to Birth Defects
By Sophia Pearson, Bloomberg News
October 29, 2013
Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit is facing a second trial over the links between its Topamax seizure drug and birth defects.A trial began today in Philadelphia over claims brought by a South Carolina couple, Michael Gurley and Haley Powell, on behalf of their 5-year-old son who was born with a cleft lip. The boy’s injuries were caused by Topamax, lawyers for the Gurleys told jurors today. Another case involving Topamax’s alleged effect on a 6-year-old Virginia boy is scheduled to close tomorrow in the same court.
Topamax, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1996, was one of New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J’s top sellers before it lost patent protection in 2009. Janssen is being blamed by users for failing to inform expectant mothers of the drug’s risks of birth defects including cleft palate and lip. There are about 134 cases pending in state court in Philadelphia over the epilepsy drug, according to plaintiffs’ lawyers.
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