Quoted from http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-11-18/j-and-j-s-janssen-must-pay-11-million-over-topamax-jury-says-1
J&J’s Janssen Must Pay $11 Million Over Topamax, Jury Says
By Sophia Pearson
November 18, 2013
Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmeceuticals unit was ordered by a Philadelphia jury to pay $11 million in a case claiming its anti-seizure drug Topamax caused birth defects, the second such loss in less than a month.
Janssen failed to adequately warn doctors for Haley Powell, a stay-at-home mother, of the risks of Topamax before she gave birth to a son with a cleft lip, jurors in state court in Philadelphia found today.
“Janssen has long known that this drug causes debilitating birth defects and yet intentionally kept this information from physicians and patients,” Shelley Hutson, an attorney for Powell, said after the verdict was read. “Ironically, this case was hand-selected by the defendants to go to trial.”
Powell’s case was the second of about 134 that are pending in Philadelphia over the epilepsy drug. Janssen lost a $4.02 million verdict on Oct. 30 in a lawsuit brought by Virginia resident April Czimmer for injuries to her six-year-old son. Users are blaming the company for failing to inform expectant mothers of the drug’s risks for causing birth defects including cleft palate and lip.
Janssen said it will appeal the verdicts in both cases.