J&J Ordered to Pay $10M: Topamax Verdict

HOUSTON, TEXAS, Nov 18, 2013 (Press Release)A Philadelphia jury decided Janssen Pharmaceuticals must pay over $10 million in damages to the parents of a five-year-old boy who developed cleft lip and other birth defects after being exposed to the anticonvulsant drug Topamax during his mother’s pregnancy.

This is the second multimillion-dollar verdict in the past three weeks for the Houston law firm of Clark, Love & Hutson against Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson, the manufacturer of Topamax.

According to partners Scott A. Love and Shelley V. Hutson, who tried the two cases, the verdicts confirm that “Janssen knew about Topamax’s serious risk of causing birth defects years before these mothers were prescribed the drug, but did not advise physicians of those risks. Instead, Janssen elected to continue to market its billion dollar drug.”

“Clearly, the jury appreciated that these children suffered debilitating birth defects that will require numerous surgeries, as well as severe psychological injuries, that could have been avoided,” said Shelley
V. Hutson.

The case is styled GURLEY ET AL. VS ORTHO-MCNEIL-JANSSEN PHARMACEUTICAL, 110502251, Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania and was tried by attorneys Shelley V. Hutson, Blake A. Deady, and Scott A. Love.