The worldwide company Johnson & Johnson has been on the end of some monumental compensation claims and group actions across the globe.
The year of 2016 was quite the whirlwind year for Johnson & Johnson; they reportedly lost 6 out of 7 jury verdicts in the U.S. as a result of ‘defective’ products. According to Bloomberg, this year isn’t looking any better.
2016 lawsuits
As a general rule of thumb, companies wouldn’t normally face more than 2 or 3 product defect verdicts above $20 million (£15 million) in one year – Johnson & Johnson lost 6 verdicts – and each were valued at more than $50 million (£37 million).
The pharmaceutical and medical devices manufacturer was hit with:
3 talcum-powder verdicts amounting to $72 million (£56 million), $70 million (£54 million) and $55 million (£42 million) tried in a St. Louis court. Women alleged that they had developed ovarian cancer from the use of the talcum-based products, including the well-known baby powder. Although Johnson & Johnson deny there is a link between the use of the talcum-based products and ovarian cancer, they still paid out such a large amount of money to their victims. But why would an innocent company pay out? There is a body of scientific research that supports the claim that talcum powder and ovarian cancer are linked…
A Risperdal drug verdict amounting to $70 million (£54 million) tried in the Philadelphia court – a Tennessee teenager, Andrew Yount, blamed the use of the drug for causing him to grow breasts. The Philadelphia jury found that the company failed to warn the risks of growing breast tissue. He was awarded damages for emotional distress. This verdict is 30 times larger than the award given to an Alabama man, Austin Pledger, who sued the company for developing size 46DD breasts as a result of taking the drug. In 2015, Austin was awarded $2.5 million (£1.9 million).
Denied liability
For the vast majority of the lawsuits, Johnson & Johnson denied liability for the injuries inflicted on the victims. As mentioned above, Johnson & Johnson say there’s no scientific evidence linking the use of their talcum-based products and ovarian cancer, and in the Risperdal claims, Johnson & Johnson state that both patients and doctors were sufficiently warned about the side effects.
No signs of slowing down
There are multiple group actions going on in relation to the above products. No wonder Johnson & Johnson are facing more than 100,000 claims over these products, and there aren’t any signs of it slowing down. This is shown recently as Johnson & Johnson were ordered to pay $110 million (£85 million) to Lois Slemp who says that the use of the baby powder caused her to develop ovarian cancer.
Johnson & Johnson is facing at least 17 trials in U.S. courts over hip implants, talcum powder, pelvic mesh, an anti-psychotic drug and a blood thinner this year alone. The publicity of the lawsuits only encourages more people to come forward, thus Johnson & Johnson should watch their backs as the numbers are only going to increase.
Sources:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2972564/Risperdal-producers-award-autistic-man-2-5million-damages-grew-size-46DD-breasts-effect-drug-took-boy.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-01/j-j-faces-record-70-million-verdict-over-male-breasts
http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-johnson-johnson-verdict-hipimplants-idUKKBN13Q5XF
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39816799
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-28/why-johnson-johnson-would-like-to-forget-2016-quicktake-q-a?cmpid=yhoo.headline
First published by Admin on May 26, 2017
Posted in the following categories: Cosmetics and tagged with compensation claims