J&J Risperdal Abuses in Focus in Huffington Post Exposé

Online news source The Huffington Post is currently running a multi-chapter piece detailing the horrific impact of the drug Risperdal on consumers and highlighting the corporate maneuvering behind the drug’s blockbuster growth. The series titled “America’s Most Admired Lawbreaker,” authored by Steven Brill, is a sobering view of the relationship between corporate profits and mass torts in the United States.

For background, Risperdal is an antipsychotic medication developed and marketed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, that causes gynecomastia—or breast growth—in boys. As a result of J&J’s widespread off-label marketing of Risperdal for unapproved indications that gave J&J a much larger market than schizophrenia and other psychotic conditions alone, thousands of teenage boys and young men suffered from disfiguring breast growth as a result of having taken Risperdal for conditions such as ADD and irritability associated with autism. These conditions were not subjected to FDA standards for safety and efficacy testing. In 2013, J&J agreed to pay $2.2 billion in fines to settle a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into their marketing practices for Risperdal.

The first chapter of the series focuses on J&J’s history and a brief synopsis of how the company grew from a humble maker of first aid kits for railroad workers to a pharmaceutical juggernaut. It also introduces the world to a 21-year-old boy with severe autism and size 46DD breasts as a result of having taken Risperdal.

The entire first chapter titled “The Credo Company” can be read here.

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