Lawyer Monthly - December 2021 Edition

MONTHLY ROUND-UP Healthcare company Johnson & Johnson said it has settled the majority of the lawsuits it faced by thousands of people who alleged its anti-psychotic drug Risperdal resulted in their developing excessive breast tissue. Johnson & Johnson also revealed that it recorded $800 million in expenses in connection with the settlement. On 10 November, the EU’s General Court ruled that the European Commission was correct in fining tech giant Google for an antitrust breach. The ruling represents a landmark moment for antitrust policy in the EU. JOHNSON & JOHNSON SETTLES MOST RISPERDAL LAWSUITSWITH $800 MILLION IN EXPENSES GOOGLE LOSESANTITRUSTBATTLE WITH EUACOURT UPHOLDS 2017 ORDER Johnson & Johnson said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it had reached a settlement to resolve all of the roughly 9,000 cases that it faced over its anti-psychotic drug Risperdal. The lawsuits generally accused Johnson & Johnson of failing to warn consumers of the risk of gynecomastia, a condition associated with Risperdal, which they say Johnson & Johnson marketed for off-label, unapproved uses with children. Johnson & Johnson denied the claims. verdict against it for failing to warn consumers about the risks associated with off- label uses of Risperdal. The court dismissed Johnson & Johnson’s appeal of a 2019 ruling by the Superior Court In mid-October, over 10,000 Deere & Co workers went on strike in what marks overwhelming majority of the union rejected a contract offer that would have delivered raises of 5% to some workers and 6% to others. Several workers began forming a picket line outside the company’s Milan plant in Western Illinois 15 minutes after the strike deadline. Workers also began picketing at several other Deere & Co plants, including the company’s largest operation in Waterloo, Iowa. Risperdal was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1993 to help treat bipolar mania and schizophrenia in adults. In 2006, the drug was also approved to help treat irritability associated with autism in children. In 2013, Johnson & Johnson separately agreed to pay $2.2 billion to settle US criminal and civil probes into its marketing of the drug as well as two others. In May this year, the US Supreme Court rejected a bid by the company to overturn a $70 million jury of Pennsylvania that upheld the verdict in favour of a man from Tennessee who had been prescribed Risperdal in 2003 when he was just four years old. LM the first major walkout at the company in more than three decades. The Marlita Grave, Chief District Judge of Iowa’s Seventh Judicial District, called the union workers’ activities “unwarranted, impermissible and unlawful.” The injunction does not entirely forbid the strike, but the judge has limited the number of picketers to no more than four at each of the facility’s gates. In a statement, Deere & Co says that the injunction was put in place to ensure safe entry and exit to the facility. LM 6 WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM | DEC 2021