Jury Awards $5.5 Million to Victim of Defective Pain Patch

A federal jury in West Palm Beach, FL, awarded $5.5 million to the estate of a man who died of an overdose due to a malfunction of a prescription pain patch manufactured by two subsidiaries of Johnson & Johnson.  The transdermal patch called Duragesic is designed to administer a powerful pain killer through the skin over a three-day period.  The plaintiff's death resulted from a defectively manufactured patch.  The jury also found that the companies had failed to warn adequately about this risk but rejected the plaintiff's design defect claim and a claim of failing to warn about the risks of the patch's interactions with other drugs.  See Billy Shields story for Daily Business Review.

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