On October 28, 2008, a jury ruled two Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries, Janssen Pharmaceutical Products and Alza, are responsible for the death of a 34-year-old woman who died from a painkiller overdose caused by a patch the companies manufactured. Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay more than $13 million to the woman’s family.

The victim was an Army military policewoman who used Duragesic patches in combination with other painkillers after undergoing back surgery. Personal injury lawyers and family members of the deceased woman argued officials for Johnson & Johnson were aware of manufacturing defects in the company’s Duragesic patches, but sold the flawed devices anyway.

The product liability lawsuit was the third case over Duragesic patches to go to trial since 2006. Jurors have ruled against Johnson & Johnson in all three cases.

Duragesic patches were approved in 2000, but reports of adverse events related to the patches began occurring as early as 2001. The active ingredient in Duragesic patches is fentanyl, a drug under investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) due to reports of adverse respiratory events experienced by patients wearing the patch.

In July 2005, after a recall of Duragesic patches due to leaks, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began a probe of 120 fentanyl overdose deaths linked to Duragesic patches made by Johnson & Johnson and Mylan Laboratories Inc.

In an August 2008 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Johnson & Johnson officials said Janssen, the distributor of the Duragesic patches, and Alza, the manufacturer, still face 60 product liability lawsuits over the patches.

Source: Jef Feeley, “J&J units must pay $13 million over pain-patch death, jury says,” Bloomberg.com, October 29, 2008.