A jury has awarded $5.6 million to a woman who said a pharmaceutical company was responsible for her son’s death during a clinical drug trial.
The Los Angeles Superior Court jury reached its verdict Friday, finding in favor of Marion Liu in her negligence suit against Janssen Research & Development LLC. The overall award was $8 million, but Janssen was found 70 percent liable and therefore the amount it will have to pay was reduced.
Liu’s son, Augustine “Leo” Liu II, was diagnosed as schizophrenic in 2004 and died in February 2009 at the age of 25 of a heart condition. Trial testimony showed he was taking part in a clinical study involving the drug Risperidone, an anti-psychotic drug to treat schizophrenia. The study was being conducted by Janssen Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.
The study was not done for Augustine Liu’s benefit, but for research purposes only, his mother’s attorneys stated in their court papers.
Marion Liu’s attorneys also claimed in their court papers that her son hoped Risperidone would be the “miracle drug” that would help return him to a normal mental state. Liu signed up and then was given the go-ahead for clinical testing, but his mother’s attorneys maintained in their court papers that he was not mentally competent when he signed the agreement
Marion Liu’s lawyers also maintained that screening and lab tests showed that he had a history of cardiac disease and that he should have been excluded from the trial.
Augustine Liu’s psychiatrist was the principal investigator in the study and she recruited him into it, his mother’s attorneys stated in their court papers. The lawyers maintained that consent should be obtained from an independent person when an investigator recruits his or her own patients into a drug trial.
Augustine Liu should have been discharged from the study when his condition deteriorated, according to Marion Liu’s attorneys’ court papers. He died less that a week after the first injection, trial testimony showed.
Defense attorneys maintained Janssen was not responsible for Liu’s death.
Marion Liu settled with other defendants in the case, including her son’s psychiatrist, earlier this year. Her late husband, Augustine Liu, also was a plaintiff when the lawsuit was filed in February 2010, but he died before the case went to trial. Marion Liu is a native of Belize.
