LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – An Arkansas judge has denied a request for a new trial after he fined Johnson & Johnson and a subsidiary $1.2 billion for downplaying and concealing risks associated with the antipsychotic drug Risperdal.

Judge Tim Fox ruled earlier this year that Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. and its parent company would have to pay $5,000 for each of the nearly 240,000 Risperdal prescriptions issued to state Medicaid patients over a 3 1/2-year period in addition to other fines.

Fox this week denied the new trial request.

Janssen attorney James Simpson did not respond to a phone or email message.

A spokesman for Attorney General Dustin McDaniel says they’re grateful for the judge’s ruling, which upholds the verdicts of a Pulaski County jury.

Date: June 20, 2012
Source: Associated Press