J&J Fentanyl Pain Patch Gave Woman Fatal Dose, Lawyer Jim OrrTells Chicago Jury
Bloomberg.com
Trials/Appeals
October 30, 2008
A Johnson & Johnson unit's defective pain-killing patch delivered a fatal overdose to a 38-year-old woman, her family's attorney told a Chicago jury at the start of a wrongful-death trial.
Janice DiCosolo, a mother of three from Cicero, Illinois, died in February 2004 from toxic effects of the drug fentanyl, the active ingredient in the Duragesic trans-dermal patch made by Alza Corp. and distributed by Janssen Pharmaceutica Products, according to a complaint filed by her husband, John.
"Each patch has enough fentanyl in it to kill 10 300-pound men," John DiCosolo's attorney, Jim Orr, told a Chicago state court jury of seven men and seven women in his opening statement yesterday. Orr asked the jury to award $25 million to the DiCosolo family.
The patches generated $1.16 billion in sales last year for Johnson & Johnson, the world's largest maker of medical devices. The DiCosolo trial began a day after a Florida jury awarded more than $13 million to the family of Susan Hodgemire, a 34-year-old mother of five who died after using a Duragesic patch in 2002.
Fentanyl is a pain killer that is 100 times more powerful than morphine, according to Orr, an attorney in the Dallas firm of Heygood, Orr, Reyes & Bartolomei. Janice DiCosolo was found wearing one of the patches when she died. Her husband's lawyers said the product was defectively made and that Alza and Janssen should be held strictly liable for her death.
The specific patch blamed for DiCosolo's death wasn't defective, attorneys for the units said in a July 30 court filing. The elevated levels of fentanyl found in her bloodstream in a post-mortem examination flowed from her organs after she died and weren't from the patch, they said.
Janssen recalled one Duragesic lot in February 2004, one day after DiCosolo died, because of improper sealing, defense lawyer David Sudzus wrote in that filing. The patch worn by DiCosolo was from that lot, he said.
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Trials/Appeals
October 30, 2008
A Johnson & Johnson unit's defective pain-killing patch delivered a fatal overdose to a 38-year-old woman, her family's attorney told a Chicago jury at the start of a wrongful-death trial.
Janice DiCosolo, a mother of three from Cicero, Illinois, died in February 2004 from toxic effects of the drug fentanyl, the active ingredient in the Duragesic trans-dermal patch made by Alza Corp. and distributed by Janssen Pharmaceutica Products, according to a complaint filed by her husband, John.
"Each patch has enough fentanyl in it to kill 10 300-pound men," John DiCosolo's attorney, Jim Orr, told a Chicago state court jury of seven men and seven women in his opening statement yesterday. Orr asked the jury to award $25 million to the DiCosolo family.
The patches generated $1.16 billion in sales last year for Johnson & Johnson, the world's largest maker of medical devices. The DiCosolo trial began a day after a Florida jury awarded more than $13 million to the family of Susan Hodgemire, a 34-year-old mother of five who died after using a Duragesic patch in 2002.
Fentanyl is a pain killer that is 100 times more powerful than morphine, according to Orr, an attorney in the Dallas firm of Heygood, Orr, Reyes & Bartolomei. Janice DiCosolo was found wearing one of the patches when she died. Her husband's lawyers said the product was defectively made and that Alza and Janssen should be held strictly liable for her death.
The specific patch blamed for DiCosolo's death wasn't defective, attorneys for the units said in a July 30 court filing. The elevated levels of fentanyl found in her bloodstream in a post-mortem examination flowed from her organs after she died and weren't from the patch, they said.
Janssen recalled one Duragesic lot in February 2004, one day after DiCosolo died, because of improper sealing, defense lawyer David Sudzus wrote in that filing. The patch worn by DiCosolo was from that lot, he said.
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