Jury Awards $10 Million to Plaintiffs in Topamax Birth Defect Case

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania jury has awarded $10 million to a South Carolina couple who alleged their child’s birth defects were caused by in vitro exposure to Janssen Pharmaceutical Inc.’s anticonvulsant drug Topamax.

The jury, sitting in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, reached the verdict on Nov. 19. Judge Arnold L. New presided over the trial.

Michael Gurley and Haley Powell sued Janssen, alleging that their son Brayden was born with a cleft lip as a result of Powell’s ingestion of Topamax while pregnant. They accused the drug maker of failing to inform expectant mothers of the drug’s risks …