Men who have used Johnson & Johnson's Risperdal are preparing to sue the American company due to the breast-enlarging side effects of the drug prescribed for anxiety and bipolar disorder.
Risperdal leads to breast enlargement in men, a condition called gynecomastia. One of the men, Eddie Bible, claims that Johnson & Johnson did not disclose this crucial information about the drug on time. The side effects leading to gynecomastia were added on the label in 2006 -- a decade after the drug was launched and consumed by many teenagers like Eddie.
Eddie was on medication for bipolar disorder and anxiety as a teenager. He says that though breast tissue growth is a common phenomenon during puberty, what he went through was different and that he felt humiliated.
Eddie, initially, thought that the growth of his breasts was an outcome of weight gain. But it was an outcome of consuming Risperdal, which he was consuming since 2000.
"I had bigger boobs than the girls in (high) school. If I knew what the side effects would be of the medication, I would have never taken it," Eddie told CNN.
Eddie avoided going out since his breasts became noticeable. He says he felt humiliated on going out to attend school as people would stare at him awkwardly and pass comments.
"I'd go to the locker room, and people would point and stare. Everybody picking on you for being a boy with boobs. It's just ... depressing," Eddie added,
Eddie found dealing with the side effects of the drug to be way more horrible than the bipolar disorder he suffered from. He even claimed that he felt like an experiment of the drug maker Johnson and Johnson and its subsidiary Janssen.
"Risperdal is a useful drug, essential to helping those affected by mental illness. Physicians decide how best to treat their patients. Risperdal is a safe and effective medication that has helped millions of people live better lives for more than two decades," Johnson & Johnson told CNN on behalf of Janssen.
