Lawsuit Over Stevens-Johnson Syndrome from Motrin Filed

A product liability lawsuit has been filed against Johnson & Johnson by a Texas woman who claims that Motrin caused her daughter to suffer a rare, but potentially deadly and disfiguring, skin reaction known as Stevens-Johnson syndrome. 

The Motrin lawsuit was filed by Keshia Hunt on behalf of her minor child in U.S. District Court in New Orleans on February 24. The complaint names Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, as defendants.

According to the lawsuit, Hunt’s daughter took Motrin on February 4, 2010 and suffered a severe rash that caused her to be hospitalized for more than month.

Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, which is commonly referred to as SJS, is a painful and debilitating reaction that has been linked to the side effects of several medications. It can cause the skin to burn, producing blisters, severe rashes and the skin may begin to separate from the body. When the skin lesions affect more than 30% of the body, the condition is typically referred to as toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). Treatment in a hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU) or Burn Unit is often required, and the conditions can be fatal in many cases.

Last month, a California appeals court allowed a similar Motrin Stevens-Johnson Syndrome lawsuit to move forward with a claim for punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson, which alleges that the drug maker’s failure to provide adequate warnings on their ibuprofen product constituted malice. That complaint claims that Johnson & Johnson misrepresented study results to the FDA and did not tell the agency the entire truth about the risk of SJS from Motrin when it asked to be able to sell the drug over-the-counter.