In August 2017, we looked at a case whereby Johnson & Johnson, the global pharmaceutical company, were ordered to pay more than $400 million in damages . However, this month a Jury in Philadelphia decided that the company would face a much higher financial penalty on account of its development and marketing of an anti-psychotic drug that has been linked to the development of breast tissue in men. In this post we will look at this award, what it means for J&J, and what happens next. The case has been brought by Nicholas Murray of Maryland, who has claimed that he developed female breast tissue after taking the drug Risperdal when he was younger . It has been reported that the drug has been linked to the abnormal growth of breast tissue in boys. Risperdal is used to treat a number of mental/mood disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and some variants of autistic disorder . The US Food and Drug Administration approved the drug for use in 1993 for these con...

It has been reported recently that Morningstar, a credit rating agency, is attempting to move into the rating market for digital assets. Whilst the article breaking this news contains a number of issues, it does raise an interesting point regarding a. the rating of digital assets, and b. whether the credit rating industry is ready to move into that particular marketplace. In this post we will assess the lead article, and discuss some other elements within this particular field. The article in Brave New Bitcoin starts off on a worrying footing right out of the gate, announcing that ‘Morningstar Credit Ratings launched in 2016… despite only being in the market for three years the financial services company managed to generate over $1 billion revenue in 2018’. We can dismiss this error as we know that, in 1984 Joe Mansueto founded the agency in Chicago . The article has mistaken Morningstar’s receiving of permission to rate corporate bonds in 2016 as the beginning of it as an agen...