The Irvine-based maker of Botox was hit with a double-whammy today.
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A jury in Oklahoma reached a $15 million negligent-damage
verdict against Allergan in a case brought by a 47-year-old woman
who suffered years of pain after getting wrinkle-smoothing
injections of Botox.
Then, a study came out suggesting Botox will give you wrinkles.
It's enough to cause a deepening of those little frown lines near the lips of Allergan shareholders.
Dr. Sharla
Helton, an Oklahoma obstetrician and gynecologist, blames years of pain, double vision, breathing difficulty and the eventual loss of her job on the Botox injections she received in 2006. After a three-week trial and 12 hours of deliberation that ended earlier today, the jury agreed.
Allergan has vowed to appeal. But, as the Orange County Register reports, its lawyers are going to be busy with more than that.
Helton was represented by Texas-based personal liability lawyer Ray Chester, who was also the lawyer for
Dee Spears, the first of at least seven plaintiffs who have sued
Allergan over ailments that occurred after Botox injections.
A Santa Ana jury in March concluded Allergan was not responsible for the death of Spears' daughter Kristen, a 7-year-old cerebral palsy patient who died in 2007 after a
series of Botox injections to relax her clenched muscles. Allergan is seeking $460,000 in legal costs from Spears.
Chester's next Botox-related trial, which is scheduled to be heard in Santa Ana in the fall, involves a 70-year-old Texas nurse who died in 2008 after Botox injections to ease her
neck pain.
The Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology published the study findings that
suggest muscle groups that have not been injected with Botox will still find a
way to make expressions, leading to more lines.
Actually, that may be good news for Allegran, since more lines will mean still more Botox injections. Unless this photo gets out . . .
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.