Opening arguments in the first trial of Philadelphia's Risperdal mass-tort actions began Jan. 23 with attorneys squaring off over whether the drug's maker failed to warn patients about the risk of male breast growth associated with taking the medication.

The plaintiffs in the roughly 1,257 cases filed in the city's court system claim that Risperdal, an antipsychotic, causes young males to grow female breast tissue, a condition known as gynecomastia.

In Pledger v. Janssen Pharmaceuticals, one of plaintiff Austin Pledger's attorneys, Thomas R. Kline of Kline & Specter; and Diane Sullivan of Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Princeton, N.J., an attorney for Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals, outlined their cases to the jury of 16 in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Ramy I. Djerassi's courtroom.