Nearly three years after Philadelphia juries awarded compensatory damages in two Risperdal cases, a judge has ordered that the cases proceed to new trials on whether the drugmaker's conduct merits punitive damages.

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Arnold New has denied drugmaker Janssen Pharmaceuticals' efforts to block a punitive damages trial in the cases Stange v. Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Murray v. Janssen Pharmaceuticals. The rulings rejected arguments from the drugmaker that New Jersey law, which does not allow for punitive damages in pharmaceutical cases, applied to the suits.

New denied those requests for summary judgment in separate rulings Sept. 14, and said in both orders that the parties "shall be prepared to discuss the issue of trial scheduling at the next case management conference."