Johnson & Johnson agrees to pay $2.2 billion in drug-marketing settlement

[alp227]

Source: Washington Post

Health-care behemoth Johnson & Johnson will pay $2.2 billion to resolve civil and criminal allegations involving the marketing of off-label, unapproved uses for several prescription drugs, Justice Department officials announced Monday.

The cases include allegations of kickbacks to doctors and pharmacies to promote usage of the anti-psychotic drugs Risperdal and Invega, and a heart-failure drug, Natrecor.

Federal investigators alleged that the company pushed Risperdal for the treatment of elderly patients with dementia, even though the Food and Drug Administration had approved the drug only to treat schizophrenia, as well as for other “vulnerable” populations, such as children and people with mental disabilities. Officials said the company also promoted off-label uses for Invega and “made false and misleading statements about its safety and efficacy.”

In addition, DOJ officials said Johnson & Johnson and a subsidiary undertook an “aggressive campaign” to market the use of Natrecor for some patients who did not need it.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/johnson-and-johnson-agrees-to-pay-22-billion-in-drug-marketing-settlement/2013/11/04/a7092342-456a-11e3-b6f8-3782ff6cb769_story.html

[Stuart G]

1. K and R thanks for posting

Kickbacks..??? to doctors?? Say it ain't so ?? a company like that ....oh, oh....!!!

[KansDem]

2. Anyone going to prison for this?

Didn't think so...

[msongs]

4. dems repubs both agree..no jail for the filthy rich nt

[proverbialwisdom]

3. Press Release here.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2013/November/13-ag-1170.html

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

[centerleft]FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE[/centerleft][right]
Monday, November 4, 2013[/right]

[center]Johnson & Johnson to Pay More Than $2.2 Billion
to Resolve Criminal and Civil Investigations

Allegations Include Off-label Marketing and Kickbacks to Doctors and Pharmacists[/center]

WASHINGTON - Global health care giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and its subsidiaries will pay more than $2.2 billion to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from allegations relating to the prescription drugs Risperdal, Invega and Natrecor, including promotion for uses not approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and payment of kickbacks to physicians and to the nation’s largest long-term care pharmacy provider. The global resolution is one of the largest health care fraud settlements in U.S. history, including criminal fines and forfeiture totaling $485 million and civil settlements with the federal government and states totaling $1.72 billion.

“The conduct at issue in this case jeopardized the health and safety of patients and damaged the public trust,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “This multibillion-dollar resolution demonstrates the Justice Department’s firm commitment to preventing and combating all forms of health care fraud. And it proves our determination to hold accountable any corporation that breaks the law and enriches its bottom line at the expense of the American people.”

<>

Coordinated Investigative Effort Spans Federal and State Law Enforcement

This resolution marks the culmination of an extensive, coordinated investigation by federal and state law enforcement partners that is the hallmark of the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) initiative, which fosters government collaborations to fight fraud. Announced in May 2009 by Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the HEAT initiative has focused efforts to reduce and prevent Medicare and Medicaid financial fraud through enhanced cooperation.

The criminal cases against Janssen and Scios were handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Northern District of California and the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch. The civil settlements were handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Northern District of California and the District of Massachusetts and the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch. Assistance was provided by the HHS Office of Counsel to the Inspector General, Office of the General Counsel-CMS Division, the FDA’s Office of Chief Counsel and the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units.

This matter was investigated by HHS-OIG, the Department of Defense’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations, the Office of Personnel Management’s Office of Inspector General, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Labor, TRICARE Program Integrity, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Office of the Inspector General and the FBI.

One of the most powerful tools in the fight against Medicare and Medicaid financial fraud is the False Claims Act. Since January 2009, the Justice Department has recovered a total of more than $16.7 billion through False Claims Act cases, with more than $11.9 billion of that amount recovered in cases involving fraud against federal health care programs.

<>

Court documents related to today’s settlement can be viewed online at http://www.justice.gov/opa/jj-pc-docs.html

[proverbialwisdom]

6. What a tool, it's the Department of Justice PRESS RELEASE you are ridiculing, not me.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024994374

HuckleB (27,106 posts)
41. Allegations are cool.

Interestingly, I know you well enough to know that you haven't even bothered to read the link you posted.

I've worked with hundreds of doctors. If you think any one of them has ever considered a "kickback," you're a bloody fool who knows nothing about health care. Oh, wait.

Cannot reply in locked threads

[LiberalEsto]

5. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

J&J's karma is biting it in their collective butts.



I attended college near their corporate hq in New Brunswick, NJ. I saw what they did to "re-develop" city neighborhoods by demolishing them and replacing them with unnecessary parking decks, giant hotels and corporate-oriented businesses that did nothing for local residents or the thousands of university students living there.

Good local stores and wonderful small restaurants were forced out of business in order to create sterile blocks of upscale restaurants catering to J&J people. Whole neighborhoods were wiped out and replaced with parking decks.

J&J controlled the New Brunswick mayor and city council and they did whatever J&J wanted, regardless of what city residents wanted. I could probably write a book about J&J's rape of New Brunswick, but my blood pressure couldn't handle it.