Drug Company Criminal Settlement: $2.2 Billion for Illegally Marketing Risperdal to Elderly, Children and Mentally Disabled

On the surface, Johnson & Johnson's $2.2 billion settlement this week for illegally marketing drugs to the elderly, children and the mentally disabled looks like a victory. J&J's subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, will plead guilty to illegally promoting the antipsychotic Risperdal for "controlling aggression and anxiety in elderly dementia patients and treating behavioral disturbances in children and in individuals with disabilities," reports Reuters. The promotions included a brazen kickback scheme to Omnicare Inc, a pharmacy supplying nursing homes, exposed by a whistleblower. At least 15,000 elderly people in nursing homes die a year from drugs like Risperdal said FDA drug reviewer David Graham in Congressional testimony a few years ago. Eli Lilly, who makes the similar drug Zyprexa, and AstraZeneca, who makes Seroquel, have also settled charges that they churned the elderly drug market at the price of Grandma and Grandpa's lives. But it is not a victory. J&J made $24.2 billion off Risperdal from 2003 to 2010 and shareholders won't even notice this week's nano loss. J&J milked Risperdal for all it was worth and the patent had already run out by the time it was charged with illegal schemes.

J&J Guilty of Fraud and Must Pay $1.1 Billion for Misleading Doctors About Risperdal

By Eric Francis, Jef Feeley and David Voreacos
Bloomberg News

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) must pay more than $1.1 billion in fines, a judge ruled after an Arkansas jury found the company’s officials misled doctors and patients about the risks of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal.

Judge Tim Fox in Little Rock, Arkansas, yesterday found J&J and its […]

J&J hid studies showing its Risperdal anti-psychotic drug caused diabetes to protect billions of dollars in sales

by Jef Feeley
Bloomberg

Johnson & Johnson hid studies showing its Risperdal anti-psychotic drug caused diabetes to protect billions of dollars in sales, a lawyer said in the first personal-injury claim over the medication to go to trial.

Researchers at J&J’s Janssen unit knew as early as 1999 that a study found Risperdal caused diabetes at a […]