Tag Archives: Department of Justice

Federal Judge & DOJ back lawsuit accusing Johnson & Johnson of illegal kickback scheme to push antipsychotic drugs on elderly

A federal judge has refused to toss out a whistleblower lawsuit backed by the Department of Justice (DOJ), which accuses Johnson & Johnson of involvement in an illegal kickback scheme to push their antipsychotic drugs on elderly nursing home residents that did not need them. The DOJ filed a civil False Claims Act compliant against J&J on January 15, 2010, saying that the company paid millions to Omnicare, Inc. as kickbacks for selling Risperdal to nursing home patients.
According to a recent report from the United Kingdom, side effects of Risperdal and other similar antipsychotics, like Seroquel, Zyprexa and Abilify, could be linked to as many as 1,800 deaths and 1,620 strokes per year in elderly patients with dementia.

$1,000 a Pop: How Forest Labs Bribed Doctors to Prescribe Antidepressants to Kids

Forest Labs (FRX) appears to have initially underestimated how much it needed to pay the feds to go away: In 2009, the company said it had set aside $170 million in case it needed to settle a Department of Justice investigation of the kickbacks it paid in its marketing of Celexa and Lexapro, two antidepressants. Today, the company paid $313 million to wrap up the probes. Forest’s management is used to lavish spending, however, as the whistleblower complaints behind the settlement allege. The meat of Forest’s wrongdoing is that the company promoted Celexa for children even though the FDA had specifically rejected the drug for kids, and even though European data showed it was not useful in youths. The company did something similar with Lexapro — one pharmaceutical sales rep recommended crushing up Lexapro into apple sauce in order to make it more palatable to children.

GSK & AstraZeneca face corruption investigation—hospitality lavished on those who prescribe drugs could constitute bribery

U.K. pharmaceutical firms GlaxoSmithKline PLC and AstraZeneca PLC are facing a corruption investigation in the U.S. over claims that the hospitality lavished on those who prescribe their treatments could constitute bribery, The Independent newspaper in London reported Saturday, without citing sources.

BNET: ‘The Dog Ate AstraZeneca’s Homework! Evidence on Misleading Drug Ad Disappears From Company’s Files’

AstraZeneca (AZN) says it has lost a crucial internal document that would explain how an ad for its antipsychotic Seroquel misleadingly claimed there was “no weight gain” with the drug and described its “favorable weight profile.” But the company admits it kept the six-year-old envelope that once allegedly contained the ad’s approval certificate, according to a ruling by the U.K.’s Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority.