Johnson & Johnson Slapped With $1.2 Billion Penalty In Arkansas
April 16, 2012 by admin
Filed under News Stories
April 17, 2012
Natural News
By Ethan A. Huff
“Isn’t it funny how most people think Johnson & Johnson is this wholesome family company? After all, they make baby shampoo.” –KTRN
The chickens are coming home to roost for drug giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J), as a jury in Arkansas has found the company guilty of fraudulently marketing and selling the antipsychotic drug Risperdal. But this time, the penalty for J&J’s crimes is a whopping $1.2 billion which, to date, collectively totals more than $2 billion in fines and settlements the company has already had to shell out just for cases involving Risperdal.
Reutersreports that a jury atPulaski County Circuit Courtin Little Rock, Ark., recently found J&J guilty of illegally marketing Risperdal for unapproved uses, bilking the Arkansas state Medicaid insurance program for millions of dollars, and withholding the truth about the drug’s deadly side effects. The consequence is that J&J will have to pay out $5,000 for each of the 240,000 Risperdal prescriptions the state Medicaid program paid for during a three and a half year period, as well as $2,500 for the more than 4,500 letters the company sent to Arkansas doctors.
“(The ruling) sends a clear signal that big drug companies like Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals (a division of J&J) cannot lie to the (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), patients and doctors in order to defraud Arkansas taxpayers or our Medicaid dollars,” Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel is quoted as saying byBusinessWeekin response to the ruling.
The decision is likely to set a precedent for the dozens of other state lawsuits filed against Janssen Pharmaceuticals, the division of J&J responsible for Risperdal, that await proper hearings. Though earlier lawsuits against J&J involving Risperdal have already been settled in Louisiana, Texas, and South Carolina, the company has many more cases coming up that it now stands to lose, and rightfully so.
The U.S.Department of Justicefiled a lawsuit against J&J back in 2010 as well, alleging that the company paid tens of millions of dollars to nursing home pharmacies to push its drugs on patients, even when cheaper and more effective alternatives were available (http://www.naturalnews.com/027994_Johnson_&_kickbacks.html). And the culmination of this lawsuit, of course, has been a cascade of state and local lawsuits filed against J&J.
“These two companies put profits before people, and they are rightfully being held responsible for their actions,” added McDaniel. “Most attorneys general can do the math, and there’s no reason for any state to settle (their lawsuits against J&J) if they can win really big numbers in court.”
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I never heard of Risperdal until a homeless person took advantage of me for 4 years and stole over $10,000 from me as I had him arrested several times and he was court ordered on Risperdal. I had a psychiatrist, Dr. Milton Huang M.D. of Santa Cruz, CA put me on it which gave me the serious fatal side effects including Parkinson’s disease, tardive dyskenesia, and neuroleptic malignant syndrome saying I had to take the drugs my homeless bumb jail bate housemate was taking because he would pay half the rent. I dropped him off at a rehab drugg house and never talked to him again unless I see him around town tripping over his obesity from an anti-anxiety shot he gets in his bottom every week from welfare sheriffs permanent probation as court ordered or a warrant for his arrest as he is not allowed to call me or know where I live and I have been offered 10 restraining orders against him. Dr. Huang lost his license to practice psychiatry because he was reported for going to a patient’s house, look it up on the California Board of Psychiatry Web Site, I reported him and I have a pending restraining order against him.