News Johnson & Johnson to pay $2 billion for false marketing

[Greg Bernhardt]

Pretty disgusting! I hate how cynical I've become. It's hard to trust anything these days.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/04/news/companies/johnson-and-johnson-settlement/

Johnson & Johnson will pay $2.2 billion to settle charges that the company marketed drugs for unapproved uses and paid "kickbacks" to doctors and nursing homes.
The penalties announced Monday involve fines and forfeiture to the federal government and several states. The settlement involves the schizophrenia drugs Risperdal and Invega, and the heart failure drug Natrecor, the company and Attorney General Eric Holder said.

Furthermore I just read this story

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...6628e-55e7-11e3-8304-caf30787c0a9_story.html#

Doctors choose the more expensive drug more than half a million times every year, a choice that costs the Medicare program, the largest single customer, an extra $1 billion or more annually.

Doctors, meanwhile, may benefit when they choose the more expensive drug. Under Medicare repayment rules for drugs given by physicians, they are reimbursed for the average price of the drug plus 6 percent. That means a drug with a higher price may be easier to sell to doctors than a cheaper one. In addition, Genentech offers rebates to doctors who use large volumes of the more expensive drug.

 

[edward]

There have been a lot of billion dollar + fines paid by big pharma in recent years. Forbes refers to them as the dishonor roll, AKA the billion dollar club.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikake...lions-for-fraud-following-abbotts-settlement/

It is totally absolutely disgusting and the billion dollar plus fines are apparently no deterrent.

 

[mheslep]

Pretty disgusting! I hate how cynical I've become. It's hard to trust anything these days.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/04/news/companies/johnson-and-johnson-settlement/

J&J may have done what Holder claims, but given this case was settled without an opinion from a judge or jury I reserve judgement. I'm not sure why anyone would accept at face value what AG Eric "not something I've been involved in" Holder claims they've done, especially given the flip side of this penalty is that the federal and state governments and trial lawyers pocket $2 billion.

 

[lisab]

J&J may have done what Holder claims, but given this case was settled without an opinion from a judge or jury I reserve judgement. I'm not sure why anyone would accept at face value what AG Eric "not something I've been involved in" Holder claims they've done, especially given the flip side of this penalty is that the federal and state governments and trial lawyers pocket $2 billion.

It's a bit of a stretch to dismiss J&J's (possibly illegal) activities based on your opinion of Holder.

 

[Evo]

Growing up, my best friend's father was in pharmaceutical sales. Yes, this is common. Kickbacks to doctors is how they push their sales, always has been, it's not unique to J&J. It's how all drug companies do business.

Years ago in Chicago I went to a new doctor for bronchial problems, he was from India. I was seated right next to the doctor's office. He was in his office with a pharmaceutical rep. The conversation:

Dr: You said if I prescribed these medications that you would hire my son, but he hasn't been hired yet.

Pharma rep: You've done well, and a few more dozen prescriptions and I guarantee you we will hire your son.

Needless to say, I was shocked. I knew there were financial kickbacks to drs for prescriptions, but I had no idea it went this far.

I had been prescribed a medication for the welts I get from my reaction to heat. I knew this medication was the only one that worked, having tried several. Every doctor I went to insisted that he prescribe something different, even though I told them I had already tried it and it didn't work, they were all pushing the same brand. Now I understand why.

My current doctor prescribes whatever I request, he never pushes anything, I may have finally found an honest doctor.

 

[edward]

J&J may have done what Holder claims, but given this case was settled without an opinion from a judge or jury I reserve judgement. I'm not sure why anyone would accept at face value what AG Eric "not something I've been involved in" Holder claims they've done, especially given the flip side of this penalty is that the federal and state governments and trial lawyers pocket $2 billion.

That is quite a leap of personal opinion about Holder considering that J and J did plead guilty.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Mealey’s) Two Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries have pleaded guilty, and the parent company and two subsidiaries will pay $2.2 billion in criminal fines, civil penalties and forfeitures in one criminal and several civil cases for off-label marketing of three drugs, for paying kickbacks to health care providers and a nationwide pharmacy and for causing false claims to be submitted to Medicare and Medicaid, the U.S. Justice Department announced Nov. 4

http://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnews...-2-2-billion-in-criminal-civil-penalties.aspx

As for the DOJ trial lawyers pocketing money, I do believe that they are on salary that averages $135,000.

http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/US-...-Trial-Attorney-Salaries-E41301_D_KO25,39.htm

J and J's top lawyer earned nearly $9,000,000 in salary and options in 2011.

http://www.forbes.com/profile/russell-deyo/

 

[mheslep]

That is quite a leap of personal opinion about Holder considering that J and J did plead guilty.

What's a leap? To acknowledge that J&J "may have done what Holder claims" but to "reserve judgement"? My opinion of Holder is based largely on his his public record.

As for the guilty plea, that was for misbranding, about which J&J says:

"We do not agree with all of the government's allegations and strongly believe some of them are not supported by the facts," J&J general counsel Michael Ullmann wrote to employees. The company settled, he said, "because it resolves complex and lengthy legal matters, allowing us to continue focusing our full attention on delivering innovative health-care solutions for patients and their families."

Consequences of continuing to fight in court would include endless litigation costs but also the possibility of having its products banned by the largest single payer health system in the world (by dollars), US Medicare and Medicaid.

As for the DOJ trial lawyers pocketing money, I do believe that they are on salary that averages $135,000.

DOJ trial lawyers? Not DOJ lawyers, not directly. Where do you suspect the $2 billion is actually going?

 

[edward]

DOJ trial lawyers? Not DOJ lawyers, not directly. Where do you suspect the $2 billion is actually going?

Hopefully the money is going to help bust companies like J and J. Big pharma has become Bad Pharma.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Pharma

 

[Office_Shredder]

DOJ trial lawyers? Not DOJ lawyers, not directly. Where do you suspect the $2 billion is actually going?

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/20/where-does-jpmorgans-13-billion-go/?_r=0

Paying victims, the general treasury fund, and occasionally programs related to the crime that was committed it seems.

I use the JP Morgan article as an example only because there doesn't seem to be a lot of reporting on what happens to the money in other case.

 

[phinds]

Hopefully the money is going to help bust companies like J and J. Big pharma has become Bad Pharma.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Pharma

You are VERY late to the game if you think they have "become" bad pharma. They have always been bad pharma; this is nothing recent.

 

[edward]

You are VERY late to the game if you think they have "become" bad pharma. They have always been bad pharma; this is nothing recent.

I am not really late to the game. Many of us have known what is going on with big pharma for years. It was the Wiki entry that used the term BAD pharma. It is the name of a book released last February.

Now that I know better I can properly call them bad pharma instead of croo@# %^&t@Rds.