kickbacks

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Massachusetts joins federal lawsuit accusing Johnson & Johnson of paying kickbacks to push their antipsychotic drug

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Fierce Pharma
By Tracy Staton
March 11, 2010

The Massachusetts attorney general joined that federal lawsuit accusing Johnson & Johnson of paying kickbacks to push the antipsychotic Risperdal and other drugs into nursing homes. AG Martha Coakley didn’t stop there; however, her office is also investigating other companies that market antipsychotics to nursing homes in the state.

At issue is whether drug companies are touting antipsychotic drugs for unapproved uses, such as dementia. The FDA has warned that use of the atypical antipsychotics in elderly dementia patients can increase the risk of death. “The inappropriate off-label marketing of antipsychotic drugs to nursing homes is a significant health and safety issue for our seniors,” Coakley says in a statement released by her office (as quoted by the Boston Globe). “We have taken strong action on this issue in the past and are continuing to monitor it very closely moving forward.”

Read entire article: http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/massachusetts-joins-kickback-suit-against-j-j/2010-03-11

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Tags: antipsychotic, death, dementia, elderly patients, J&J, Johnson & Johnson, kickbacks, nursing homes, Risperdal
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Kickbackers’ motto: ‘Do no harm’ (to profits)—How drug company used kickbacks to get patients on psych drugs

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Boston Globe
By Donald A. MacGillis
January 26, 2010

TALK ABOUT death panels. The US attorney in Boston recently filed suit against the world’s largest maker of health products, Johnson & Johnson, for using kickbacks to get more nursing home patients onto its drugs, including one that was later found to be so lethal to the elderly it had to carry a black-box warning. The government’s complaint leaves little doubt that the drug company acted in a predatory way to increase sales and market share for its products, especially Risperdal, an antipsychotic often used to keep Alzheimer’s and dementia patients under control.

Risperdal is used principally for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Doping the elderly into placidity is an off-label use of the drug, one that the Food and Drug Administration finally cautioned against in 2005. The reason for the black box warning the FDA required? Too many of the elderly who got the drug were dying.

There is one other reason to thank the federal government for going after the suspect payments Johnson & Johnson made to the middleman to juice up sales of its drugs: Since Medicaid covers most of the nursing home patients, the taxpayer ends up paying much of the bill.

The middleman between Johnson & Johnson and the nursing homes is Omnicare, the country’s largest pharmacy for nursing homes. Last November, it agreed, without “any finding of wrongdoing’’ or “any admission of liability,’’ to a $98 million settlement with the government for its role in helping Johnson & Johnson boost sales to nursing homes. The government says that between 1999 and 2004 Omnicare received tens of millions of dollars in the form of escalating rebates based on greater market share for Johnson & Johnson drugs and in payments ostensibly made by Johnson & Johnson for “data’’ from Omnicare, much of which Omnicare never provided. Other kickbacks, the government says, came in the form of “grants’’ and “educational funding.’’

Read entire article: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/01/26/kickbackers_motto_do_no_harm_to_profits/

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Tags: antipsychotics, bipolar, black box warning, Johnson & Johnson, kickbacks, Medicaid, nursing home patients, Risperdal, schizophrenia
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Feds say Johnson & Johnson paid millions in kickbacks to increase drug sales including the antipsychotic Risperdal

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Wall Street Journal
By Jonathan D. Rockoff
January 15, 2010

Federal prosecutors alleged that Johnson & Johnson paid one of the nation’s largest pharmacies serving nursing homes “tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks” to increase sales of drugs including blockbuster antipsychotic Risperdal.

Prosecutors charged in a complaint filed in federal court in Boston Friday that J&J illegally paid Omnicare Inc. to get the pharmacy company to buy J&J medicines and recommend their use to nursing homes. Omnicare’s yearly purchases of J&J products nearly tripled to $280 million, prosecutors alleged.

The alleged payments took place from 1999 to 2004 and took various forms, including payments for the pharmacy’s data and for education programs for customers, prosecutors said. Omnicare charged Medicaid for a “substantial portion,” they said.

Read entire article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703657604575004902853166786.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_business

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Tags: antipsychotics, Johnson & Johnson, kickbacks, nursing homes, Risperdal
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$112 million settlement: charged with kickbacks from drug company & recommending docs prescribe antipsychotic drug Risperdal

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Reuters
November 3, 2009

Omnicare Inc, the largest U.S. provider of pharmacy services to nursing homes, will pay $98 million and Teva subsidiary IVAX Pharmaceuticals will pay $14 million to settle allegations of kickbacks, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Tuesday.

The department said Omnicare both solicited and paid kickbacks.

Omnicare allegedly asked IVAX to pay $8 million in exchange for agreeing to purchase $50 million in IVAX drugs, the DOJ said.

It also accused Omnicare of soliciting kickbacks from Johnson & Johnson in exchange for recommending that physicians prescribe the antipsychotic drug Risperdal to nursing home patients.

“J&J’s kickbacks to Omnicare took multiple forms, including rebates that were conditioned on Omnicare engaging in an ‘Active Intervention Program’ for Risperdal and payments disguised as data purchase fees, educational grants, and fees to attend Omnicare meetings,” the Justice Department said.

Read entire article: http://www.reuters.com/article/healthcareSector/idUSN0350746820091103

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Tags: Inc., IVAX Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, kickbacks, Omnicare, Risperdal, settlement, TEVA
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CounterPunch: What Integrity Means to Pfizer

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Martha Rosenberg
CounterPunch
September 30, 2009

The satire was biting:

“Thanks for making time to see me today,” posted a rep on cafepharma about a fictitious sales meeting with a psychiatrist. “Now, I know that you used Neurontin in the past for every condition under the sun. Pfizer knows very well that you guys were and still continue to be the largest writers of off-label Lyrica and so, in the spirit of Bextra [withdrawn in 2004] will you please write Lyrica as much as possible? Remember Dr, this is Pfizer. The company that never met an off-label sale that it wouldn’t cover-up.”

Don’t forget, writes the next poster on the pharma site, the psychiatrist answers, “Great! and I also heard that it is about to be approved on state Medicaid and I can write it for anything. Is this true?” to which the rep assents in defiance of, “that nice little 2004 CIA agreement.”

Pfizer’s nice little 2004 “CIA” or Corporate Integrity Agreement in which a company promises to sin no more to which the poster refers was for fraudulent marketing of seizure drug Neurontin. It was preceded by a CIA for fraud related to Pfizer’s cholesterol drug, Lipitor, in 2002.

And this month it’s followed by a CIA for mis-marketing pain drug Bextra, antipsychotic Geodon, seizure drug Lyrica and antibiotic Zyvox.

Read entire article: http://www.counterpunch.org/rosenberg09302009.html

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Tags: Bextra, corporate integrity, Geodon, kickbacks, Lyrica, Neurontin, Pfizer, Zyvox
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