Posts Tagged ‘nursing homes’

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

« Return to news items

RSS News Feed

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in News | No Comments »

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

« Return to news items

RSS News Feed

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in News | No Comments »

Antipsychotic drug deaths in California tie into nationwide abuse: FDA estimates antipsychotics kill 15,000 per year

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

John Hendren
ABC World News
January 5, 2010

What happened in a bucolic nursing home nestled in the California mountains starting in 2003 shocked investigators. When residents at the Kern Valley Nursing Home complained or annoyed nursing director Gwen Hughes, prosecutors say she chemically restrained them with powerful anti-psychotic drugs. Her methods were so severe, three residents died.

Phyllis Peters’ mother Fannie Mae Brinkley was a feisty 97-year-old who suddenly lost energy. “I’d say, ‘I can’t get my mom awake,’” Peters remembers. “She just won’t rouse, she’s lethargic.”

No one told Peters that her mother had been given a powerful anti-seizure drug that prosecutors say killed her.

Peters says of her mother today, “I’m absolutely convinced she would have lived to be 100. Absolutely.”

Read entire article: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/abc-world-news-deadly-chemical-restraints-kill-california/story?id=9483981

« Return to news items

RSS News Feed

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in News | No Comments »

Advocates want new rules to protect abuse of nursing home patients with antipsychotic drugs

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Tracy Staton
Fierce Pharma
December 22, 2009

Illinois advocacy groups are calling for an overhaul of antipsychotic drug use in nursing home residents. They want Gov. Pat Quinn’s nursing home task force to recommend tough new rules for the use of those drugs, including restrictions on doctors who prescribe them.

Apparently, that task force plans to take up the issue by targeting the misuse of psychotropic drugs in the homes. ”We want people to be safe and cared for in nursing homes, not threatened or unwillingly sedated,” task force chairman Michael Gelder told the Chicago Tribune. But some of the changes advocates want would require legislative action.

« Return to news items

RSS News Feed

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in News | No Comments »

Tighter rules sought against using anti-psychotic drugs to chemically restrain the frail & elderly

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

Sam Roe and Christina Jewett
Chicago Tribune
December 20, 2009

Health advocates are calling for tough new rules on the use of anti-psychotic drugs in Illinois nursing homes, including tighter controls on doctors who prescribe the powerful medications.

“Medical care should help you get better, not get worse,” said Wendy Meltzer of Illinois Citizens for Better Care, an advocacy group for nursing home residents.

A Tribune investigation recently showed how many frail and vulnerable Illinois nursing home residents have been unnecessarily dosed with anti-psychotics, leading to harm and an increased risk of death. One psychiatrist, the Tribune found in a joint investigation with ProPublica, provided assembly-line care to thousands of mentally ill patients.

The advocates want Gov. Pat Quinn’s Nursing Home Safety Task Force to address these problems. While the task force has focused on violent felons housed in nursing facilities, chairman Michael Gelder said the group will also target the misuse of psychotropic drugs.

Read entire article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-psychotropics-reformdec20,0,3977364.story

« Return to news items

RSS News Feed

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in News | 1 Comment »

Drugmaker pays psychiatrist nearly $500,000 to promote antipsychotic drug Seroquel despite misgivings about his research

Friday, November 13th, 2009

Christina Jewett, ProPublica
SamRoe, Chicago Tribune
November 11, 2009

Executives inside pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca faced a high-stakes dilemma.

On one hand, Chicago psychiatrist Dr. Michael Reinstein was bringing the company a small fortune in sales and was conducting research that made one of its most promising drugs look spectacular.

On the other, some worried that his research findings might be too good to be true.

As Reinstein grew irritated with what he perceived as the company’s slights, a top executive outlined the scenario in an e-mail to colleagues.

“If he is in fact worth half a billion dollars to (AstraZeneca),” the company’s U.S. sales chief wrote in 2001, “we need to put him in a different category.” To avoid scaring Reinstein away, he said, the firm should answer “his every query and satisfy any of his quirky behaviors.”

Putting aside its concerns, AstraZeneca would continue its relationship with Reinstein, paying him $490,000 over a decade to travel the nation promoting its best-selling antipsychotic drug, Seroquel. In return, Reinstein provided the company a vast customer base: thousands of mentally ill residents in Chicago-area nursing homes.

Read entire article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-drugs-seroquel-reinsteinnov11,0,6067737.story

« Return to news items

RSS News Feed

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in News | No Comments »

Rampant illegal psychiatric drugging of elderly/nursing home patients: 1,200 violations involving 2,900 patients

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Sam Roe
Chicago Tribune
October 27, 2009

Frail and vulnerable residents of nursing homes throughout Illinois are being dosed with powerful psychotropic drugs, leading to tremors, dangerous lethargy and a higher risk of harmful falls or even death, a Tribune investigation has found.

Thousands of elderly and disabled people have been affected, many of them drugged without their consent or without a legitimate psychiatric diagnosis that would justify treatment, state and federal inspection reports show.

Lloyd Berkley, 74, was in a nursing home near Peoria for less than a day before staff members held him down and injected him with a large amount of an antipsychotic drug, according to a state citation. A few hours later he fell, suffering a fatal head injury.

One woman was given a psychotropic drug partly because she refused to wear a bra. Nursing home staff administered an antipsychotic medication to an 87-year-old man because he was “easily annoyed.”

In all, the Tribune identified 1,200 violations at Illinois nursing homes involving psychotropic medications since 2001. Those infractions affected 2,900 patients.

Read entire article: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-nursing-home1-psychotropics-oct27,0,4539632.story

« Return to news items

RSS News Feed

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in News | No Comments »