CT Joins $1.2 Billion Settlement With Johnson & Johnson, Janssen

Connecticut will receive more than $10 million in one of the largest pharmaceutical fraud settlements in history, as Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., resolve allegations of unlawfully marketing two antipsychotic drugs, including Risperdal, heavily used among nursing-home patients. Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay a total of $2.2 billion to states and the federal government to end civil and criminal investigations into off-label marketing of Risperdal and Invega, both antipsychotics, as well as the heart drug Natrecor, for uses not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The company allegedly paid kickbacks to physicians and pharmacists to promote the drugs for unapproved uses. In documents filed Monday, federal officials said that Johnson & Johnson, through Janssen, marketed Risperdal to doctors for use in elderly dementia patients, even though the drug was approved only for schizophrenia. Connecticut’s rate of antipsychotic use in nursing homes remains in the top 20 nationally, but has dropped in recent years, a recent C-HIT analysis found.