Johnson & Johnson commits more than 238,000 violations of Arkansas’s Medicaid fraud laws

After an Arkansas jury found that Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) company officials misled doctors and patients about the risks of one of their drugs, a judge ruled that JNJ must pay more than $1.1 billion in fines. The drug was an antipsychotic medication called Risperdal. The jury had concluded that J&J’s marketing of this particular drug violated both Medicare fraud laws and Arkansas’s deceptive trade practices statutes.

The judge in the case, The Honorable Tim Fox of Arkansas, found “J&J and its Janssen unit committed more than 238,000 violations of the state’s Medicaid fraud laws by illegally marketing Risperdal over an almost four-year period starting in 2002.” The Judge sentenced each violation to a $5,000 fine, raising the total to over $1.1 billion.

This judgment is the largest of the three J&J state cases alleging J&J hid Risperdal’s risks and tricked Medicaid regulators into paying more than they should have for the medicine. Eleven state attorneys general have sued J&J to date relating to the Risperdal sales practices.

For more information, please see:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-11/jnj-told-to-pay-1-dot-1-billion-penalty-in-arkansas-risperdal-trial