Today the INSIDER EXCLUSIVE “Goes Behind The Headlines” in “Deadly Drugs – Johnson & Johnson’s Risperdal” ….. to examine how Steve Sheller, Founding Partner of Sheller, P.C, and Brian McCormick, Jr., Managing partner of the firm are leading the legal efforts to hold Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen unit responsible for the serious adverse effects and deceptive marketing of their antipsychotic drug Risperdal, and any of its derivatives
In lawsuit after lawsuit J & J’s Janssen unit has been charged with making misleading claims about Risperdal’s health risks and effectiveness in letters to thousands of doctors, violating state’s deceptive-trade practices laws.
At the heart of the lawsuits are J&J’s, and particularly their Janssen units, attempt to market Risperdal for bipolar disorder, dementia, mood and anxiety disorders, when it had only been approved, initially, for psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.
Of course, only so many people have schizophrenia, so marketing the drug for the slew of conditions other than that….. boosted their customer base tremendously. Never mind that it wasn’t approved for those conditions …
Victims’ lawyers allege that Janssen lied about Risperdal’s dangers….. just to make money,” They also allege that Jannsen hid Risperdal’s diabetes risks and tricked Medicaid regulators into paying millions of dollars more than they should have for the medicine. J&J’s Janssen sent out an army of salespeople to doctor’s offices, nursing homes, Veteran’s Administration facilities, and jails to tout Risperdal as a proverbial miracle drug for mental illness and dementia.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told the company to stop the false and misleading marketing claims not once, not twice, but three times from 1994-2004, but the company reportedly continued to include marketing the drug for unapproved uses right in their business plan.
In 2006, research showed that up to two-thirds of prescriptions for Risperdal were for unapproved uses that had little or no scientific support. Worse yet, elderly dementia patients who were prescribed Risperdal for off-label uses were found to increase their chances of death by 54 percent within the first 12 weeks of taking it! Other research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found Risperdal is no more effective than a placebo, and is associated with a long list of potentially devastating side effects.
Recently, J&J ended their most recent courtroom loss in Texas with a $158 million settlement in January 2012. The Texas settlement recently won court approval. Risperdal’s global sales peaked at $4.5 billion in 2007 and declined after the company lost patent protection.
The newer, longer-acting injectable version, Risperdal Consta, had $1.5 billion in sales in 2010, according to J&J. The U.S. Justice Department is demanding that Johnson & Johnson pay about $1.8 billion to resolve the civil claims by federal regulators and some State Attorneys General, people familiar with the settlement talks said recently. Johnson & Johnson and Janssen have also been sued by more than 11 states seeking reimbursement for Medicaid or other public funds paid on Risperdal prescriptions.
In this Insider Exclusive Special, we will examine how the Drug Companies get away with Deceptive Pharmaceutical Marketing for so for years….. Pocketing Billions of Dollars of Profits, and then Paying only a small percentage of those Billions in fines and settlements. Steve and Brian will share why you need to Beware of the Medical-Pharmaceutical complex
And especially how the FDA is not able to adequately protect the American public. It’s more interested in protecting the interests of industry. The bottom line is this: Pharmaceutical companies – the same ones you trust to safely manufacture medications that could alter your very life – are the top corporate offenders on the planet, and this is not unique to only Johnson & Johnson.
A large number of pharmaceutical companies are guilty of fraud, cover-ups of fatal side effects, and huge kickbacks paid to doctors. Steve and Brian expose the shocking truth that…
“OFF-LABEL MARKETING”, which is this industry’s Most Common Illegal Drug Company Practice, has resulted in the Largest Financial Penalties from the United States Government in the Last 20 years!!! Of the 165 settlements comprising
• $19.8 billion in penalties during this 20-year interval, 73 percent of the settlements (121) and 75 percent of the penalties ($14.8 billion) have occurred in just the past five years (2006-2010).
Only in America… if you are a pharmaceutical executive or a lobbyist representing a drug company who has collected a litany of charges including ….
• medical fraud…. criminal salesmanship, gaming the insurance industries….repeated lying to federal officials…. and manipulation of data regarding life-threatening adverse effects of drugs that have killed so many people…..
…Can you get away with a fine… a surge in the stock market after a settlement….a financial bonus….and the personal satisfaction in not having to apologize so you can continue business as usual.
Steve’s life and career is dedicated to changing this….And because of that success and dedication….he has been continually asked to help some of America’s most powerful people in making a positive difference…. from Secretary Hillary Clinton, and former President Bill Clinton… to the 45th Governor of his own home state Pennsylvania, Governor Ed Rendell.
You can contact Stephen Sheller @ http://www.sheller.com/ or 800-883-2299 • PA:215-790-7300