Johnson & Johnson and three of its subsidiaries have agreed to pay more than $2.2 billion to the federal government and several states to resolve civil and criminal charges of healthcare fraud.
The global settlement is one of the largest healthcare fraud settlements in U.S. history. Criminal fines and forfeiture totals $485 million while civil settlements total $1.72 billion.
The settlement will resolve allegations related J&J's antipsychotic drugs Risperdal and Invega and heart failure drug Natrecor.
Federal investigators claimed the pharmaceutical giant and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals promoted the drugs for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. For example, Janssen allegedly promoted Risperdal for the treatment of psychotic symptoms associated with dementia, even though the drug was approved only to treat schizophrenia.
They also alleged J&J provided millions of dollars in kickback payments to physicians and Omnicare, the largest longterm-care pharmacy provider in the country, to prescribe Risperdal and other J&J drugs.
In addition to these claims, the government alleged that J&J and its subsidiary, Scios Incorporated, promoted Natrecor for off-label uses that caused patients to submit to costly infusions of the drug, without credible scientific evidence of health benefits to those patients.
States' portions of the monetary settlement were not specified in the DOJ release.
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