Johnson & Johnson To Pay $2.2 Billion To Resolve Drug Marketing Allegations

The Huffungton Post, Pete Yost, AP, November 04, 2013

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 23: Johnson & Johnson's schizophrenia drug
 Risperdal is arranged for an illustration at Skenderian Apothecary in Cambridge,
Massachusetts on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2007. (Photo by Jb Reed/Bloomberg
via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries have agreed to pay over $2.2 billion to resolve criminal and civil allegations of promoting three prescription drugs for off-label uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Justice announced on Monday.

The allegations include paying kickbacks to physicians and pharmacies to recommend and prescribe Risperdal and Invega, both antipsychotic drugs, and Natrecor, which is used to treat heart failure.

The figure includes $1.72 billion in civil settlements with federal and state governments as well as $485 million in criminal fines and forfeited profits.

The agreement is the third-largest U.S. settlement involving a drugmaker, and the latest in a string of legal actions against drug companies allegedly putting profits ahead of patients. In recent years, the government has cracked down on the industry's aggressive marketing tactics, which include pushing medicines for unapproved uses. While doctors are allowed to prescribe medicines for any use, drugmakers cannot promote them in any way that is not approved by FDA.

Last year British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline paid a record-setting $3 billion in fines to settle criminal and civil violations involving 10 of its drugs.

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