Bailey Perrin Bailey $1.2 Billion Arkansas Risperdal

PRLog (Press Release) - Aug. 7, 2012 - Arkansas Judge Orders J&J Unit To Pay $1.1 Billion Penalty For Risperdal Marketing

An Arkansas state court judge assessed a $1.1 billion penalty against the Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson for thousands of violations of state trade practice and Medicaid fraud laws, sources told Mealey Publications (State of Arkansas v. Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., No. CV07-14345, Ark. Cir., Pulaski Co.).

Houston firm Bailey Perrin Bailey represented Arkansas against Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

Along with contending that J&J and Janssen defrauded the Medicaid program by failing to properly outline the medicine’s risks, Arkansas officials alleged J&J officials deceptively marketed the drug as safer and better than competing medicines.
The state’s lawyers also argued that J&J marketed the drug for “unapproved uses, including various symptoms in children and the elderly” after being warned by federal authorities to halt such sales.

The U.S. has been investigating Risperdal sales practices since 2004, including allegations that the company marketed the drug for unapproved uses, J&J executives said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing last year.

In June 2011 a South Carolina judge ordered J&J to pay $327 million in penalties for deceptively marketing the medicine. The company has appealed that ruling. J&J ended the most-recent trial in Texas with a $158 million settlement in January.