UPDATE: J&J Risperdal - TEXAS "TMAP" TRIAL "GUILTY" - Settles for Chump Change - AstraZeneca Seroquel Next?

UPDATE: J&J Risperdal anti-psychotic drug - TEXAS TMAP TRIAL "GUILTY" then settles for chump change while admitting to no liability or fault - corporate crime pays very well - will AstraZeneca & Seroquel be next?

 

Incredible & Shocking news out of Texas this morning, as a settlement is reached in the J&J TMAP Risperdal trial. J&J has made a estimated 28+ billion dollars on this drug and the energizer profit bunny is still going & going....J&J hid harmful side effects, buried damning studies, lied, lied some more, marketed the drug off label illegally to children, paid off government officials, and so much more.....& what happens....no one goes to prison, just some meaningless cost of doing business fines or settlements...and the crimes and corporate raping of America and society continues unabated....what went on in this backroom deal?...this goes way beyond not smelling right...why didn't the jury have an opportunity to make a rational judgement based on the evidence & reach a verdict?

I sincerely hope people get angry, sick, & tired of these backroom deals, subversion of our justice system, and the elitist corporate power brokering when it comes to these crimes that have destroyed countless victims lives…where is their justice? The answer to that question; There is none

SO WHAT HAS REALLY CHANGED? I suspect, very little….so very little indeed…

I invite you to read the real story & tragedy behind TMAP -  this is what J&J, AstraZeneca, Lilly, & BMS actually did to countless thousands & thousands of children...the victims don't get to just walk away unscathed while profiteering beyond imagination...All of America should feel ashamed today...the Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott should look in the mirror and see the people he is supposed to represent...he should go personally to witness the carnage...visit with the victims...instead of making amiable political backroom deals with criminal corporations...shameful doesn't begin to tell this story..

from motherjones.com - Medicating Aliah

----------------------------------------------------------------- 

Latest Update highlights from the Washingtonpost Thursday, January 19, 2:09 PM

Johnson & Johnson subsidiary settles Texas lawsuit over anti-psychotic drug for $158 million

By Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas and a subsidiary of health care giant Johnson & Johnson reached a $158 million settlement in a Medicaid fraud lawsuit Thursday, allowing the drugmaker to pay a fraction of the potential $1 billion in penalties and fines that state officials had initially sought.

The lawsuit was one of dozens of state and federal cases alleging that the company committed fraud by making false or misleading statements about the safety, cost and effectiveness of the expensive anti-psychotic medication Risperdal, and improperly influencing officials and doctors to push the drug.

inShare

Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., one of the J&J subsidiaries that had been sued, said in a statement it will pay the money to fully resolve all claims in Texas. The company said it is not admitting any liability or fault with the settlement.

 But analysts called the $158 million figure a victory for J&J, which made billions off Risperdal, because the deal allowed the company to avoid a much larger verdict in a state with a reputation as an easy place to win big jury awards.

The settlement also is far less than the $327 million Johnson & Johnson recently was ordered to pay in South Carolina and the $258 million it was ordered to pay in Louisiana in Risperdal lawsuits.
“For Johnson & Johnson, it’s a mighty easy result,” said Eric Gordon, a clinical professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. “The legal team at Johnson & Johnson are doing high fives.”

-------------------------------------------------

UPDATE:

from marketwatch

J&J to pay $158 million to settle Risperdal case

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit said Thursday it has reached a settlement with the State of Texas under which it will pay $158 million "in full resolution of all claims" in litigation over its antipsychotic drug Risperdal. The deal will cover claims brought by the state in 2004 for Medicaid overpayment from 1994 to 2008 "and will circumvent potentially lengthy and costly appellate activities," the company said. Sharing in the money will be the original plaintiff, his attorneys, the state of Texas and the federal government. Shares of Johnson & Johnson JNJ -0.32% were down about 1% in morning action.

-------------------------------------------------

 

from 1 Boring Old Man blog

speaking of nails in the coffin… 

 

Posted on Thursday 19 January 2012

Update 10:20 AM: I just got this email from Austin: "I wanted to let you know that a settlement is being announced this morning in Austin. I have no additional details right now, but should learn more later today."

---

Update 10:40 AM: PHARMALOT TWITTER: Johnson & Johnson to settle charges brought by Texas AG of illegally promoting Risperdal: sources.. announcement due shortly…

Update :

J&J Said to Settle Texas Risperdal Anti-Psychotic Drug Case
Bloomberg
By Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk
January 19, 2012, 10:23 AM EST

Johnson & Johnson agreed to settle Texas officials’ claims that the drugmaker fraudulently marketed its Risperdal anti-psychotic drug and end a trial over the allegations, people familiar with the case said. The settlement will be announced in court today, the people said.

SIDE NOTE: The comment section should be buzzing with excellent feedback well worth reading...

**updates to this post will be done as information becomes available**

The Texas J&J Risperdal Trial Begins - just the tip of the criminal TMAP & Teen-Screen iceberg

The Texas J&J Risperdal Trial Begins - just the tip of the TMAP & TeenScreen iceberg

 1 Boring Old Man blog has been writing with unbridled enthusiasm and dogged persistence about the pharmaceutical industry criminal collusion & corruption that has enveloped & consumed psychiatry, medicine, research, & scholastic institutions over the past several decades. This past week he informed his readers he was off to Texas to bear witness to the coined "TMAP Trial" for himself. 

I strongly suggest you take the time to read Mickey's blog to become informed and empowered by the wisdom and knowledge he generously gifts the reader. He has invited us all to share his ring side seat to quite possibly one of the most important social policy trials of our times.

A background to the TMAP Journey...

1. evidence-based medicine I…
2. evidence-based medicine III: DSM III and later…
3. the singapore sojourn? ask Alice…
4. STAR*D: too important to ignore…
5. personalized medicine: the preface…
6. algorithmic psychiatry – the rise…
7. algorithmic psychiatry – the fall…
8. algorithmic psychiatry – so little, so badly…
9. algorithmic psychiatry – the algorithms…
10. revolution II…
11. coming this month: TMAP finally goes on trial…
12. TMAP: a devil in this machine…
13. TMAP: they knew…
14. eyes on Texas…
15. TMAP revived…
16. TMAP handout…
    
17. 1999...
18. what the thunder said…
19. detestable…
20. a connection…
21. speaking of about time…
    • Daniel Rothman Expert Report
    • Jones v. Janssen Amended Complaint
    • Janssen Payments to TMAP
    • TMAP donations by donor
    • Janssen payments to UT and State
    • Decision Makers and Disclosures

Of course we know that the J&J Risperdal trial highlighted in this post & below is just one small piece of a much larger and darker puzzle of targeted malfeasance for profit by one of the most powerful industries in the world today. This is simply one more step in a long & arduous journey toward bringing back some integrity and justice to America; and our once trusted; yet now hopelessly lost & corrupted health care system.

State attorney general sued drug company
^{Abbott: state paid excessively to Johnson & Johnson for Risperdal}
Austin Statesman
By Tim Eaton
Jan.8, 2012

^{Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is pitted against one of the largest multinational pharmaceutical companies in a trial starting this week that could bring the state more than $1 billion one of its largest potential awards since a multibillion-dollar tobacco settlement in 1998. Abbott is charging that Johnson & Johnson Inc., its wholly owned subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutical LLC and five other related companies defrauded the state in a "sophisticated marketing scheme" that caused the Texas Medicaid Program to pay too much for Janssen’s schizophrenia drug Risperdal, the lawsuit says. The state also questions the companies’ marketing practices and alleges that the companies misled state health officials about the drug’s effectiveness, the risk of side effects and its suitability for pediatric use. The trial is scheduled to begin 9 a.m. today in Judge John Dietz’s 250th state District Court in Travis County…}

^{Texas got involved with Risperdal litigation about six years ago, when Abbott’s office joined a lawsuit filed by corporate whistle-blower Allen Jones, who is a former employee of the office of the inspector general of Pennsylvania. Jones has questioned the process for how Risperdal was approved in Texas and how that information was used by other states in their approval processes. Jones filed suit in 2004 after his investigation in Pennsylvania led him to examine the companies’ track record in Texas. As a whistle-blower plaintiff, he alleged that the companies overcharged the states and overstated the drug’s effectiveness…}

^{The lawsuit says that Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries employed suspect tactics in order to sell Risperdal in the public sector, which promised to be especially lucrative. Eighty-five percent of Risperdal’s revenue was projected to come from the public sector, because schizophrenic adults tend to be poor and uninsured. "Understanding the need to obtain significant government buy-in to achieve their financial goals for Risperdal, defendants set their sights on a state with one of the largest Medicaid populations in the country — Texas," according to the filing by the state and Jones. But getting a state like Texas to put a drug on a list of preferred medications — which the companies ultimately accomplished — can be a tremendous undertaking.}

^{The lawsuit discusses the challenge for the companies to persuade decision-makers in Texas’ public medical agencies to make the move — despite what it said was evidence that the drug is more expensive and no more effective than older medications, the state and Jones say in their lawsuit. Johnson & Johnson and the related companies even created a special business unit called the Public Health Systems and Reimbursement Department designed to push the drug in the public sector, the lawsuit says. The companies also had to navigate the Texas Medicaid Program’s cost-savings measures, and to do so the companies employed a campaign that included misrepresentations about the drug’s effectiveness and superiority over other drugs, the state alleges.}

^{The state’s case outlines allegations of kickbacks — "money going directly to key decision-makers," the lawsuit says — paid more than a decade ago to several doctors employed by the state’s Health and Human Services Commission to give Risperdal preference over other antipsychotic drugs. Jones’ lawsuit claims that Risperdal became part of the treatment plan because of the drug companies’ "improper influence" over Dr. Steven Shon, the former medical director for behavioral health at the Department of State Health Services. Shon had served as a paid Janssen consultant and traveled the country promoting the Texas plan… Jones’ legal team also charged that the company perfected its marketing skills in Texas before reaching out to the other states in which it pushed for expanded Risperdal prescriptions…}