HEALTH CARE GIANT J&J ASKS JUDGE TO TOSS KICKBACK CASE
Johnson & Johnson is asking a federal judge to toss out a lawsuit alleging the company paid millions of dollars in kickbacks so nursing homes would put more patients on its popular schizophrenia medication and other drugs.
The government and two whistleblowers accuse J&J of paying kickbacks for five years to long-term pharmacy Omnicare, Inc., whose pharmacists then pushed doctors to prescribe the schizophrenia drug Risperdal for patients with signs of Alzheimer’s. The drug was later found to increase the risk of death elderly dementia patients and the FCC required that it be sold with its most severe “black box” warning.”
For its part, J&J says that it did nothing wrong, and the discounts it offered Omnicare were standard industry practice that did not violate federal anti-kickback laws.
U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns heard arguments from lawyers for the government and J&J on Thursday, but it is not immediately clear when he will rule.