Johnson & Johnson’s courtroom fights over Risperdal continue, as Commonwealth Court judges are scheduled to hear an appeal of decisions to dismiss Pennsylvania’s 2008 lawsuit that alleged the company fraudulently profited from sales of the antipsychotic drug through the Medicaid program.
While Pennsylvania’s case did go to trial in Philadelphia, it did not get far. In 2010, a Philadelphia judge threw out the lawsuit, which sought to show that J&J had tricked the state into paying millions more for the drug than it should have.
The health-care giant’s subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals produces Risperdal, which is approved for use in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. For a time, it was the company’s top-selling drug, and generic versions remain among the most-prescribed products in their category.
But J&J has been accused in lawsuits by states, the federal government, and thousands of individuals of promoting the drugs in improper ways, overstating the benefits or understating the risks. The government accusations involve claims for reimbursements of drug purchases through insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid that would not, in theory, have been made without the allegedly improper conduct.
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