Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is the subject of a California lawsuit alleging that the "family company" colluded with pharmaceutical consultant Omnicare to push its drugs on nursing home residents. Among the charges are allegations that J&J violated federal Medicaid laws with its schemes to maximize profits.
According to the suit, J&J was paying kickbacks to Omnicare to promote its drugs above those of other manufacturers, and convincing doctors that switching to J&J drugs was in their patients' best interests. The arrangement also included whitewashing these kickbacks as "performance rebates" that would be issued as "year-end bonuses."
"Residents were overcharged for their medications, had additional medications administered and were unlawfully switched to Johnson & Johnson drugs," explains the lawsuit. These medications included Floxin, Levaquin, Risperdal, Ultram, Duragesic, Procrit and Aciphex.
During their joint meetings to discuss "performance goals," J&J allegedly trained Omnicare employees to use "scripted communications" to convince physicians to switch their patients to J&J drugs as opposed to whatever they were currently on. This was included as part of the J&J's "Active Intervention Program," which basically is just a fancy name pushing its drugs on seniors.
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Johnson & Johnson Being Sued for Drug Conspiracy
2 comments:
It's what big pharma does. Big pharma doensn't really mind being sued; they've already made more profit by the wrongful use of the drug than they're being sued for.
Big pharma has big pockets!
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