Two units of J&J, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical LLC and Ortho-McNeil Janssen, have agreed to pay $81 million to settle claims that they paid kickbacks to physicians as part of their illicit off-label promotion of the anti-seizure drug Topamax. According to the Department of Justice and the whistleblowers who initiated the investigation, J&J illegally marketed the drug for numerous uses outside of that approved by the Food and Drug Administration. As part of the deal, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical LLC agreed to plea to a criminal misdeameanor and admit wrongdoing. Whistleblowers Angela Maher, Anastasia Savka-Klovski, and Dr. Gary R. Spivack will share over $9 million from the settlement.
To report Medicare fraud or learn more about False Claims Act whistleblower litigation, contact Frohsin & Barger.
[…] had patted itself on the back for taking pharmaceutical companies — AstraZenica, Swartz, and Johnson & Johnson — to task for off-label marketing of prescription medications. Now, like the rest of the […]
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