Big Pharma’s kickbacks coming back to haunt

The feds say there’s a reason Johnson & Johnson’s sales with the nation’s top nursing- home drug dispenser nearly tripled: They paid for it.

Illegally.

Federal prosecutors say J&J paid millions of dollars in kickbacks to Omnicare… in essence turning the company into the drug maker’s best sales team.

The payments came in the guise of grants, educational funds or access to data that, officials say, Omnicare often never even provided. Wink, wink.

Rebates, grants or kickbacks… Whatever you call them, the plan worked. Omnicare sales of Johnson & Johnson drugs skyrocketed–from $100 million a year to $280 million a year between 1999 and 2004.

The feds even have a letter from an Omnicare executive sent to J&J, boasting “WE ARE SELLING MORE HIGH PRICED DRUGS (read Risperdal here) FOR THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY!!”

The capital letters–and the Risperdal aside–are from the original message, not me.

The feds say Omnicare pharmacists pushed nursing home doctors to prescribe more Johnson & Johnson drugs, especially off-label use of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal for Alzheimer’s patients… despite the fact that there’s literally no evidence of its effectiveness for dementia.

Docs played along, because the drug did do one thing: It made patients calm and compliant.

And it killed some of them.

It even says so right on the label:

“Elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis treated with antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of death. Risperdal is not approved for use in patients with dementia- related psychosis.”

If you have a loved one in a nursing taking these antipsychotic meds, find out why. In most cases, these drugs are completely unnecessary. Even the supposedly violent behavior or “acting out” experienced by some Alzheimer’s patients can be avoided with better care – no drugs needed.

Omnicare has already paid nearly $100 million to settle a related case… but Johnson & Johnson says it will fight the charges. And that’s not all J&J is fighting right now.

Officials want to know why it took the company so long to recall Tylenol and other over- the-counter products affected by what can only be described as a serious case of the stinks.

The meds had a noxious odor, which the company says came from a chemical used in shipping pallets. Some patients got sick… and the feds say the company knew all about the problem a year before the recall–and did nothing.

J&J isn’t the only drug maker in hot water. The feds recently sent warning letters to Eli Lilly, Cephalon, Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Bayer for problems with drug promotions and marketing material. The FDA says these companies are making claims they can’t support, or aren’t quite telling the whole story with their meds.

Will they get fined? Who knows–but I’m sure they can afford it. Some drug companies probably create budgets for penalty payouts ahead of time: It’s just part of the cost of selling meds.

It’s like a game, and the FDA is a willing partner–sending letters and collecting fines, but rarely going beyond that and taking real action.