Collections
The selected documents in this collection come from journalist Steven Brill's own research as well as the following lawsuits:
The selected documents in this collection concern Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson, the maker of Risperdal (risperidone), a medication used to treat schizophrenia. The lawsuits contain a variety of allegations including the drugmaker's concealment of Risperdal's harmful side effects such as the development of gynecomastia in young men. In order to boost sales of their new drug, plaintiffs allege the company embarked upon an aggressive off-label marketing campaign to market Risperdal for agitated elderly patients in nursing homes, behavioral disturbances and conduct disorders in children, attention deficit disorder, and other mood and anxiety symptoms unrelated to any psychotic disorder.
The Texas Risperdal Lawsuit was settled in 2012, for $158 million. Texas sued the drug maker for defrauding the state’s Medicaid program by promoting risperidone for uses not approved by the FDA. The suit further alleged Janssen/Johnson & Johnson violated the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act by leading Texas Medicaid administrators to believe that Janssen's antipsychotic drug Risperdal was safer and more effective for treating schizophrenia than older antipsychotic drugs that were less expensive. In the course of the investigation, the state of Texas uncovered that, in 1995, Janssen paid nearly one million dollars to three influential psychiatrists to work with them in writing treatment guidelines that would make risperidone the first choice for the treatment of schizophrenia in Texas.
As of 2015, there were 4,200 Risperdal claims on dockets across the country.
