J&J must pay $1.1B for misleading doctors about Risperdal

Johnson & Johnson must pay more than $1.1 billion in fines, a judge ruled after an Arkansas jury found the company's officials misled doctors and patients about the risks of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal. Judge Tim Fox in Little Rock, Arkansas, today found J&J and its Janssen unit committed more than 238,000 violations of the state's Medicaid fraud laws by illegally marketing Risperdal over an almost four-year period starting in 2002. The penalty is the largest of the three handed down so far against New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J in state cases alleging the second-biggest maker of health products hid Risperdal's risks and tricked Medicaid regulators into paying more than they should have for the medicine.