J&J/Janssen Fined $4.5 Million Over Risperdal Misleading Claims

This just hit the press yesterday: last week, a judge in West Virginia sided with the state's Attorney General over allegations that J&J/Janssen had sent misleading mailings to doctors in the state, ones that made misleading claims about Risperdal and, separately, J&J's pain patch Duragesic.

The court assessed a fine totaling $4.475 million. The Attorney General had sued J&J/Janssen in 2004. I don't know if any other states are suing the company over the same mailings.

The court found:

"'The wording of [the defendants’] November 2003 Risperdal letter was intentionally constructed to modify the FDA’s warning language and mislead healthcare professionals, who rely on this information when prescribing medication for their patients.'"

I've not been able to find a copy of the letter, but it's described thus by one legal website:

"Johnson & Johnson, also known as Janssen Pharmaceutica, has touted Risperdal as having a reduced risk of side effects or adverse health reactions in comparison to other atypical antipsychotics. Although the FDA had approved Janssen’s revision to its warning labels regarding the increased risk of hyperglycemia and diabetes mellitus, it concluded that Janssen’s warning letter dated November 10, 2003 contradicted these revised warnings on the product labeling; the warning letter actually claims that Risperdal is associated with a lower risk of diabetes than other atypical antipsychotics. In fact, the FDA summoned Janssen to provide such evidence to support this claim of decreased incidence of hyperglycemia and diabetes."

Can't any of these atypical makers do anything right?