Johnson & Johnson, the company that makes the antipsychotic drug Risperdal, has tentatively agreed to a settlement of $2.2 billion to resolve a federal investigation into the company’s marketing practices. Although details are not fully finalized, this includes “a roughly $400 million criminal fine for the illegal promotion of the antipsychotic Risperdal,” according to the Wall Street Journal. It’s been well documented that Johnson & Johnson confidentially paid psychiatrists such as Harvard’s Joseph Biederman to promote adult drugs such as the powerful antipsychotic drug Risperdal for children. The company has even ghost-written at least one of the Harvard professor’s “scientific” articles.
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SIMPLE TRUTHS ABOUT PSYCHIATRY A video series by Peter R. Breggin, MD In July 2012, Dr. Breggin began releasing a video series dealing with important aspects of psychiatry, psychology and mental health. The series titled Simple Truths about Psychiatry The presentations are lively and to the point, and have been […]
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As described in my previous blog, during this same period of time the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) began a lengthy investigation of Glaxo, resulting in recent civil and criminal fines of $3 billion for improper off-label marketing of the antidepressants Paxil and Wellbutrin, and Advair. (Although recording-breaking, the penalty was paltry in comparison to sales for the three drugs, with Advair by itself pulling in considerably more than twice that much per year for several years.)
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In the last few years in a series of civil and criminal suits, the federal government has been hitting the pharmaceutical industry with billions in fines, often for false or misleading marketing practices. Many of these suits have involved psychiatric drugs.
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