Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay as much as $2.2 billion to settle U.S. probes of the marketing of its Risperdal antipsychotic drug and other medications, two people familiar with the negotiations said.
J&J said on verge of a $2.2B Risperdal settlement
Payment, which includes other U.S. probes, would be close to Pfizer's record $2.3 billion pharmaceutical accord.
June 12, 2012 at 2:13AM
The settlement, which might be announced this week, will include a misdemeanor plea and criminal penalty of as much as $600 million, said the people, who didn't want to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the agreement. The accord also would resolve civil claims that J&J paid kickbacks to Omnicare Inc., a company that dispenses drugs at nursing homes, the people said.
The agreement, which wouldn't end claims by some states, would be the government's second-biggest settlement with a pharmaceutical company, behind a $2.3 billion accord that Pfizer Inc. entered in 2009 to resolve U.S. investigations of improper marketing of its painkiller Bextra and other drugs.
"This is a gigantic settlement that reflects the seriousness of the criminal and civil allegations against J&J over Risperdal and the other drugs," Carl Tobias, who teaches product-liability law at the University of Richmond law school, said in a phone interview.
The accord covers Risperdal claims by whistle-blowers and the U.S. and those by most of the states, and it resolves claims that J&J illegally marketed the heart-failure drug Natrecor and the antipsychotic medication Invega, the people said.
J&J officials said June 8 the company was setting aside $600 million to increase its reserves for potential settlements of lawsuits over its marketing campaigns for Risperdal and other drugs.
"We can't comment on this matter," Bill Price, a J&J spokesman, said.
Charles Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, said in an e-mail that he had no comment.
The U.S. government has been probing Risperdal sales practices since 2004, including allegations the company marketed the drug for unapproved uses, J&J has said in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Margaret Cronin Fisk, Jef Feeley and David Voreacos contributed to this article.
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