Johnson and Johnson Hit with Off Label Allegations

It doesn’t appear that any pharma company has not been involved in a lawsuit over Off Label Marketing and now it’s J and J’s turn. Recent settlements have generated some large sums of money of late. Algorithms and whistleblowers still continue to be the two Hot Words in Healthcare. More won’t be exposed here until the day in court it appears. BD

The Justice Department has been on a roll lately, charging companies with marketing their drugs for unapproved uses. The effort continued yesterday, as the feds joined two whistleblower lawsuits alleging that Johnson & Johnson marketed its heart-failure drug Natrecor for uses that hadn’t been approved by FDA. The WSJ has the story.

Typically in cases like this, the DOJ seeks to recover damages based on the argument that off-label marketing led doctors to prescribe a drug for patients covered by public insurance programs such as Medicare. State attorneys general often join in. (Doctors are allowed to prescribe drugs for any reason they see fit, but companies may only market drugs for approved uses.)