J&J reportedly agrees to $1 billion settlement on Risperdal

J&J reportedly agrees to $1 billion settlement on Risperdal

“Johnson & Johnson will pay more than $1 billion to the U.S. and most states to resolve a civil investigation into marketing of the antipsychotic Risperdal, according to people familiar with the matter.

“The U.S. government has been investigating Risperdal sales practices since 2004, including allegations that the company marketed the drug for unapproved uses.”

[Read the full article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

According to Bloomberg News on Business Week (January 11, 2012), “Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen unit paid a Texas mental health official to speak around the U.S. about state guidelines on prescribing antipsychotic drugs that gave preference to the company’s Risperdal medicine.”

[Read the full article here]

What is Risperdal?

Risperdal (generic name risperidone) is an antipsychotic (also called a Major Tranquilizer or Neuroleptic). The ingestion of a single tablet of Risperidal may cause significant toxicity in a toddler. At least 45 children died between 2000 and 2004 from the side effects of antipsychotic drugs like Risperdal. As the FDA’s Adverse Drug Reactions reporting database only collects 1% to 10% of drug-induced side effects and reported deaths, the true child death rate could be between 450 and several thousand for that period.

In June 2008 the FDA issued a warning to healthcare professionals that these antipsychotics are associated with an increased risk of mortality in elderly patients. Risperdal is also associated with significant weight gain and metabolic problems, as well as tardive dyskinesia and neuroleptic malignant syndrome.

Of course, psychiatric drugs are only prescribed as a treatment for various symptoms of mental distress because there are diagnoses in the psychiatric billing bible, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, for which insurance will reimburse. Watch the CCHR documentary DVD Psychiatry’s Deadliest Scam to find out about how psychiatry invents diseases, fraudulently diagnoses them, and markets harmful drugs for them.