This takes the cake! I see the drug used alot in Alzheimer Disease: U.S. Attorney: Johnson & Johnson Paid Millions In Kickbacks To Boost Sales Of Schizophrenia Drug In Nursing Homes

Federal prosecutors said Friday that health care giant Johnson & Johnson paid tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks so nursing homes would put more patients on its blockbuster schizophrenia medicine and other drugs.

In a complaint filed Friday, prosecutors said J&J paid rebates and other forms of kickbacks to Omnicare Inc., the country's biggest dispenser of prescription drugs in nursing homes. Prosecutors allege Omnicare pharmacists then recommended that nursing home patients with signs of Alzheimer's disease be put on the powerful schizophrenia drug Risperdal, which was later found to increase risk of death in the elderly.

The allegations are in a complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney in Boston in a whistle-blower case originally brought by a former Omnicare pharmacist in Chicago, Bernard Lisitza, who alleges he was fired after he challenged the Risperdal kickbacks and other improper practices at the company.

"Kickbacks in the nursing home pharmacy context are particularly nefarious because they can result in excessive prescribing of strong drugs to patients who have little or no control over the medical care they are receiving," U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said in a statement. "Nursing home doctors should be able to rely on the integrity of the recommendations they receive from pharmacists, and those recommendations should not be a product of money that a drug company is paying to the pharmacy."

Johnson & Johnson, based in New Brunswick, N.J., said in a statement it is reviewing the complaint and "will address the government's lawsuit in court. We believe airing the facts will confirm that our conduct, including rebating programs like those the government now challenges, was lawful and appropriate. We look forward to the opportunity to present our evidence in court."

Ortiz's office is seeking triple damages, restitution and other penalties under the federal False Claims Act and other laws.

Separately, Johnson & Johnson said Friday it's expanding a recall of over-the-counter medications, the second time it has done so in less than a month because of a moldy smell that has made users sick. The broadening recall now includes some batches of regular and extra-strength Tylenol, children's Tylenol, eight-hour Tylenol and other medicines sold in the Americas, the United Arab Emirates, and Fiji.