Feds Target J&J

Big drug companies paid billions in record settlements last year related to federal charges of fraudulent marketing practices.

Fifteen days into 2010, Johnson & Johnson is accused of paying kickbacks to pharmacists serving nursing homes. The health care giant paid Omnicare Inc. pharmacists to recommend J&J drugs, including antipsychotic Risperdal, U.S. prosecutors charge. J&J denies any wrongdoing.

Omnicare, one of the nation's largest pharmacies serving nursing homes, already settled with the government in November, paying $98 million after prosecutors accused the company of taking kickbacks.

J&J paid Omnicare millions in the form of rebates, grants, and educational funding that prosecutors say were really just inducements to push the company's products. The whistle-blower suit is filed in federal court in Boston.

Risperdal is a big drug for J&J that's been losing sales over the past two years since generic competitors began selling their versions of the pill. U.S. sales of the Risperdal pill fell 80 percent in the first nine months of last year. Worldwide sales were $706 million in that period. An injectable form of the drug added another $1 billion in sales through September 30.

In separate federal settlements last year, Pfizer Inc. paid $2.3 billion and Eli Lilly & Co. paid $1.4 billion after prosecutors accused the companies of encouraging doctors to prescribe drugs for unapproved uses.