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Investing.com -- A unit of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) has been ordered by a federal judge to pay $1.64 billion to the U.S. government. The decision comes after a jury found the unit guilty in a whistleblower lawsuit for unlawfully promoting the HIV drugs Prezista and Intelence.
U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi, based in Trenton, New Jersey, directed the pharmaceutical company’s Janssen unit to pay $360 million for transgressing the federal False Claims Act. In addition, the judge imposed $1.28 billion in civil penalties, which amounts to $8,000 for each of the 159,574 false claims the jury discovered were submitted to programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the AIDS Drug Assistance Program.
Judge Quraishi, however, dismissed the jury’s $30 million award for violations of various state false claims laws due to insufficient evidence. The verdict was given on June 13, 2024, after a trial that lasted six weeks.
Janssen had requested a new trial, arguing that the verdict was influenced by a lack of evidence and incorrect jury instructions. Johnson & Johnson, headquartered in New Brunswick (NYSE:BC), New Jersey, expressed confidence that the verdict will be overturned on appeal.
The plaintiffs, Jessica Penelow and Christine Brancaccio, who were former Janssen sales representatives, accused Janssen of inappropriately marketing Prezista and Intelence for uses not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This included promoting Prezista as "lipid-neutral," which implies it would not impact cholesterol or triglyceride levels, contrary to its FDA-approved label. The plaintiffs also claimed that Janssen compensated doctors to endorse the drugs at dinner and speaker events, with the payments amounting to kickbacks.
The jury found Janssen responsible for some off-label claims, but not liable for the kickback allegations.
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