J&J pulled products from Amazon.com over third-party dispute

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) stopped selling some of its products through Amazon.com Inc (AMZN) because it felt the online retailer was not doing enough to stop third-party merchants from selling damaged or expired J&J merchandise, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said J&J has resumed selling some of the items on Amazon.com, but the disagreements have yet to be fully resolved.

In July, Amazon's CFO said business generated from third-party merchants accounted for about 40 percent of items sold in the second quarter. Read more.

Johnson & Johnson agrees to pay $2.2 billion in drug-marketing settlement

Johnson & Johnson will pay $2.2 billion to resolve civil and criminal allegations involving the marketing of off-label, unapproved uses for three prescription drugs, Justice Department officials announced Monday.

The cases, which date from the late 1990s through the early 2000s, involve alleged kickbacks to doctors and pharmacies to promote the antipsychotic drugs Risperdal and Invega, and a heart drug, Natrecor. The widely anticipated agreement was one of the largest health-care fraud settlements in U.S. history.

Federal investigators accused a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary of promoting Risperdal for controlling anxiety and aggression in elderly dementia patients, as well as for treating behavioral problems in other “vulnerable” populations, such as children and the mentally disabled. Read more.

 

Johnson & Johnson to pay $2 billion for false marketing

The penalties announced Monday involve fines and forfeiture to the federal government and several states. The settlement involves the schizophrenia drugs Risperdal and Invega, and the heart failure drug Natrecor, the company and Attorney General Eric Holder said.

Johnson & Johnson and two subsidiaries "lined their pockets at the expense of American taxpayers, patients and the private insurance industry," Holder said.

The penalty amounts to one of the country's largest health care-related settlements, the Justice Department said. Read more

 

Bristol Myers Squibb First to Japan in New Hepatitis C Therapy Race

The race for the new generation of hepatitis C treatments continues as Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) takes first place in seeking approval for a truly all-oral treatment independent of interferon and ribavirin.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD)'s sofosbuvir and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ)'s simprevir both made significant progress toward FDA approval by the end of this year. The oral agents have unfortunately only undergone studies in conjunction with the injectable interferon, which is associated with both its cumbersome method of delivery and unpleasant flu-like side effects. Other agents have undergone studies in combination with ribavirin, which is associated with side effects of anemia and rash. The ultimate goal is to develop a stand-alone oral agent independent of both interferon and ribavirin, achieve both ease of delivery and improved compliance and more benign side effects. Read more.

168 million payout to Johnson & Johnson whistleblowers.

The $167.7 million award is one of the largest whistleblower awards in U.S. history. It will be divided among an unspecified number of whistleblowers in three states, according to the Justice Department.

The $2.2 billion settlement between Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500) and authorities settles charges that J&J marketed drugs for unapproved uses and gave kickbacks to doctors and nursing homes. Attorney General Eric Holder said Johnson & Johnson and two subsidiaries lined their pockets at the expense of American taxpayers, patients and the private insurance industry.  Read more.