I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THERE IS NO CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE PATTERN OF REALLY BAD CORPORATE BEHAVIOR OF J&J. MAYBE THERE IS AND WE DON’T KNOW IT.

They certainly offer no relief of any kind to “externalities”, those they know they are going to harm. They just do not know the names or the faces of those they know they will harm. Those nifty little package inserts sealed in the sterile packaging of their medical devices with all those disclaimers protect them legally in almost all instances.

Of course, their billions of dollars of profit also protect them, as it is virtually impossible to win in a lawsuit for the harm they cause.

See excerpts from the RPM Report below which may be the beginnings of those investigations, we can only hope:

Monday, November 09 2009 - Omnicare Settles Long Term Care Kickback Case; Is J&J the Real Target? By Michael McCaughan

“In an era of billion dollar fraud settlements, a $98 million settlement with Omnicare and an even smaller agreement with Ivax may seem like small potatoes. But prosecutors still have some big fish on the hook, including Johnson & Johnson….Here is what J&J says specifically about the Omnicare investigation:

In September 2005, the Company received a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts, seeking documents related to sales and marketing of eight drugs to Omnicare, Inc., a manager of pharmaceutical benefits for long-term care facilities. The Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries involved responded to the subpoena. Several employees of the Company’s pharmaceutical subsidiaries have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in connection with this investigation.

In April 2009, the Company was served with the complaints in two civil qui tam cases relating to marketing of prescription drugs to Omnicare, Inc. The complaints assert claims under the federal False Claims Act and related state statutes in connection with the marketing of several drugs to Omnicare. The government has not yet announced whether it will intervene in these cases.”

“But that is not the only investigation involving Risperdal disclosed by J&J. The company’s 10-Q filing cites at least 8 other subpoenas received by the company involving promotions of the product:

(1) a January 2004 subpoena seeking information about “sales and marketing of, and clinical trials for” from the Office of Personnel Management (which runs the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program);

(2) a November 2005 subpoena seeking information about “marketing of and adverse reactions to” Risperdal from the Philadelphia US Attorney (which brought the Zyprexa case);

(3) grand jury “subpoenas” related to that investigation;

(4-6) three separate subpoenas from the feds in Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco “concerning, respectively, sales and marketing of Risperdal by Janssen (now OMJPI), Topamax by Ortho-McNeil (now OMJPI) and Natrecor by Scios” seeking “information regarding the Company’s corporate supervision and oversight of these three subsidiaries, including their sales and marketing of these drugs”;

(7) grand jury “subpoenas” in Boston related to those investigations; and

(8) a “HIPPA Subpoena” from Boston a “seeking information regarding the Company’s financial relationship with several psychiatrists.”
That tally does not include product liability cases (including some filed by state and federal government payors) involving Risperdal, nor does it include numerous pricing cases that presumably involve Risperdal as well.

We have no idea when or if any of those cases will result in prosecutions or settlements. But if they do, we’re betting there will be some big numbers on the table.”

Not at all, and I would argue that case. As a CEO you have to behave responsibly, and maintaining an appropriate public image is part of that. Spending a small fortune on luxuries at the same time as you are admitting that the company is not doing well, sends the wrong signal to the employees and arguably does real harm to that company.

Johnson & Johnson spends millions and millions of dollars paying legions of attorneys to continue to make their billions of dollars in profit. Don’t believe me check out the Pacer System and do a search on J&J…literally hundreds of cases at any given time.

Think…Panacryl sutures, Ortho Evra patches, Prolene mesh, Intergel adhesion preventive…they will put anything on the market…deadly or not.

Just ask their Dr. Joel Lippman, their ex-Chief Medical Oficer, who tried to stop some of these products from going on the market.

If they were spending ANY of that money on the “externalities”, as they call injured patients, God bless Weldon.

As that is not the case, I am not sending any blessings Weldon’s way.

Lana Keeton

Are people arguing that if your company is laying off people you shouldn’t buy any big ticket items? Kind of absurd, don’t you think?

Dr. Dave

If he is newly remarried to a much younger woman and puts the property in his wife’s name, does anyone know if they will qualifiy for the new homeowner tax credit?

They’ve happily consented to this arrangement, as the pool house he is building for each of them is significantly larger than the mansions each now owns/plans on building.

Oh, that wacky Freddie “Air Hassan” — he just never pushes away from the poker-table!

Namaste