J&J fined $1.1 billion in antipsychotic drug case

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas judge ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay more than $1.1 billion in fines after a jury found the company’s officials misled doctors and patients about the risks of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal, Bloomberg reported.

The judge found Johnson & Johnson and its Janssen unit committed more than 238,000 violations of the state’s Medicaid fraud laws by illegally marketing Risperdal over an almost four-year period starting in 2002.

Each violation carried a $5,000 fine, pushing the total to more than $1.1 billion.