Wall Street Journal
By Jonathan D. Rockoff
January 15, 2010

Federal prosecutors alleged that Johnson & Johnson paid one of the nation’s largest pharmacies serving nursing homes “tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks” to increase sales of drugs including blockbuster antipsychotic Risperdal.

Prosecutors charged in a complaint filed in federal court in Boston Friday that J&J illegally paid Omnicare Inc. to get the pharmacy company to buy J&J medicines and recommend their use to nursing homes. Omnicare’s yearly purchases of J&J products nearly tripled to $280 million, prosecutors alleged.

The alleged payments took place from 1999 to 2004 and took various forms, including payments for the pharmacy’s data and for education programs for customers, prosecutors said. Omnicare charged Medicaid for a “substantial portion,” they said.

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