Johnson & Johnson is again being sued for deceptive off-label marketing of its antipsychotic Risperdal. In April this year the Wisner Baum law firm filed a  lawsuit that alleges that Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Janssen  Pharmaceuticals concealed evidence that Risperdal causes breast cancer.

     In fact, not only did J&J conceal evidence from as far back as the 1990s which  linked the drug to increased cancer risks, they specifically stated in their promotional material that no “clinical trials or epidemiological studies conducted to date have shown an association between chronic  administration of this class of drugs” and cancer. An outright lie.

     The new lawsuit alleges that the drug manufacturer took their narrow-use antipsychotic Risperdal, which is only to be prescribed for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and through deceptive marketing induced doctors to prescribe it to people without either of those severe diagnoses. J&J claimed that Risperdal would offer general “mood stabilization” for those with less severe diagnoses while they also concealed the increased risks for breast cancer for those taking Risperdal.

     In May this year, Wisner Baum amended their lawsuit to include further allegations that J&J also withheld and manipulated clinical trial data, delayed the publication of studies deemed unfavorable to Risperdal, funded ghostwritten and misleading research aimed at downplaying its breast cancer risks, obstructed regulatory transparency, and illegally promoted Risperdal for off-label uses.

     “J&J transformed a narrow-use drug into a billion-dollar blockbuster by targeting vulnerable segments of our population, all while hiding a cancer risk they’ve known about for decades,” said Wisner Baum law partner Pedram Esfandiary.

     This is not the first lawsuit J&J has been hit with regarding its marketing of Risperdal. J&J pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2013 and settled civil allegations by paying $2.2 billion for promoting Risperdal to health care providers for off-label uses. J&J also settled other Risperdal cases for an undisclosed amount in October, 2021. Those lawsuits involved another off-label use of the drug which led to breast growth in thousands of men. The company disclosed that it recorded $800 million in expenses related to the agreement.

     Either J&J are very slow learners, or the huge profits they have made from  Risperdal — off- label or not — have been well worth their apparent inability to learn from their experience.