This looks interesting and I'll bookmark it for later. Does anyone happen to have a TL;DL version for those who don't currently have time to read the whole thing right now?
The Food and Drug Administration had prohibited Johnson & Johnson salespeople from trying to promote Risperdal to doctors to treat children because of its feared side effects, including hormonal disorders. The company was also not allowed to promote it to treat the elderly except for the most serious psychotic disorders; it was thought to cause strokes, diabetes and other ailments in that population. But [...] Johnson & Johnson was reaping more than half of its Risperdal sales from prescriptions written for children to alleviate all kinds of behavior disorders, and for the elderly, who were given the drug for simple symptoms of dementia or restlessness.
Johnson & Johnson emails, sales training manuals and business plans produced as evidence in the case revealed that the company organized special sales units illegally targeting doctors who treated the elderly and children. State mental institutions treating children, whose drugs would be paid for by Medicaid, were targeted, too.
When it came time to explain their conduct at trials and to federal investigators, Johnson & Johnson executives and salespeople have unwaveringly, even indignantly, defended themselves. One salesman, who otherwise fit the salt-of-the-earth mold that R.W. Johnson had envisioned for his company’s employees, gave thousands of Risperdal samples in child-sized doses to Austin Pledger’s doctor in Birmingham, Alabama. Yet he insisted under oath in February he didn’t recall stepping around kiddie furniture and toys as he walked into an office with a sign that said “pediatric neurologist,” and that he had no way of knowing that the doctor wasn’t treating adults.
J&J pushed their dangerous pills aggressively, illegally, and unapologetically. They targeted children and seniors.