Drug company get slap on the wrist

Drug company to pay state $584,000 in settlement

Associated Press

Lansing -- Attorney General Mike Cox says a subsidiary of pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson will pay $584,000 to the state's Medicaid Trust Fund as part of a lawsuit settlement.

It was announced in April that Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. agreed to pay $75 million to settle claims by the government that it illegally promoted the epilepsy drug Topamax for a variety of psychiatric uses.

Michigan's share of the settlement was decided Friday and announced today by the attorney general's office.

Cox's office says an additional $1 million will go to the federal government for its share of state Medicaid claims.

Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals has said it's been cooperating with the government since the investigation began in December 2003.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100726/METRO/7260391/1361/Drug-company-to-pay-state-$584-000-in-settlement#ixzz0upGuhGgR