Judge says J&J unit must pay nearly $4 million for misleading physicians about antipsychotic drug.

Bloomberg News (3/4, Fisk) reports that “Johnson & Johnson and its Janssen Pharmaceutica unit must pay West Virginia $3.95 million for misleading doctors about the risks and benefits of…Risperdal,” an atypical antipsychotic drug, “a judge ruled.” The state’s attorney general “sued Johnson & Johnson and its Janssen unit in 2004, claiming the companies violated the state’s consumer protection act by claiming the drug was safer than similar medications.” In September 2003, the FDA “required makers of atypicals to warn doctors that such drugs were associated with an increased risk of diabetes.” In November of that year, “Janssen…sent out ‘false and misleading’ letters to doctors that downplayed the risks” associated with the drug, the judge said in his decision.