Fraud settlement nets $173,600 for R.I.

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island’s Medicaid program will receive $361,708 as part of a settlement with Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. over allegations that the drugmaker engaged in an off-label marketing campaign that improperly promoted the anticonvulsant Topamax.
Ortho-McNeil-Janssen agreed to pay state Medicaid programs across the country a total of $50.7 million in damages and penalties, according to Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch.
The money is split between the federal government and the states in proportion to the share of Medicaid costs that each contributes, which is why Rhode Island will only get $173,615 of the total settlement amount for the state. The federal share of the settlement will go to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The settlement involves allegations that Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals willingly marketed Topamax to treat migraines and epilepsy, two indications for which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved the drug.
In addition, Ortho-McNeil-Janssen allegedly marketed the drug to doctors for conditions such as bipolar disorder and drug and alcohol dependency.
The settlement is to recover payments by government programs for such off-label uses, which are not allowed under Medicaid.
“This is another in a long line of settlements with pharmaceutical companies that repeatedly engage in deceptive practices to boost their profits and, at the same time, bilk and exploit a program that assists the most vulnerable people in Rhode Island, and in our nation,” Lynch said in a news release. “With this settlement, we right yet another wrong of gross abuse of our government’s vital Medicaid program.”