Antipsychotic Drugs, Elderly Patients and Omnicare’s Settlement
So Omnicare, a big pharmacy that specializes in providing drugs to nursing-home patients, will pay $98 million to settle allegations that the company “solicited or paid a variety of kickbacks,” according to this statement from the feds.
The WSJ story gets into all the details, but one wrinkle in particular caught our eye: Omnicare was accused of soliciting and receiving kickbacks from J&J in exchange for recommending the company’s antipsychotic drug Risperdal.
This touches on the broader issue of the widespread use of antipsychotic drugs among nursing home patients. Risperdal, like other drugs in its class, comes with this warning: “Elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis treated with antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of death.”
Risperdal isn’t approved for treating mental problems that stem from dementia. Nevertheless, as the Chicago Tribune reported last week and the WSJ reported in 2007, Risperdal and other antipsychotics have been widely used for nursing-home patients with dementia (though there have been efforts to curb use of the drugs).
It’s not illegal for doctors to prescribe drugs for unapproved uses. But it is illegal for drug companies to encourage unapproved uses in their marketing.
A J&J spokesman referred the WSJ to the company’s most recent 10-Q, which disclosed that […]
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