September 30, 2015
Mohenjo
Crime, Human Interest
James' World
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Despite A Hefty Fine, J&J Still Made Billions From Risperdal
Thomas Kline
Tried Austin Pledger’s case
Philadelphia litigator who teamed up with Sheller and tried Austin Pledger’s case.
The following are excerpts from Tom Kline’s closing argument for the plaintiff:
Ivo Caers confirmed for us Table 21 was never reported to the FDA. … We know now what’s behind the tables: The little girls with the lactating breasts … and the little boys even under ten who have gynecomastia. My word.
And when Dr. Kessler told us, ‘Red flag. This isn’t cherry picking.’ When a pharmaceutical company acting reasonably and prudently has this kind of data, they investigate it, they report it, they tell the FDA. They tell the doctors. They tell the world. They don’t just go on selling, selling, selling, selling the drug. … Oh, and giving it away in doctor after doctor’s…
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September 29, 2015
Mohenjo
Crime, Human Interest
James' World
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Even one of the Johnson & Johnson’s own employees hurt the cause when he was called as a witness for the other side.
After the fighting over the Alabama doctor and his substitute, Kline questioned as a so-called hostile witness Jason Gilbreath, who had worked for Johnson & Johnson in the South for what he said was “15-plus years.” Gilbreath was the salesman who, according to records Kline’s side had subpoenaed, had called on Austin Pledger’s doctor 21 times over two years and dropped off samples equivalent to more than 16,000 children’s doses.
Gilbreath seemed to be the model of the solid citizen R.W. Johnson had had in mind as he built his iconic company and resolved to make it a place where the working man could earn an honorable, secure living. He had gone to work for J&J after getting a degree in avian…
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September 28, 2015
Mohenjo
Crime, Human Interest
amazon, “Risperdal, business, Business News, Diane Sullivan, gynecomastia, Hotels, huffington post, human-rights, johnson and johnson, medicine, mental-health, Mr. Austin Pledger, Mrs. Benita Pledger, Mrs. Pledger, plaintiff’s law firm, research, Science, Science News, technology, Technology News, travel, vacation
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A ‘Hired Bazooka’
Few corporate attorneys have Diane Sullivan’s reputation for toughness. Getty
Johnson & Johnson was fighting back.
- Question: Mrs. Pledger, I think you told our jurors that during the time that you’re taking Mr. Pledger to doctors while he was on Risperdal, none of his doctors ever diagnosed gynecomastia?
- Benita Pledger: I never heard of gynecomastia. And, no, they did not.
- Question: At some point … you saw a commercial on TV for a Plaintiff’s law firm about Risperdal and lawsuits running?
… And it had a phone number 1-800, call if you have taken Risperdal?
- Pledger: It had a number.
- Question: And they would file lawsuits?
- Pledger: That’s what the commercial was about, yes.
- Question: And, Mrs. Pledger, it’s true that the first person to tell you that Risperdal caused your son’s gynecomastia wasn’t a doctor, it was a plaintiff’s law firm?
- Pledger: True.
Mrs. Benita Pledger
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Click link below for article:
http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/miracleindustry/americas-most-admired-lawbreaker/chapter-13.html
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September 27, 2015
Mohenjo
Crime, Human Interest
James' World
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Aside from Gorsky’s deposition, Johnson & Johnson had still not had, or taken, the opportunity to offer its side of the story in any full-length, high profile adversarial hearing.
But in a Philadelphia courtroom in September 2012, that faceoff seemed imminent. Local judges had ordered all of the personal injury cases Sheller had gathered through his own office and through referrals—by now numbering over 200—to consolidate under one set of depositions, such as Gorsky’s, and one set of document demands. Then the individual cases were chosen for trial in the order in which they had been filed.
Both sides expected a few or maybe a dozen would be argued to a verdict. By then, each would be able to gauge the cases’ value in order to settle the rest. A loss or a lowball verdict in a few early cases would push the settlement in…
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September 26, 2015
Mohenjo
Human Interest
amazon, Brian Williams, business, Business News, Hotels, human-rights, Kate Snow, medicine, mental-health, MSNBC, Pope Francis, ratings, research, Science, Science News, technology, Technology News, travel, vacation
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Either the pope’s U.S. visit is drawing in viewers or people have really missed Brian Williams, who returned to television Tuesday after a six-month suspension for lying about various reporting experiences, including coming under fire in a military helicopter in Iraq.
MSNBC enjoyed its highest-rated day on Wednesday since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in June, the network announced in a statement, bringing in 518,000 total viewers and 93,000 viewers in the coveted 25-54 age demographic. Wednesday’s coverage was up 15 percent in total viewers from the previous day, and up 67 percent from the previous four weeks.
The news offers early validation for the rebranding effort currently underway at MSNBC, which has suffered from low ratings over the past year. Earlier this month, MSNBC President Phil Griffin characterized the shift as a “focus on live, breaking news in the daytime and smart, informed analysis and opinion in primetime.”
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Brian Williams’ return to TV coincides with a ratings spike for MSNBC.
Brad Barket/Invision/Associated Press
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Click link below for article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/msnbc-ratings-brian-williams_56053593e4b0dd8503071abc?utm_hp_ref=tw
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September 26, 2015
Mohenjo
Crime, Human Interest
James' World
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By fall 2013, the government and Johnson & Johnson had settled on a new number: $2.2 billion—$500 million in criminal fines and forfeitures and $1.7 billion for civil damages. Of the total, $335 million was to settle the Omnicare Boston suit and the San Francisco suit related to the heart drug Natrecor. This made the Risperdal portion the largest settlement ever for the illegal marketing of one drug.
As planned, Johnson & Johnson—actually the Janssen unit, a distinction that the J&J lawyers fought for—would plead guilty to one misdemeanor related to marketing to the elderly.
That infuriated Sheller and other plaintiffs lawyers for a simple if non-obvious reason: Getting J&J to admit to selling off-label to the elderly didn’t help them nearly as much as getting them to admit to all of the alleged off-label activities related to children—from the Biederman effort, to the Lego…
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September 25, 2015
Mohenjo
Crime, Human Interest
James' World
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On February 21, 2012, five weeks after Johnson & Johnson paid $158 million to Texas and made Allen Jones a multimillionaire, the company announced that the board had appointed Alex Gorsky to succeed William Weldon as the new chief executive officer. The press release noted that Gorsky had began at J&J in 1988 as a salesman for Janssen and then worked his way up to president of the unit. Although he had left in 2004 to run rival Novartis’ North American division, he had returned to the fold in 2008 to assume a variety of top positions, including vice chairman. The announcement quoted Weldon, the outgoing CEO, describing the “rigorous, thorough, and formal multi-year” board selection process.
I tried to reach each member of the J&J board that chose Gorsky to ask how Gorsky’s involvement in the Risperdal marketing and sales campaigns had factored into…
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September 24, 2015
Mohenjo
Crime, Human Interest
James' World
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By March 2010, when Johnson & Johnson filed its financial disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission covering the events of the year 2009, the world’s leading healthcare company was forced to list a daunting collection of suits and investigations involving Risperdal. Subpoenas seeking testimony of its executives “before a grand jury” had been received from the U.S. attorney’s office in Philadelphia investigating the marketing of the drug. Other subpoenas had been issued for company officials to testify before a grand jury in Boston looking into the Omnicare relationship. Two qui tam suits had been filed in Massachusetts related to that deal, too, and suits seeking damages and fines had been filed by nine different states.
Beyond that, the company reported that “multiple products of Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries are subject to numerous product liability claims and lawsuits.” Two other allegedly faulty J&J products targeted…
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September 23, 2015
Mohenjo
Crime, Human Interest
James' World
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On December 14, 2006, Stephen Sheller filed his first case against Johnson & Johnson. The client was a New Jersey boy who had taken Risperdal beginning in 2001. When he had met the boy and his mother, Sheller thought the case would be about diabetes and weight gain. But then she and her son became traumatized by his growing breasts, and in August 2004, he had radical surgery to remove them.
Still, the suit focused on diabetes, and the complaint Sheller wrote was a hodgepodge of weak claims, in large part because the boy had also taken the Risperdal competitor drug Seroquel. Its manufacturer, AstraZeneca, was also named as a defendant, as was the boy’s doctor, who was accused of malpractice.
The complaint claimed that Risperdal was the sole bad actor when it came to the boy’s breasts. Yet even in late 2006 Sheller knew…
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September 22, 2015
Mohenjo
Crime, Human Interest
James' World
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Since he had begun taking Risperdal, Austin Pledger was having fewer tantrums. The reports Benita Pledger read from her son’s school reflected what she was seeing at home: “His frustration behavior has improved greatly,” his special education teacher wrote in April 2004. But it was far from a complete turnaround. Austin would still erupt in volatile behavior, biting himself or suddenly dropping to the floor and pounding his head.
Benita and Phillip continued to dote on him, and marveled at his ever-amazing feats of memory. He could now recite long passages from books that he was starting to be able to read. He amazed his parents almost every day by completing the required phrase, when just a few letter clues had been posted, as he watched his favorite TV show, “Wheel of Fortune.”
But despite Benita’s incessant efforts to control Austin’s diet, her son had…
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