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"                      <p class=\"imgtitle\">Abbott</p>           AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline) - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's case against Janssen Pharmaceutical over its prescription antipsychotic drug Risperdal was scheduled to go to trial Tuesday.<br /><br />The company is accused by Abbott of marketing the drug for unapproved uses, a claim also made by other state attorneys general around the country. Abbott had the State join a complaint filed under seal by a whistleblower.<br /><br />The whistleblower, Allen Jones, was a former employee of the Office of the Inspector General in Pennsylvania. Jones claimed the company paid off a Texas official to have Risperdal become a preferred drug in the state's Texas Medication Algorithm Project.<br /><br />In suing Janssen in 2006, Jones provided a copy of his complaint to Abbott<br /><br />\"The State of Texas made excessive Medicaid payments based upon... misrepresentations, concealment and failure to disclose material facts and was therefore damaged,\" an amended complaint says.<br /><br />\"The defendants have profited and the State of Texas has paid excessive Medicaid reimbursements and has been damaged monetarily by the unlawful acts of Defendants.\"<br /><br />Judge John Dietz, of Travis County, is presiding over the trial, <a href=\"http://www.courtroomview.com/\" class=\"copy\">which is being broadcast online by Courtroom View Network</a>. Damages could exceed $1 billion.<br /><br />Bloomberg reported last week that Johnson & Johnson, Janssen's parent company, is paying more than $1 billion to the federal government and most states to resolve a civil investigation.<br /><br />Twelve states filed their own lawsuits over the drug. That group includes West Virginia, Massachusetts, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Louisiana.<br /><br />Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley was seemingly the last to the party, filing suit in August in Suffolk Superior Court.<br /><br />South Carolina, represented by the Houston law firm Bailey Perrin Bailey, won its case in March. The firm created a measure of controversy in Pennsylvania, where it was hired by then-Gov. Ed Rendell after donating $91,000 to his campaign fund.<br /><br />A state judge ruled in June 2010 in the Pennsylvania case that the Commonwealth lacked sufficient evidence to prove the company improperly marketed the drug.<br /><br />West Virginia also failed in its Risperdal case. A November 2010 ruling overturned a $4.5 million civil penalty.<br /><br />A month prior, a Louisiana jury reached a $258 million in that state's Risperdal case.<br /><br />Omnicare, Inc., a company that specializes in providing pharmacy services to long-term care facilities, has found itself in hot water over allegations that it solicited and received kickbacks in exchange for convincing physicians to prescribe Risperdal.<br /><br /><em>From Legal Newsline: Reach John O'Brien by e-mail at jobrienwv@gmail.com.</em><br /><br />"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://legalnewsline.com/stories/510526168-texas-ag-s-risperdal-suit-goes-to-trial>