Jan Schlichtmann featured in major Wall Street Journal story on Procrit whistleblower case and sales tactics.

In a major story released on Thursday May 10th, Attorney Jan Schlichtmann's Whistleblower case against Johnson & Johnson was profiled in a major story in the Wall Street Journal.

The WSJ is subscription based but the link to the story is here.

You can also access the Health Blog on the WSJ Online site by clicking here to get a summary and read postings and reactions to the article.  

This article details how Johnson & Johnson, in the marketing of their anemia drug Procrit had created an elaborate rebate and sales incentive scheme to promote the off label use of the drug, allow for rebates in the millions of dollars as well as game the system on average wholesale pricing. 

Of course the big story that the article hardly touched on was the looming whistleblower case on the off label marketing of Procrit and submission of false claims to medicare and medicaid during a 6+ year period before the FDA halted the practice.

All of this was followed by the FDA hearings the next day that indicated that the recommendations are likely to be a major curtailment of using the drug for anything other then very specific situations, instead of the " Red Bull for chemo patients" marketing approach that was used in television advertising.

You can keep up to speed on this entire case and anemia drugs by going to the the Civil Action Center blog by clicking here.