Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8759
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: news
Van Voris B.
J&J unit receives subpoena in Remicade pricing probe
Bloomberg News 2007 Feb 23
http://web.archive.org/web/20070528173933/http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyOSZmZ2JlbDdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5NzA4MTgyNSZ5cmlyeTdmNzE3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTI=
Full text:
NEW BRUNSWICK — Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest maker of health care products, said its Centocor unit has received a subpoena in a federal investigation into pricing of the company’s drug Remicade.
The subpoena, from federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, calls for documents relating to price calculations for Remicade that Centocor uses in its contract purchase program, J&J said this week in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Remicade, used to treat conditions including Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and rheumatoid arthritis, was J&J’s No. 3 drug in 2006, with $3 billion in sales, the company said. Remicade sales jumped 19 percent from 2005, aided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug for the treatment of chronic severe plaque psoriasis, J&J said.
New Brunswick-based J&J said it is turning over material demanded in the subpoena, which it received Nov. 27. Michael Parks, a Centocor spokesman, said the company is cooperating.
This week, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union distributed information critical of Centocor and Remicade at the New York premiere of the documentary “Innerstate,” union spokesman Matt Nerzig said. The film, developed by Centocor, follows three patients living with chronic inflammatory diseases, which are among the conditions treated by Remicade, according to the “Innerstate” Web site.
In a statement, the union said a class action by public and private health plans against drug companies asserts that J&J lists Remicade at prices 30 percent higher than its cost to doctors. The practice allows doctors to profit from prescribing Remicade and artificially inflates its cost to users and health plans, the union said.
Centocor spokesman Parks declined to comment on the suit.
Shares of Johnson & Johnson fell 22 cents to $64.78 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
