Massachusetts’ attorney general said she is suing Johnson & Johnson’s Ortho-McNeil-Janssen unit over the allegedly improper marketing of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal.
The company marketed the drug to treat the elderly for dementia and young people for a variety of ailments when those uses had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, according to a statement yesterday from Attorney General Martha Coakley.
Johnson & Johnson promoted Risperdal for elderly patients with dementia without disclosing “an increased risk of death,’’ according to the statement. The drug has been approved by the FDA primarily for schizophrenia and bipolar mood disorder, according to Coakley’s office.
