Texas Trial Team Secures $1.6B Final Judgment Against Pharmaceutical Firm

A $150 million False Claims Act jury verdict against Janssen Products ballooned on Friday into a $1.6 billion final judgment against the company in a whistleblower lawsuit brought over its off-label promotion of HIV drugs. 

U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi issued the 35-page final judgment Friday morning. The court trebled the $120 million in damages the jury found the federal government suffered as a result of Janssen’s conduct to $360 million and assessed a civil penalty of $8,000 for each of the 159,574 false claims the jury found Janssen had submitted to the government, for a total civil penalty of $1,276,592,000.