Pharmaceutical companies used to settle dangerous drug claims against their illegal marketing and advertising practices by paying a fraction of their profits and releasing the news on a Friday or Saturday evening when hardly anyone noticed. Today, since almost all of "Big Pharmaceutical" has agreed to sell under off-brand labels for high percentage kickbacks, the public is not only ill-informed, but they are also tricked into not realizing the damage these major drug conglomerates can do.

Last week, the $2.2 billion settlement to be paid by Johnson & Johnson for illegally marketing dangerous drugs to children, the elderly, and the intellectually disabled seemed like a victory for the victims of pharmaceutical negligence. The case alleged that one of Johnson & Johnson's subsidiaries, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, illegally promoted Risperdal: an anti-psychotic drug that was sold under the pretense that it controlled aggression and anxiety in older dementia patients, as well as treated children with behavioral problems, and even some people with physical and emotional disabilities. The lawsuit cited Janssen's kickback scheme with Omnicare Incorporated, which is a mega-pharmacy that supplies nursing homes. 

During testimonies, one employee from the FDA said that at least fifteen thousand elderly people die every year in nursing homes due to dangerous drugs like Risperdal. In addition to Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Pharmaceuticals, the drugs Zyprexa (made by Eli Lilly) and Seroquel (AstraZeneca) have also had to settle on charges that they falsely marketed dangerous drugs to the elderly in order to max out on profits in recent months.

However, while $2.2 billion may seem like a huge amount, the fact is that Johnson & Johnson made around $24.2 billion in Risperdal sales from 2003 to 2010. Despite knowing the dangers that Risperdal presented to people, Johnson & Johnson continued to sell it at maximum profits, and by the time they were charged with false advertising and illegal scheming, the patent on the drug had already run out.

Other drug conglomerates that have been charged with false advertising and illegal marketing schemes include, but are not limited to:

• GlaxoSmithKline for the drug Paxil
• Abbott for the drug Depakote
• Merck for the drug Vioxx
• Pfizer for the drug Bextra
• Pfizer for the drug Lipitor
• Pfizer for the drug Neurontin

Due in part to flooding the market with dangerous drugs and settling for minimal losses, Big Pharmaceutical's secret policy seems to be asking for forgiveness after the fact instead of asking for permission before they go to market. And regardless of minimal losses compared to annual revenue, drug giants such as GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Sanofi, and Roche will lay off an estimated 100,000 employees over the next few months.

So, while dangerous drug corporations may be laying low for a little while, their administrations who have partnerships and stock in defective surgical device companies are getting more press coverage. It is a cyclical nightmare that must stop, but likely won't as long as Big Medical can deflect attention from one brazen field to the next.