Whistleblower Allen Jones testifies "“The account was used to deposit money from drug companies" J&J Janssen Risperdal trial

VIA Bloomberg Business:

J&J Whistle-Blower Recounts Firing After Finding Payments
Bloomberg

"Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- A whistle-blower who sued Johnson & Johnson over the marketing of its antipsychotic Risperdal said he was fired after probing company payments to a top pharmacist in Pennsylvania’s government who hid the money.

Allen Jones testified today in Austin, Texas, that he was an investigator in the Pennsylvania Office of Inspector General in 2002 when he looked into an unregistered bank account run by Steven Fiorello, the pharmacist. Fiorello was on a Pennsylvania committee weighing whether to require doctors to give priority to newer, more expensive drugs like Risperdal in state-funded treatment of mental-health patients, Jones said.

Jones, 57, said he found a $4,000 check from J&J’s Janssen unit to Harrisburg State Hospital that was sent “to the attention of” Fiorello. The check covered a Fiorello trip to New Orleans to discuss Pennsylvania’s drug guidelines. Another check for $1,766 to the hospital account was sent “in care of” of Fiorello, Jones said. Fiorello controlled the account and didn’t register it with the state, Jones said.

“The account was used to deposit money from drug companies,” Jones said in the trial’s third day of testimony. “There were real problems here. On many levels, the account was improper.”

Read entire HERE.

Be sure to check 1 Boring Old Man blog daily daily, as he is the retired psychiatrist who travelled to sit in on the trial, and is blogging the trial as it goes.