J&J subsids receive three US subpoenas

Global health care giant Johnson & Johnson says that it has received three separate subpoenas from the Office of the US Attorney in Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco, in relation to the sale and marketing of several of its drug products. The company said that it has already notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission of the issue, and added that it intends to cooperate fully with the investigations.

The subpoenas request information regarding the antipsychotic Risperdal (risperidone), which is sold by J&J subsidiary Janssen; the anticonvulsant Topamax (topiramate), marketed by Ortho-McNeil; and Natrecor (nesiritide), the firm's treatment for acutely decompensated congestive heart failure with dyspnea, marketed in the USA by J&J company Scios. The focus of the investigations is J&J's role in the supervision of its subsidiaries, as well as information used in the promotion of the three drugs.

Centocor also under investigation