Johnson & Johnson has agreed to a $7.8 million settlement with the state of Arkansas over the company’s marketing practices related to its psychiatric medication Risperdal.

The Arkansas attorney general’s office had initiated the action almost eight years ago, alleging Johnson & Johnson misrepresented the safety and effectiveness of Risperdal, particularly with respect to diabetes risks.

About $2 million of the award covers the state’s legal fees. The state hired a private law firm from Texas to try the case on its behalf.

A spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson said the Risperdal settlement does not include any admission of liability on Johnson & Johnson’s part. The company agreed to the settlement purely in the interest of ending the litigation, they say.

Earlier in the same Risperdal litigation, the Arkansas Supreme Court threw out a $1.2 billion fine against Johnson & Johnson, saying the lower court had misapplied the Arkansas Medicaid fraud statute in awarding the fine.

State Risperdal Lawsuits

Johnson & Johnson is a New Jersey-based company and the second-largest maker of health care products. Its Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit makes Risperdal, a psychiatric medication approved by the FDA to treat schizophrenia, manic episodes associated with bipolar disorder, and irritability associated with autistic disorder.

Global sales of Risperdal peaked at $4.5 billion in 2007, before its patent expired and generic versions became available. Sales then dropped to $542 million by 2011.

Johnson & Johnson is facing similar Risperdal lawsuits from several other state governments, which so far have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for the company. In Texas, an enforcement action resulted in a $158 million settlement. Similar actions are continuing in Mississippi and Kentucky.

The company has had some success getting some of these fines reduced or removed on appeal. In January 2014, the Louisiana Supreme Court rejected a lower court’s $258 million fine. In South Carolina, the state supreme court lowered a $327 million fine to $136 million.

The state actions follow a huge federal investigation that culminated in November 2013, when Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay more than $2.2 billion in civil and criminal penalties. The Janssen unit pleaded guilty to a criminal misdemeanor charge for promoting Risperdal as a treatment for elderly patients with dementia, a use not approved by the FDA.

The Risperdal settlement also covered civil claims alleging that Janssen paid kickbacks to the largest pharmacy for nursing homes and to individual physicians.

At the time it was made, the Risperdal settlement was the third-largest settlement of its kind between the federal government and a pharmaceutical company. Part of the reward is reserved for the whistle-blowers who filed the Risperdal lawsuits.

Johnson & Johnson also continues to face a wave of civil Risperdal lawsuits by private parties alleging harmful Risperdal side effects. A common basis for litigation is Risperdal gynecomastia, the development of inflammed and enlarged breast tissue in men.

Some plaintiffs attribute their Risperdal gynecomastia to Johnson & Johnson’s improper marketing of Risperdal for use in young patients during the years in which the FDA had approved it only for use in adults.

The Risperdal Lawsuit is the State of Arkansas v. Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., Case no. CV07-15345, in the Arkansas Circuit Court for Pulaski County.