United States Et Al. Ex Rel. Penelow v. Janssen Products, LP

Berger Montague and Reese Marketos secured one of the largest False Claims Act recoveries in history for the U.S. government on Friday when the law firms obtained a $1.64 billion judgment on behalf of two whistleblowers in the pharmaceutical industry.

In his March 28, 2025 opinion, U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi of the District of New Jersey found that Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Products “engaged in a deliberate and calculated scheme that spanned several years and involved the unlawful marketing” of two of its HIV medications, Prezista and Intelence, for off-label uses.

The Berger Montague team litigated on behalf of whistleblowers Jessica Penelow and Christine Brancaccio for years, then brought on the ReeseMarketos team in 2022 to take the case to trial. After a six-week trial in 2024, federal jurors in New Jersey awarded $120 million in federal FalseClaims Act damages after finding Janssen submitted 159,574 false claims by unlawfully promoting the HIV drugs Prezista and Intelence. Jurors tacked on an additional $30 million in damages, finding violations of 27 state FCAs.

On June 13, 2024, a jury unanimously found Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Products, LP liable for illegal off-label promotion and marketing of two of its HIV/AIDS-treatment drugs, in violation of the federal False Claims Act and state False Claims Acts. The jury of eight unanimously agreed that Janssen was responsible for defrauding Medicare, Medicaid and the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. The jury found that Janssen caused 159,574 false claims for reimbursement to be submitted to the government for its drugs, Prezista and Intelence, and awarded single damages of $120,004,736 on the federal False Claims Act violations and $30,001,184 on the state False Claims Act violations. The False Claims Acts provide for mandatory trebling of damages and the imposition of civil penalties ranging from $5,500-$11,000 per false claim. Once finalized, the total judgment against Janssen will likely exceed $1 billion, after a final determination by the Court. This will represent one of the largest False Claims Act jury verdicts in history.

The historic jury verdict is the culmination of over a decade’s long battle against the billion-dollar pharmaceutical company Janssen. In 2012, Berger Montague, on behalf of its two whistleblower-clients, Jessica Penelow and Christine Brancaccio, filed the case of United States ex rel. Penelow v. Janssen Products, LP, Civil A. No. 12-07758. The False Claims Act allows private citizen whistleblowers (known as “Relators” under the law) to bring claims on behalf of the government when the government is defrauded. The government declined to intervene in the case. However, as is permitted under the law, Relators and their attorneys decided to litigate on their own.

In 2017, Relators defeated Janssen’s motion to dismiss (United States ex rel. Penelow v. Johnson & Johnson, et al., 2017 WL 2367050 (D.N.J. May 31, 2017)) and in 2021, its motion for summary judgment (United States ex rel. Penelow v. Janssen Products, LP, 2021 WL 6052425, *12 (D.N.J. Dec. 21, 2021)) and ultimately prevailed at trial.

Read more about this Case:

• Litigators of the (Past) Week: Hitting J&J’s Janssen Unit With a Record $1.64B Judgment in False Claims Act Case, AmLaw Litigation Daily (April 9, 2024). Read more here.
• $1.6 Billion Awarded: Lawyers Build Record Setting Case Against Janssen, New Jersey Law Journal (April 4, 2025). Read more here.
• Law360’s Legal Lions Of The Week, Law360 (April 4, 2025). Read more here.
• Berger Montague and Reese Marketos Win $1.64 Billion False Claims Act Judgment, Berger Montague Press Release (April 1, 2025). Read more here.
• Janssen Liability Increased to $1.6 Billion in Drug Fraud Suit, Bloomberg Law (March 29th, 2025). Read more here.

If you are a whistleblower seeking representation concerning a potential qui tam / whistleblower / False Claims Act case, please contact Berger Montague.

Berger Montague is one of the nation’s preeminent law firms focusing on complex civil litigation, class actions, and mass torts in federal and state courts throughout the United States. The firm is active in the fields of antitrust, commercial litigation, consumer protection, defective products, environmental law, employment law, securities, and whistleblower cases, among many other practice areas. For more than 50 years, Berger Montague has played lead roles in precedent-setting cases and has recovered over $50 billion for its clients and the classes they have represented. Berger Montague is headquartered in Philadelphia and has offices in Chicago, Minneapolis, San Diego, San Francisco, Toronto, Washington, D.C., and Wilmington, DE.