AUSTIN, TX — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday his office is suing Johnson & Johnson for misrepresentations made about about its fentanyl opioid drug.
The state is filing a Medicaid fraud suit against Johnson & Johnson, and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
The state claims Johnson & Johnson directed its sales reps to give false and misleading messaging about their fentanyl opioid drug to doctors in Texas, including those who accept medicaid.
The state alleges the sales representatives told doctors that Duragesic had fewer side effects, worked better and posed less risk of addiction than other opioids -- despite FDA reprimands that those claims were false and misleading.
The state says as a result of those misrepresentations, Johnson & Johnson received tax-payer funds though Medicaid reimbursements for Duragesic while fueling the nation's opiod epidemic.
“Every day, Texans are coping with the unimaginable consequences of opioid addiction. Like other opioid manufacturers, Johnson & Johnson misled the State of Texas and the entire medical profession about the danger of these drugs in order to turn the greatest profit,” Attorney General Paxton said.
Nationwide and in Texas, prescription and illegal opioids are the main driver of drug overdose deaths. According to the CDC, opioids were involved in 33,091 deaths in 2015, including 1,174 in Texas. Opioid overdoses in the U.S. have quadrupled since 1999.
