Johnson & Johnson and its U.S.-based subsidiary Janssen have reached a settlement agreement with the State of New Hampshire to resolve opioid allegations.
J&J will pay $39 million and an additional roughly $1.5 million to New Hampshire under the deal, which relates to a suit filed in 2018. New Hampshire will be reimbursed for the latter sum because the state did not participate in a nationwide settlement fund.
The company has announced a series of similar recent settlements of opioid allegations. Toward the beginning of the year, Johnson & Johnson and drug distributors agreed to pay $590 million in an opioid settlement agreement with U.S. tribes. In April, J&J reached a deal with West Virginia to pay $99 million to resolve opioid-related claims. In the same month, it reached an opioid deal worth $77 million with Alabama. Finally, in July, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a $26 billion settlement with J&J and other companies to settle similar opioid-based accusations.
The settlement with New Hampshire will resolve a trial scheduled for September 12, 2022, in Merrimack County, New Hampshire.
J&J notes that the recent settlement will support New Hampshire–based programs designed to address the opioid crisis.
JNJ shares fell 0.60% $164.34 in early afternoon trading.
Janssen no longer markets opioids in the U.S.
The company had developed two opioid medicines known as Duragesic and Nucynta. Janssen notes that its Duragesic, Nucynta and Nucynta ER opioid products accounted for less than one percent of total U.S. opioid prescriptions after they were launched.
Duragesic, a transdermal fentanyl drug, won FDA approval in 1990. FDA indicated that users change the patch once every 3 days to manage pain.
Paul Janssen, the founder of Janssen Pharmaceutica, first synthesized fentanyl in 1959 or 1960. The drug won FDA approval in 1968.
Nucynta won FDA approval for moderate to severe acute pain in 2008. The agency approved Nucynta ER for moderate to severe chronic pain in 2011.
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