Johnson & Johnson Settles Opioid Claims In Texas For $291.8 Million

An entry sign to the Johnson & Johnson campus shows their logo in Irvine, Calif., on Aug. 28, 2019. Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images

Johnson & Johnson and its U.S.-based Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies have reached a $291.8 million settlement with the Texas state government that resolves its opioid-related claims made against the companies.

What Happened

Johnson & Johnson will pay its settlement sum into the Qualified Settlement Fund, which represents Texas’s allocation of the Global Prescription Opioid Litigation Settlement Agreement announced on July 23.

The settlement is related to the marketing and promotion of the companies’ opioids Duragesic, Nucynta, and Nucynta ER. In a press statement, Johnson & Johnson said it no longer sells prescription opioids and stressed that its three discontinued products “accounted for less than 1 percent of total opioid prescriptions in Texas and the U.S. since launch.”

Why It Matters

Johnson & Johnson was accused of downplaying the addictive properties of its opioid products and aggressively marketing them to physicians and patients. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that more than 500,000 died from the opioid crisis since 1999.