New Hampshire Reaches $40.5 Million Settlement With Johnson & Johnson: The New Hampshire Attorney General announced on September 1, 2022 that a settlement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals/Johnson & Johnson was reached to settle the state’s opioid claims against the company. The company has agreed to pay $40.5 million, of which $31.5 million will be used for opioid abatement purposes.
In 2018, the New Hampshire Attorney General filed a complaint against Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Both companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of Johnson & Johnson. In its complaint, the New Hampshire alleged that Johnson & Johnson aggressively marketed their opioids to prescribers and patients in New Hampshire and misrepresented that their opioids were safer than other alternatives. It was further alleged that they disseminated misleading statements about opioids, that they promoted the false concept of pseudoaddiction and that they misrepresented that their opioids were rarely addictive when used for chronic pain. New Hampshire alleged that Johnson & Johnson’s marketing targeted particularly vulnerable populations within New Hampshire, such as the elderly, even though opioid use among the elderly carries a heightened risk of overdose, injury and death.
New Hampshire further alleged that Johnson & Johnson’s opioid activities were a substantial factor in creating a public nuisance in New Hampshire that contributed to the opioid crisis, a crisis that continues to have devastating consequences to the lives, health and safety of the citizens of the State.
Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Johnson & Johnson will make a single payment of $39.605 million to New Hampshire and pay approximately $900,000 in attorneys’ fees to counsel for the counties, cities and towns that filed opioid lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson prior to September 1, 2019. New Hampshire will receive $31.5 million, after payment of litigation costs and fees to its outside counsel. Under state law, all of the $31.5 million must be used for opioid abatement purposes, with $4,725,000 of that amount being paid to the 23 counties, cities and towns that filed opioid law suits prior to September 1, 2019. The balance of the funds will be deposited into the Opioid Abatement Trust Fund and used in accordance with RSA 126-A:83-86. The settlement requires releases by the 23 litigating subdivisions and 18 primary non-litigating cities and towns for the agreement to be final.
The settlement also contains injunctive terms that imposes on Johnson & Johnson a ban on the selling and manufacturing of opioids, a ban on the promotion of opioids or opioid products and a ban on prescription savings programs, as well as lobbying restrictions, and contains stringent enforcement provisions.
The trial against Johnson & Johnson was scheduled to begin on September 7, 2022 in Merrimack County Superior Court.
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