Pfizer, Tris Pharma settle for $41.5 million in Texas ADHD drug case
The settlement resolves a 2023 lawsuit that accused the pharmaceutical companies of manipulating quality control tests of a medication used to treat ADHD.
Texas's top prosecutor on Wednesday announced the state had reached a $41.5 million settlement with US drugmakers Pfizer and Tris Pharma, over allegations of drug adulteration and defrauding the state's Medicaid program.
The settlement resolves a 2023 lawsuit that accused the pharmaceutical companies of manipulating quality control tests of a medication used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), according to a statement from Ken Paxton, the southern US state's Republican attorney general.
Under the settlement, Pfizer and Tris Pharma both expressly deny "any and all liability and wrongdoing," the companies said in statements Wednesday.
Between 2012 and 2018, tests showed the liquid drug Quillivant XR frequently did not dissolve in the body as it was meant to do -- and therefore did not work, Paxton said.
"Pfizer and Tris Pharma provided adulterated drugs to children for years and changed test results in order to obtain the benefit of taxpayer-funded Medicaid reimbursement," Paxton said in a statement.
"Under my watch, Big Pharma will not escape justice for lying about the effectiveness of its drugs."
According to its statement, New York-based Pfizer "did not find any impact on the safety of the product for patients."
"Pfizer is deeply committed to the safety and well-being of the patients it serves and takes any allegations about the quality of its products very seriously," the company added.
New Jersey-based Tris Pharma also said it "did not find any impact on the safety of the product for patients. We fully stand by the quality of our Quillivant, now and in the past, and the positive benefit it can have on patients."
NextWave Pharmaceuticals developed Quillivant XR, and Pfizer acquired the company in 2012. Tris Pharma manufactured Quillivant on behalf of Pfizer until 2018, when the former company purchased the product line.
Pfizer confirmed that timeline, saying it "divested and stopped marketing in 2018."
Tarik Ahmed, the technology chief of Tris Pharma from 2013-2017, made a whistleblower complaint that led to the lawsuit.
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