NJ Gets Share Of $300M Opioid Treatment Settlement

NEW JERSEY - The Garden State is taking a part of a $300 million dollar settlement with a pharmaceutical company that falsely and aggressively marketed and promoted the opioid addiction treatment drug Suboxone, according to Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.

New Jersey was one of several states that settled allegations that Indivior's actions resulted in improper expenditures of state Medicaid funds. Suboxone is a drug product approved to suppress opioid withdrawal symptoms as part of a complete treatment plan for opioid-use disorder that includes counseling and psychosocial support. Suboxone contains buprenorphine, a powerful opioid.

Indivior will pay a total of $300 million to resolve various civil fraud allegations impacting Medicaid and other government healthcare programs, of which more than $203.7 million will go to Medicaid. Approximately $90 million of this amount is to be paid to the fifty states, plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, as their share of the Medicaid recovery.

As part of the settlement, New Jersey will receive nearly $3.1 million in restitution and other recoveries, with nearly $2.8 million being returned to the State itself.

“As we continue to battle the opioid epidemic across our state, we expect pharmaceutical companies to be honest and transparent in marketing the products that health care providers and individuals rely on for addiction treatment,” Grewal said. “We will continue working with law enforcement agencies at all levels to bring to justice any individual illegally profiting from the addiction crisis that is claiming lives and devastating families in our state.”

New Jersey’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling approximately $3.8 million for Federal fiscal year (“FY”) 2021. The remaining 25 percent, totaling approximately $1.3 million for FY 2021, is funded by New Jersey.

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