Pfizer to pay $41.5 million to Texas over allegedly adulterated children's drug case

Pfizer agreed to pay $41.5 million to the state of Texas to end a lawsuit accusing it of supplying children in a public health program with allegedly adulterated drugs, the state attorney general, Ken Paxton, as picked up by the AFP.

According to the lawsuit filed in 2023, Pfizer and its supplier Tris Pharma distributed between 2012 and 2018 the drug for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) Quillivant XR even though they knew it did not meet quality control standards due to flaws in its manufacturing process.

"Pfizer and Tris Pharma supplied adulterated drugs to children for years and manipulated test results to benefit from taxpayer-funded Medicaid reimbursements," Paxton said in a statement quoted by the agency.

Pfizer explained that the settlement relates to "historical allegations" about Quillivant XR, a product it stopped marketing in 2018 after withdrawing it from the market. The company insisted that it "expressly denies any liability or misconduct" and claimed to have found no indication of risk to patients.

The New York pharmaceutical company stated that it is pleased to "put this matter of the past behind us" and reiterated that it takes any statements related to the quality of its products very seriously.

For its part, Tris Pharma did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by AFP.