Pfizer and its supplier Tris Pharma have agreed to pay $41.5 million to the state of Texas, settling a lawsuit that accused them of defrauding the state’s Medicaid program through alleged quality-control manipulation involving an ADHD medication for children.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the settlement on Wednesday, resolving a November 2023 lawsuit that claimed the companies falsified testing for Quillivant XR, a liquid medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), between 2012 and 2018.
According to Paxton, properly conducted tests often showed that the drug failed to dissolve in the body, rendering it ineffective. He alleged that Pfizer and Tris manipulated quality-control results to keep the drug on the market and maintain Medicaid reimbursement eligibility, violating the Texas Health Care Program Fraud Prevention Act.
“Under my watch, Big Pharma will not escape justice for lying about the effectiveness of its drugs,”
— Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General
Pfizer Denies Wrongdoing
Pfizer, which purchased Quillivant’s developer NextWave Pharmaceuticals in 2012, denied the allegations in the settlement.
The company said that its internal review found no evidence of safety issues for patients taking Quillivant XR.
Tris Pharma — which manufactured Quillivant for Pfizer until purchasing the drug itself in 2018 — did not respond to requests for comment. Paxton’s office also did not immediately comment beyond the public statement.
Whistleblower Complaint Sparked Lawsuit
The lawsuit originated from a whistleblower complaint filed by Tarik Ahmed, Tris Pharma’s former technology chief (2013–2017), who alleged the company manipulated dissolution testing data.
Political Context
Paxton, who is running for the U.S. Senate in 2026 and is expected to challenge incumbent Senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary, has recently intensified his public scrutiny of pharmaceutical companies.
