A sweeping new lawsuit against J&J asks: Are employers liable if they overpay for drugs?

Johnson & Johnson faces a consequential new class action lawsuit — not in its role as a manufacturer of drugs, but as an employer and purchaser of prescription drugs for its workers.

Ann Lewandowski, a health care policy and advocacy director at J&J, sued her company on Monday for allegedly overpaying its pharmacy benefit manager for its employees’ medicines, citing previous STAT reporting to support some of the allegations. Those overpayments, the lawsuit alleges, ultimately come out of workers’ paychecks in the form of high health insurance premiums, higher out-of-pocket drug costs, and stunted wage growth.

In one example, J&J allegedly paid its PBM more than $10,000 for a single 90-day prescription of teriflunomide, a generic medicine for multiple sclerosis, when that same 90-day prescription could be purchased for as little as $30 elsewhere without insurance, according to the lawsuit.

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