During a heated moment in Wednesday night’s debate, New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Rep. Mikie Sherrill accused her Republican rival, Jack Ciattarelli, of profiting from the opioid epidemic.
“My opponent often boasts about his business acumen, but what New Jersey voters might not be aware of is his business history,” she stated, shifting the focus from a question regarding unemployment figures.
“He amassed millions by collaborating with some of the most notorious offenders, propagating the idea that opioids were safe and distributing their misleading messages,” she claimed.
Sherrill was referencing a controversy from Ciattarelli’s 2021 gubernatorial campaign regarding materials his company produced, which critics argued contained misleading information aligned with pharmaceutical industry narratives regarding opioids.
Galen Publishing, a medical publishing business co-founded by Ciattarelli, developed content related to pain management that some assert downplayed the dangers associated with opioid use.
“Improper use or diversion of pain medications remains a considerable issue, particularly amongst young people. Concerns about dependency or misuse often hinder effective pain treatment,” NJ.com noted from one of the documents released in 2021.
“The risk for opioid misuse is minimal among patients with chronic pain without prior substance use disorders,” another document stated.
The materials were produced in collaboration with the University of Tennessee, funded in part by significant actors in the pharmaceutical field.
Sherrill attempted to connect Ciattarelli’s past work with the ongoing opioid crisis.
“Tens of thousands of New Jerseyans have lost their lives. And as if that wasn’t enough, he was compensated to develop an application to facilitate access to opioids for those who were already addicted,” she said.
Ciattarelli chose not to directly respond to the accusations but instead launched his own attack.
“First of all, shame on you,” he retorted.
“During Biden’s presidency, you didn’t express concerns about the thousands of individuals crossing our borders daily; you ignored the impact they had on communities concerning the fentanyl crisis,” he asserted.
The NJ.com article indicated that Ciattarelli’s firm, Galen Publishing, earned $12.2 million between 2007 and 2016 from a contract with the University of Tennessee’s pharmacy school for continuing education materials.
Critics had argued that the materials echoed pharmaceutical industry directives.
In 2023, Ciattarelli’s campaign stated that the University of Tennessee selected the topics and had its faculty draft the articles, overseeing the editorial control themselves.
Galen acted simply as a facilitator for industry funding related to these publications.
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Chris Russell, a GOP strategist for the Ciattarelli campaign, dismissed Sherrill’s attack as “an absurd and unhinged assault from a candidate who is clearly struggling and lacks a grasp of New Jersey’s needs.”
After the debate concluded, Sherrill was confronted about whether she possessed any evidence that the materials produced by Ciattarelli’s former company, which he sold in 2016, had indeed worsened the opioid crisis and caused harm to New Jersey citizens.
“He has yet to clarify anything on this issue. There remains much to uncover. His transparency has been minimal,” she remarked to reporters.
“He bears some responsibility for propagating the narrative from opioid manufacturers, suggesting their safety while people were suffering and dying,” she reiterated in a later statement.
The opioid crisis had mostly receded as a topic in the 2025 gubernatorial race until Sherrill revived it during the debate.
According to state statistics, 2,800 New Jersey residents succumbed to opioid overdoses in 2023, a decline from a peak of 3,100 the previous year. The state’s drug overdose death rate stood at 28 per 100,000 residents, lower than that of any neighboring states, including New York.
