J&J's $465M Opioid Verdict Overturned

J&J's $465M Opioid Verdict Overturned

Introduction

$465 million opioid judgment that was earlier ruled against Johnson & Johnson (J&J), alleging that the company illicitly marketed drugs that resulted in the opioid epidemic, has been overturned.

The lawsuit alleged that J&J deceptively forced the distributors, wholesalers, pharmacies, hospitals, physicians’ offices and doctors to promote the use of opioids which resulted in an opioid crisis throughout the state.

The high court said that it does not want to downplay the chaos caused due to the opioid crisis among the people of Oklahoma, but the company cannot be held liable for the epidemic as it did not create a public nuisance.

The court informed that the judge's ruling was too harsh on the company and it should not be held responsible for the opioid crisis as the state's public nuisance law does not apply to manufacturing, marketing and sales of prescription opioids. The ruling is a huge blow to the states and local governments that have filed lawsuits against the pharmaceutical companies, alleging them of fueling the drug abuse crisis.

John O'Connor, Oklahoma Attorney General, showed disappointment with the ruling and even said that he would continue to pursue a similar case against the drug distributors. He has sought $9.3 billion from J&J to fund the treatment and other programs necessary to deal with the epidemic.

According to statistics provided, more than 4,600 people died because of opioid overdoses in Oklahoma from 2007 to 2017. The number of deaths across the country is more than 500,000 since 2000. Earlier, J&J, along with the three largest drug distribution companies, agreed to pay $26billion to settle similar lawsuits across the U.S.

Earlier, a California jury has cleared four major drug companies from liabilities in the opioids epidemic litigation that demanded the companies to pay tens of billions of dollars to compensate for the opioid crisis.

Allergan, Endo, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Teva are the companies involved in the litigation. All the companies faced similar allegations that they used tricky marketing strategies to increase sales of opioids.

The companies attorney said that their clients are not responsible for fueling the opioid crisis. He added that if the company would have been found liable for the epidemic, it would have had to pay for costly public health and drug treatment programs that were acceptable on the drugmakers' part.

According to the findings provided by the court, the plaintiffs failed to prove an actionable public nuisance against the defendants, and the marketing and promotion of the drugs were appropriate which were not intended to harm the users.

The current ruling is a significant victory for the drugmakers considering the ever-increasing number of opioid lawsuits against them.

As per the data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention, the nationwide death rate due to opioid overdose is soaring, with nearly 100,000 deaths of Americans in 12 months.