The verdict has been handled down in the landmark opioid case in Oklahoma. District Judge Thad Balkman ruled against the manufacturer Johnson & Johnson, and now they must pay $572 million to the state. This is the first ruling at which a drug company has been held responsible for fueling a growing epidemic.
The trial which began in March originally had three defendants. Johnson & Johnson was the only corporation left in the lawsuit that hadn’t yet settled with the state. Purdue Pharma, the makers of Oxycontin was the first to settle and soon after Teva Pharmaceuticals also settled, however, both companies admitted to no wrongdoing.
In reference to the opioid crisis and his verdict, Balkman called it an “imminent danger and menace,” and that “the state met its burden that the defendants Janssen and Johnson & Johnson’s misleading marketing and promotion of opioids created a nuisance as defined by, including a finding that those actions compromised the health and safety of thousands of Oklahomans.”
In the end Balkman levied his verdict by pointing to, “Specifically, defendants caused an opioid crisis that’s evidenced by increased rates of addiction, overdose deaths and neonatal abstinence syndrome.”
Johnson & Johnson however plan to appeal the decision. Either way the company and its investors were preparing for anywhere between $500 million and $5 billion in fines. The fact that it was on the lower end of the spectrum actually helped the company’s stock to go up 5%.
With this landmark ruling, many other states may feel they have a case to make against these companies as well. The epidemic has already killed 400,000 people between 1999-2017, and the numbers continue to rise every year.
