Following a seven-week long trial between Oklahoma state lawyers and American medical company Johnson and Johnson, a ruling was made in favor of the state.
The ruling has been praised by the state’s lawyers and by certain members of the public as a real victory in the fight against opioid abuse.
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Johnson & Johnson must pay $572 Million for their part in America’s opioid crisis.
Johnsons & Johnson were not the only company to be targeted by the action; however, they were the only company who did not decide to settle.
Earlier this year, Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceutical settled for $270 and $85 million respectively, according to the BBC .
The Oklahoma Attorney General described Johnson & Johnson as, “building its billion dollar brand out of greed”.
Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter also said that the company downplayed the risks associated their products with an extended marketing campaign which emphasised their painkiller’s benefits while playing down the addictive nature of the pills.
In Oklahoma alone, the opioid crisis has led the the death of over 6000 men and women since the year 2000.
The prescription of opioids reportedly reached its peak in 2012 when “about 250m prescriptions [had been issued], one for every American adult”, according to the Guardian .
Their report also highlighted that even though Oklahoma is a state with less than 4 million occupants, opioid prescriptions numbered around 18 million in the three years leading up to 2018, an astronomically high number.
Reggie Whitten (pictured below, left) who lost his son to opioid addiction spoke out about what the result of the trial meant to him.
In a press conference following the ruling, an emotional Whitten said, “I feel like my boy is looking down, and it’s a pretty tough deal.’
Whitten also said that he wasn’t optimistic about the rest of the battle still left to fight against the rest of the pharmaceutical companies, but that he would keep fighting to help those battling opioid addiction.
An attorney for Johnson & Johnson Sabrina Strong said that they were “disappointed” with the “flawed” ruling.
The company announced that they will be appealing; as despite sharing their sympathies with those battling opioid abuse, the Ms Strong vehemently claimed that “You can’t sue your way out of the opioid abuse crisis.”
A potential source of disappointment for those taking action against Johnson & Johnson was that the fine is actually much lower than what was thought to be sought.
One healthcare strategist for financial services company Jefferies, Jared Holz, explained to the BBC, “The expectation was this was going to be a $1.5bn to $2bn fine, and $572m is a much lower number than had been feared.”
However, other sources, such as The Independent , claim that the initial number that Oklahoma was looking for was closer to 17 Billion.
Despite the judge ruling that Johnson & Johnson’s “false and dangerous” campaigns fuelled Oklahoma’s opioid crisis, share prices for J&J have since risen.
Since the fine was so much lower than investors had initially thought, the share prices have actually gone up.
The fear that people may end up stuck on a burning ship has dissipated, and consequently everyone is scrabbling to get back on board.
So, while Attorney General Mike Hunter heralded the ruling as “A major victory for the state of Oklahoma, the nation and everyone who has lost a loved one because of an opioid overdose”, it raises questions about how much of a victory it really is.
With share prices rising for Johnson & Johnson, and the promise or appeal, it is unsettling to think of this as a minor setback for the company in reality.
However, as much as this ruling may not be as successful under the surface as it appears, it still is a victory for the families of those who have lost loved ones to the opioid crisis in Oklahoma.
With the opioid crisis growing every day in across America, and with more people taking a stand agains the drug companies, it is natural to expect more cases of this nature in the not to distant future.
The ruling has been heralded by some as a “milestone”, with attorneys for the plaintiffs in the cases consolidated before a federal judge in Ohio saying this of the Oklahoma judgment in a statement to AP News :
“While public nuisance laws differ in every state, this decision is a critical step forward for the more than 2,000 cities, counties, and towns we represent in the consolidation of federal opioid cases.”
h/t: AP News
