Four drug manufacturers helped cause the deadly U.S. opioid epidemic by misleading the marketing of their drugs and minimizing their addictive risks, an attorney from several California counties argued Monday at the start of a supervised trial.
Fidelma Fitzpatrick, the attorney, told a California judge that Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA.TA), Endo International PLC (ENDP.O) and AbbVie (ABBV.N) had of being Allergan units became responsible for a drug crisis that only got worse during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Teva’s lawyer, David Collie, countered that the two drugs related to his client had only formed a “tiny” part of the market and that doctors and patients were fully warned of the risks. Teva had acquired the drugs approved for severe pain in cancer patients who already had opioids with the purchase of Cephalon.
The other pharmaceutical companies are expected to make their opening statements later in the day.
Plaintiffs – the towns of Santa Clara, Los Angeles and Orange counties and the city of Oakland – say drug manufacturers should pay more than $ 50 billion to cover the costs of reducing public nuisance. they created, plus sanctions.
Fitzpatrick told Orange County High Court Judge Peter Wilson that the case was about the “deadly legacy” of companies trying to increase their profits by promoting opioid painkillers to treat chronic pain, which led to a ” mountain “of addictive pills that flooded the state and the country.
“The evidence will show that each of these companies, all of them, knew what would happen: that their opioids would cause the excessive burden of addiction, overdose, and death that California and its people have experienced,” he said.
Collie said the count’s case was based on “suggestions and speculation.”
“He won’t hear any doctor who has ever been tricked,” he said.
Opioids have caused the overdose deaths of nearly 500,000 people between 1999 and 2019 in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 3,300 similar lawsuits are pending nationwide over the opioid crisis. The only other case that went to trial in the opioid lawsuit caused Oklahoma State in 2019 to win a $ 465 million sentence against J&J, which is attractive.
Other cases are expected to go to trial in the coming months, creating new pressure for companies to reach agreements. Read more
The country’s three largest drug distributors: McKesson Corp (MCK.N), AmerisourceBergen Corp (ABC.N) and Cardinal Health Inc (CAH.N), and J&J have proposed paying $ 26 billion combined to settle cases against them. . The proposed agreement has not been finalized.
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