Los Angeles - Oklahoma on Tuesday became the first US state to
take a major pharmaceutical company to trial over an epidemic of
deaths from prescription opioid overdoses.
Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals, which
produced an opioid patch and pill, created a public health crisis
that has killed 4 653 Oklahoma residents from 2007 to 2017, according
to Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter.
During opening statements on Tuesday Hunter said Johnson & Johnson
disregarded the dangers related to opioid abuse in marketing their
products and created "the worst man-made public health crisis in the
history of our country and the state - the prescription opioid
epidemic."
He said the company "embarked on a cynical, deceitful,
multi-billion-dollar brainwashing campaign to establish opioid
analgesics as the magic drug."
The case is the first of nearly 2 000 cases pending against
pharmaceutical companies across the United States.
The case comes after Oklahoma settled with Purdue Pharma for 270
million dollars in March and Israeli company Teva for 85 million
dollars on Sunday.
Johnson & Johnson's lawyers defended the company in court saying
there was government oversight over the drugs and cited warning
labels on the products.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 46
people in the US die every day from overdoses involving prescription
opioids.
In 2017 prescription opioid drugs were involved in more than 35 per
cent of 47 600 opioid-related overdose deaths.