Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson have been fined $572m for helping to fuel the opioid crisis in a US state. The drugmakers ran a “false and dangerous” sales campaign that caused addiction and death in the US. The company said they would appeal after the judgement was made.
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The case was the first to go to trial after thousands of lawsuits were filed against the opioid makers and distributors.
Opioids were involved in almost 400,000 overdose deaths in the US from 1999 to 2017. Since 2000 around 6,000 people have died in the US state Oklahoma from a opioid overdose. In 2012 the drug hit its peak, in that year there was around 250 million prescriptions. In Oklahoma there were around 18 million prescriptions written for the drug.
Announcing the verdict, Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman said: “The opioid crisis has ravaged the state of Oklahoma.
“It must be abated immediately.”
“Johnson & Johnson will finally be held accountable for thousands of deaths and addictions caused by their actions,” he added.
The $572m fine was below what some investors and analysts feared in what was a $17bn lawsuit and the firm’s shares rose by 5% in extended trading following the verdict.
Jared Holz, healthcare strategist for financial services company Jefferies, said: “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.”
During the trial lawyers from the state argued that Johnson & Johnson carried out years long marketing campaigns which promoted their benefits and minimised the addictive painkillers risks. Johnson & Johnson have denied any wrongdoing and argued that its marketing claims had scientific support.
