Oklahoma vs Johnson & Johnson: A high stakes opioid battle
More than 400,000 Americans are estimated to have died during the last two decades due to their addiction to opioids.
However, when the history of this crisis is written up, today may prove a crucial date. Because today marks the start of a court case that could set a precedent on whether states can sue pharmaceuticals companies and hold them accountable for the crisis.
If the precedent is set, it could open the industry up to a host of legal challenges, potentially seeing Big Pharma dragged through the US courts just as Big Tobacco was from the mid-1950s until it reached a $206bn 'master' settlement in November 1998.
Today's case sees Johnson & Johnson, the world's biggest pharmaceuticals and consumer healthcare company, pitted against the state of Oklahoma.
Opening his case, Mr Hunter told the state court in Norman, Oklahoma: "This is the worst man-made public health crisis in our state's history. To put it bluntly, this crisis is devastating Oklahoma."
There are at least four fascinating aspects to the case.
The first is that J&J is fighting it alone. When Mr Hunter launched proceedings, it was against three companies, one of which was J&J. But Oklahoma has now settled out of court with the other two. Purdue Pharma, maker of what is arguably America's best-known painkiller, OxyContin, settled the claims in March this year with a payment of $270m (£213m) while a second drug maker that was due to face trial, Teva Pharmaceuticals of Israel, reached an $85m (£67m) settlement at the weekend without admitting any wrongdoing. That leaves J&J, whose opioid products trade under brand names such as Nucynta and Duragesic, on its own in the dock.
https://news.sky.com/story/oklahoma-vs-johnson-johnson-a-high-stakes-opioid-battle-11730385