Claim that Johnson & Johnson caused opioid crisis goes to court
Oklahoma's attorney-general says J&J, OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and Teva, carried out marketing campaigns that downplayed opioids’ addictive risks and overstated their benefits
Boston, US — Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is set to face trial in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit by the state of Oklahoma aimed at pinning the blame for the opioid epidemic on its painkiller marketing. Lawyers for the state and J&J are scheduled to appear on Tuesday in a state court in Norman, Oklahoma, to deliver their opening statements at the start of the first trial to result from more than 2,000 similar lawsuits against opioid manufacturers nationally. The lawsuits by state and local governments seek to hold the J&J and other companies responsible for a drug abuse epidemic that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says led to a record 47,600 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2017. Oklahoma attorney-general Mike Hunter alleges J&J, along with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, carried out deceptive marketing campaigns that downplayed opioids’ addictive risks while overstating their benefits. Hunter alleges J&J, which marketed the p...
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