April 25, 2024

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Johnson & Johnson receives US$465 million opioid ruling reversal

Johnson & Johnson receives US$465 million opioid ruling reversal



 

Johnson & Johnson receives US$465 million opioid ruling reversal.

On Nov. 09, Johnson & Johnson won a major appeal in an opioid marketing case in Oklahoma, USA.

The Supreme Court of Oklahoma in the United States overturned a lower court’s previous judgment of US$465 million against Johnson & Johnson.

The ruling at the time held that Johnson & Johnson’s opioid marketing was suspected of causing public nuisance in the state. According to the latest news, the Oklahoma Supreme Court voted 5-1.

The judges believed that the state’s public nuisance law did not apply to the case, and then overturned the former Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter in the lawsuit. The allegations made.

 

Judge James Winchester wrote in his opinion that the central focus of the state’s complaint was that Johnson & Johnson had or should have been aware of the seriousness of the matter, and Johnson & Johnson failed to clearly warn about the promotion and marketing of its opioids in relation to opioid abuse and addiction.

The product is dangerous, and the product responsibility is not fulfilled. But Winchester stated that the nuisance law and product-related liability are “two different reasons for litigation, both of which have non-overlapping boundaries.”

In addition, the judges believe that the lower courts’ attempts to “formulate and fund government programs aimed at solving social and health problems” are inappropriate, and that complex policy issues should be left to the government’s legislative and executive branches.

 

As early as 2019, Judge Thad Balkman of Cleveland County, Oklahoma sentenced Johnson & Johnson to deliberately downplay the risks and exaggerate the benefits of opioids, causing the state’s opioid addiction crisis. Johnson & Johnson was sentenced to $572 million in compensation.

Later, due to errors in the previous calculations, he revised the fine to 465 million U.S. dollars, which will be used to reduce medical expenses caused by the opioid epidemic.

 

Thad Balkman wrote in the ruling that behind the increase in opioid sales in Oklahoma, the simultaneous increase in opioid addiction and overdose deaths is not a coincidence.

From 1994 to 2006, the sales of prescription opioids increased fourfold. In 2015, the state dispensed more than 326 million opioid pills, which is equivalent to 110 pills for every adult in the state.

Thad Balkman also asked Johnson & Johnson to pay the state’s 1-year cost of the crisis plan. The fine will be applied to addiction treatment and overdose prevention services to manage pain in the absence of opioids and other resources.

 

Since then, Johnson & Johnson has been busy resolving complex national opioid lawsuits. Johnson & Johnson and other companies face thousands of opioid lawsuits from states, cities, counties, and other organizations.

Johnson & Johnson is currently working with the three leading drug distributors Amerisource Bergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson to advance a $26 billion nationwide Sexual reconciliation.

As part of the transaction, Johnson & Johnson has stated that it will pay a settlement fee of $5 billion, but the transaction has not yet been finalized. For Johnson & Johnson, since the Biden administration took office, the reversal of the appeal ruling is also the company’s second major victory in a few weeks.

Previously in a video trial in a California court, the company and other companies won the lawsuits in three counties and the City of Oakland.

 

In addition to opioids, Johnson & Johnson also suffers from the “torture” of baby powder. Since baby powder and other products were accused of causing cancer risks, Johnson & Johnson faced various lawsuits as many as 38,000.

For this reason, Johnson & Johnson established a new subsidiary LTL Management to assume debts and announced that the company filed for bankruptcy protection.

This practice has been strongly condemned by all sectors of the society, who believes that Johnson & Johnson’s application for bankruptcy protection is an “unreasonable abuse of the legal system” and that Johnson & Johnson is a “bankruptcy liar.”

 

Johnson & Johnson receives US$465 million opioid ruling reversal. 

(source:internet, reference only)


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