Bitter pills

The first trial of a pharmaceutical company related to the opioid epidemic began May 28 at the Cleveland County Courthouse in Norman. The lawsuit, brought by Oklahoma attorney general Mike Hunter, will attempt to hold Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, accountable for the high number of overdose fatalities in the state of Oklahoma in the past two decades.

Hunter has already reached settlements with two of the original defendants, Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries for $270 million and $85 million, respectively, leaving Janssen as the sole defendant in the case.
Prescription opioid overdose deaths in Oklahoma have steadily risen but reached a fever pitch in 2012 with 444 deaths that year, not including deaths from synthetic opioids or heroin.

When Hunter was elected in November 2018, he made addressing the number of opioid deaths a key priority. Though not the first to file a lawsuit against big pharma companies, Hunter’s case is the first of its kind to go to trial.

“We became convinced in all of our work that the challenge to the state, the financial burden, had to be addressed by litigation,” Hunter said.

Read more: https://www.okgazette.com/oklahoma/bitter-pills/Content?oid=6330581