They condemn Johnson & Johnson to pay almost 600 million dollars for the opioid epidemic

The multinational Johnson & Johnson has been sentenced on Monday to pay $ 572 million for its responsibility in the opioid epidemic in the state of Oklahoma, an unprecedented fine since it is the first sentence against a pharmacist for this health crisis that is charged every year more than 47,000 deaths from overdose in the US.

This was decided by District Judge Thad Balkman when he announced his ruling after seven weeks of trial against J&J in a Cleveland County court, a sentence whose fine has finally fallen far short of more than $ 17 billion. that the Prosecutor's Office had requested .

"The opioids have devastated the state of Oklahoma and the defendants provoked an opioid crisis that has been evidenced by rising levels of addiction, overdose deaths and neonatal withdrawal syndromes," Judge Balkman said while reading the sentence, which will be appealed by the company.

In his 42-page ruling, the judge wrote that J&J, through its subsidiary Janssen, resorted for years to "false and misleading" marketing campaigns about their medications and opioids in general, a behavior that for the judge is "more that enough "to establish that he was responsible for the crisis in that state .

This is the first sentence of this type against a pharmaceutical company in the United States for the opioid crisis, in a country where according to official statistics it is estimated that there are around 1.7 million addicts to these pain medications such as morphine or oxycodone.

"Scapegoat"

During the trial, Oklahoma's attorney general, Mike Hunter, accused the multinational of having helped increase the epidemic in the state, where in the last two decades more than 6,000 people died of overdoses, pressing doctors to prescribe these medications while at the same time minimizing the risks of addictions.

Johnson & Johnson, manufacturer of the analgesics Duragesic and Nucynta, denied during the trial having committed any irregularities and considered that it is only a "scapegoat." That is why after the sentence was announced, one of his lawyers, John Sparks, announced that the multinational will appeal Judge Balkman's ruling .

"Our company has not caused this opioid crisis in Oklahoma and neither the facts nor the laws support this result," the company said in a statement, in which it admitted that there is a "tremendously complete" epidemic in the country and for They keep working to help those who need it.

According to a report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), opioid medications are responsible for the deaths of about 47,600 people a year, representing about two thirds of all overdose deaths that are recorded annually. in the country.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project