Washington (AFP)
The first pharmaceutical company to be tried in the United States for the opiate crisis, Johnson & Johnson, is scheduled to hear a verdict on Monday, in which the plaintiff state of Oklahoma claimed $ 17 billion in damages.
The laboratory has been accused by Oklahoma of leading a "cynical and deceptive multi-million dollar brainwashing campaign" for years to create demand for its opioid painkillers and present them as "drugs magical. "
The trial opened in May, and is the first against the pharmaceutical industry for the national opioid crisis, responsible for the majority of the 70,000 overdose deaths in 2017 in the United States.
J & J through its division Janssen distributed the Duragesic patch and the Nucynta pills, which are not the best-known opiates in the country.
One of the most popular at the peak of the crisis, Oxycontin, belongs to the big Purdue laboratory, which has chosen to settle the lawsuit with Oklahoma instead of going to trial, for a fee of 270 millions of dollars. Israeli laboratory Teva has also negotiated a $ 85 million settlement.
The state of Oklahoma relies on a law against "public nuisance" to sue Johnson & Johnson. The law was previously used primarily to prosecute individuals and businesses that endanger public safety.
The sum claimed of $ 17 billion, payable over 30 years, would be used to compensate the state for the public and social costs of the epidemic, particularly to treat the dependency of the inhabitants.
The company has denounced an "unprecedented extension" of the scope of the law invoked and emphasizes that its drugs have represented only a small part of the market.
The lawsuit is compared to the lawsuits against tobacco companies that resulted in an agreement of more than $ 200 billion in 1998. The verdict could affect the future of nearly 2,000 other complaints filed against opiate drug manufacturers by various jurisdictions in the United States.
© 2019 AFP