An Oklahoma judge ordered the drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million for its role in the opioid crisis—which, between 2015 and 2018, was fueled by 18 million opioid prescriptions in a state with a population of approximately 3.9 million people—ruling that the company breached a “public nuisance” law by overstating the benefits and downplaying the risks associated with this class of painkiller; the settlement, the first such case concluded against an opioid manufacturer, is significantly less than the $17 billion sought by the state to redress the public-health crisis.
Weekly Review
Weekly Review
Weekly Review
An Oklahoma judge ordered the drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million for its role in the opioid crisis—which, between 2015 and 2018, was fueled by 18 million opioid prescriptions in a state with a population of approximately 3.9 million people—ruling that the company breached a “public nuisance” law by overstating the benefits and downplaying the risks associated with this class of painkiller; the settlement, the first such case concluded against an opioid manufacturer, is significantly less than the $17 billion sought by the state to redress the public-health crisis.