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Four drug manufacturers are facing trial in California for claims that minimized the risks of opioid addiction and engaged in misleading marketing that fueled the opioid crisis.
Johnson & Johnson, Teva, Endo and AbbVie’s Allergan are accused of falsely marketing painkillers and knowingly underestimating the risk of addiction to increase sales, in a lawsuit filed by three California counties and the city of Oakland, claiming damages for thousands of millions of dollars. .
“The unfortunate legacy of this marketing, of this promotion, of these fakes, of these sales is that there is an opioid epidemic that is still raging in California,” Fidelma Fitzpatrick said in her speeches. opening Monday on behalf of the plaintiffs – Santa Clara, Orange and Los Angeles Counties and Oakland.
He said the companies were engaged in “aggressive marketing and promotion of opioids, even though they knew the tragic health consequences.”
Exposing the case to Judge Peter Wilson, Fitzpatrick said drug makers engaged in marketing practices that “were misleading at best and false at worst,” noting that all four companies claimed that “no dose is too high. “and that addiction was uncommon.
“The damage caused by the legacy of this marketing and promotion is extraordinarily real today,” he said, claiming that companies tricked doctors into believing that prescribing opioids was the right course of action. “This is not a bad doctor problem, it’s a pill problem.”
He opioid epidemic it has swept the United States and claimed thousands of lives. Nearly 500,000 people died from opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Opioid overdoses account for the majority of U.S. drug deaths.
The California trial is the latest case against drug manufacturers for its role in the deadly opioid epidemic, which has driven thousands of lawsuits across the country. In 2019 he was ordained to J&J pays $ 572 million in damages by an Oklahoma judge who found the company had caused a “public nuisance” to the state. The plaintiffs in this trial are trying to prove the same.
In Teva’s initial statements, attorney Collie James argued that her client did not act improperly. “Evidence will not support this theory of the great conspiracy. . . My client’s products are and continue to be a legal, necessary and effective pain treatment. “
Teva also resolved an opioid case with Oklahoma in early 2019, paying the state $ 85 million on the claims that fueled the crisis.
The trial is being held remotely via Zoom and lawyers for the four companies will have to present their arguments later Monday.
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