It would seem that everyone is going APE-SHIT over this judge’s ruling.. This judge is so “full of himself” that he believes that abt ONE-HALF BILLION DOLLAR fine to J&J will quickly solve the opiate crisis in OK. His ruling is going to go NO WHERE… first of all he denied J&J of a trial by jury…. and this ONE MAN has made all the determinations from the start of the trial to the final ruling.
His ruling of invoking a fine on J&J did not surprise me and if anyone looking at the entire “dog and pony” show should not be surprised either… It is no more – or less – than more fodder to help keep the opiate crisis in the headlines and this judge’s ruling goes thru the appeal process.
So here we have a SINGLE PERSON who is part of our judicial system – who have been “fighting” and/or “managing” this war on drugs for nearly FIFTY YEARS and spending close to TWO TRILLION DOLLARS fighting this war … with no end in sight.
It should not take a “rocket science” to get this verdict to be granted an appeal to a higher court and on to the Supreme Court.
J&J was found guilty of supplying raw opiate material to many pharmaceutical manufacturers … who in turn produced legal opiate medication under the oversight of the FDA and within the production quotas as established by the DEA. Exploring the industrial landscape, the implementation of safety swing gates industrial
emerges as a crucial measure, ensuring secure access and compliance with safety standards in pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities.
That is like blaming all the corn farmers in Iowa for all the high fructose corn syrup that many blame our country’s obesity and diabetes epidemic/crisis. After all Iowa is a major source of CORN.
All involved with perpetuating the opiate crisis….. are so desperate that they are now putting forth data based on 2006 -2012 – a seven year period and the volume of legal opiate Rxs PEAKED in 2012 and have been declining every year since… and the DEA has reduced the production quotas abt 50% in the last 3 or so years… So .. docs can’t prescribe and pharmacist can’t fill … opiates that are not produced. I have also seen some in the media quoting that 2006 – 2012 is a SIX YEAR PERIOD… not only are they using old data… they can’t even correctly count the number of years in a stated range.
But even that… no one seems to notice or seems to care. On the larger scope of things… this is as close to a NON ISSUE as you can get.
Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $572 million for its role in Oklahoma’s opioid crisis
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/johnson-and-johnson-is-responsible-for-fueling-oklahomas-opioid-crisis-judge-rules-in-landmark-case/2019/08/26/ed7bc6dc-c7fe-11e9-a4f3-c081a126de70_story.html
NORMAN, Okla. — A judge Monday found Johnson & Johnson responsible for fueling Oklahoma’s opioid crisis, ordering the health-care company to pay $572 million to remedy the devastation wrought by the epidemic on the state and its residents.
Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman’s landmark decision is the first to hold a drugmaker culpable for the fallout of years of liberal opioid dispensing that began in the late 1990s, sparking a nationwide epidemic of overdose deaths and addiction. More than 400,000 people have died of overdoses from painkillers, heroin and illegal fentanyl since 1999.
“The opioid crisis has ravaged the state of Oklahoma and must be abated immediately,” Balkman said, reading part of his decision aloud from the bench Monday afternoon.
“As a matter of law, I find that defendants’ actions caused harm, and those harms are the kinds recognized by [state law] because those actions annoyed, injured or endangered the comfort, repose, health or safety of Oklahomans,” he wrote in the decision.
[America’s largest drug companies distributed 76 billion oxycodone and hydrocodone pain pills]
With more than 40 states lined up to pursue similar claims against the pharmaceutical industry, the ruling in the first state case to go to trial could influence both sides’ strategies in the months and years to come. Plaintiffs’ attorneys around the country cheered the decision, saying they hoped it would be a model for an enormous federal lawsuit brought by nearly 2,000 cities, counties, Native American tribes and others scheduled to begin in Cleveland, Ohio, in October.
Balkman did not give the state everything it sought — state attorneys had asked for $17.5 billion over 30 years for treatment, emergency care, law enforcement, social services and other addiction-related needs. But the judge concluded it would cost $572 million to address the crisis in the first year based on the state’s plan. He said the state did not provide “sufficient evidence” of the time and money needed to respond after that.
At a news conference following the decision, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter described it as a “great triumph” two years in the making.
“Johnson & Johnson will finally be held accountable for thousands of deaths and addictions caused by their products,” he said. He challenged the company’s chief executive, Alex Gorsky, to “step up” and pay for treatment and other services for Oklahomans affected by substance abuse.
But just moments after the judge ruled, Johnson & Johnson, which has denied wrongdoing, said it would appeal. Company attorney Sabrina Strong said at a news conference, “We are disappointed and disagree with the judge’s decision. We believe it is flawed.
“We have sympathy for those who suffer from opioid use disorder,” Strong added. “But Johnson & Johnson did not cause the opioid abuse crisis here in Oklahoma or anywhere in this country.”
Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, a professor at the University of Georgia School of Law who followed the case, said in an email that other states will almost certainly adopt some of Oklahoma’s strategy — for instance, arguing for Johnson & Johnson’s culpability because it had two subsidiaries that produced, refined and supplied the ingredients for opioids to many other companies.
But with state laws differing, it is unclear whether other plaintiffs would be successful at proving the company harmed their residents, she said.
Alexandra Lahav, a professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, said it’s too early to predict the impact of Balkman’s decision on future cases.
“I think it’s important that people remember that this is just Oklahoma law, and it’s a lower court judge,” she said. “It hasn’t been vetted on appeal yet.”
Still, she said, the ruling may provide momentum to the idea that there is merit to these claims and encourage other states to pursue similar strategies.
As an outside observer, Lahav said, she is not convinced that Johnson & Johnson’s role as supplier of raw materials to other drug companies sufficiently connects it to the opioid crisis. But Balkman clearly accepted that, she said.
“I’m unconvinced that should be laid at Johnson & Johnson’s door,” she said.
Hunter (R) brought suit in 2017 against Johnson & Johnson and two other major drug companies, accusing them of creating “a public nuisance” by showering the state with opioids while downplaying the drugs’ addictive potential and persuading physicians to prescribe them even for minor aches and pains. Before the late 1990s, physicians reserved the powerful drugs primarily for cancer and post-surgical pain, as well as end-of-life care.
More than 6,000 Oklahomans have died of painkiller overdoses since 2000, the state charged in court papers, as the number of opioid prescriptions dispensed by pharmacies reached 479 every hour in 2017.
Johnson & Johnson’s products — a prescription opioid pill and a fentanyl skin patch sold by its subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals — were a small part of the painkillers consumed in Oklahoma. But Hunter painted the company as an industry “kingpin” because two other companies it owned had grown, processed and supplied 60 percent of the ingredients in painkillers sold by most drug companies.
“At the root of this crisis was Johnson & Johnson, a company that literally created the poppy that became the source of the opioid crisis,” the state charged.
The state also said the health-care giant actively took part in the industry’s effort to change doctors’ reluctance to prescribe opioids by mounting an aggressive misinformation campaign that targeted the least knowledgeable physicians.
The company’s “marketing scheme was driven by a desire to make billions for their pain franchise,” Hunter wrote. “To do this, they developed and carried out a plan to directly influence and convince doctors to prescribe more and more opioids, despite the fact that defendants knew increasing the supply of opioids would lead to abuse, addiction, misuse, death and crime.”
[Opioid death rates soared in the communities that were flooded with pain pills]
Oklahoma settled in March with Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of OxyContin, accepting $270 million from the company and its owners, the Sackler family, who were not named as defendants in the lawsuit. Most of that will go to a treatment and research center at Oklahoma State University, although the federal government is seeking a portion of the money. In May, two days before the trial began, the state settled with Teva Pharmaceuticals, an Israeli-based manufacturer of generic drugs, for $85 million.
The core of Johnson & Johnson’s defense during the seven-week trial was that it could not be held liable for supplying legal products and ingredients, which were highly regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration and state authorities themselves.
Company lawyers sought to rebut accusations of a misinformation campaign by attributing actions to third parties and contending that sales calls to doctors did not lead to overprescribing or the drug crisis.
“Never once, however, did the state identify a single Oklahoma doctor who was misled by a single statement Janssen made,” the lawyers said in documents filed at the trial.
As for its two subsidiaries that supplied the painkillers’ ingredients, Johnson & Johnson lawyers said that Noramco and Tasmanian Alkaloids engaged in legal commerce under the watchful eye of the DEA and in compliance with the federal Controlled Substances Act.
Legally, the trial centered on the state’s perhaps unprecedented claim the drug company created a public nuisance in the state of Oklahoma. Historically, that law has been used against loud neighbors, brothels and polluters who used their properties in ways that harmed others.
In this case, Oklahoma said the drug company’s conduct clearly endangered the health of state residents.
An Oklahoma law professor called that a novel interpretation but said it could pass legal muster. But in May, a North Dakota judge threw out a similar state lawsuit against Purdue.
The drug company’s lawyers contend the state’s argument rested on “radical theories unmoored from more than a century of Oklahoma case law.” They noted that “no Oklahoma court has ever awarded a plaintiff a cash recovery” to stop a public nuisance.
Filed under: General Problems
As an Advocate for Pain Patient Rights, I in no way want to see people hurt, die, and bring terrible consequences, and so much emotional pain to the families left behind. At the same time, two thoughts come to mind, and please understand that I say this with all respect
1. I suppose the reason to continually hear “Enough pills for every person in a specific city or county.” But, is this breakdown essential to have?
2. Is there some reason that hospitals are not in this report, or I believe they are not? The pharmacies within hospitals and the outpatient pharmacies dispense significant amounts of pain medications.
Today, in the year 2019, there are hundreds of thousands within our nation that live with severe chronic pain and are either not able to obtain their medications; this includes cancer patients. One of the main reasons for this are physicians are very afraid of caring for their patients, due to persecution by State and Federal agencies. There must be an understanding of the doctor-patient relationship is a sacred bond. Agencies previously mentioned must let the licensed physician do their jobs.
Hi Fred,
I always cringe at hyperbolic stats like, “Enough pills for every person, etc.” It’s a specious argument for several reasons:
1) Studies show about 20 – 30% of prescriptions are never filled
2) Approximately 70 – 90% of pills prescribed go un-used
3) As others have calculated, even the amounts which seem outrageous at first, actually suggest pain is being under-treated once you do the math
4) Any stat calling attention to the USA’s outsize share of opioid use means only one thing: drastic under-treatment in the rest of the world; and that’s exactly what WHO found (61M not being treated who could be)
I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for journalists to write the nuanced story where a sensational headline will suffice : (
Right on. It only takes 35k Doctors of our one-million (active and inactive) Doctors of Medicine to each prescribe their 2000 patients (conservatively) only 3 pills a day of anything one year to dispense 76 billion pills, the same number quoted as ‘the shocking attempt to addict the nation’, in a recent major “news” paper.
This is equivalent to suing a car manufacturing co. or alcohol manufacturing company when you become the victim of a drunk driving accident. How about we start suing spoon and fork manufacturing co or obesity? Or suing a phone manufacturing co when becoming the victim of a texting and driving accident.
J & J manufactured medication meant to relieve pain and suffering. They established directions for the medication. The “accidental addict” is rare. Studies have shown that most prescription opioid addictions were triggered through the use of the medication for recreational purposes only.
Did J & J tell people to crush then snort or crush then inject? No. In fact, in the case of extended-release, they made sure to direct that no one was to crush this medication. I take it that personal responsibility is no longer recognized in this society.
what a joke. I agree. Legally producing and distributing raw materials to produce legal pain medication in accordance with laws, policies and procedures should not be subject to a lawsuit.