A U.S. court has fined global pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson $572 million for its role in the escalating opioid addiction crisis in the U.S. state of Oklahoma.
Immediately after the court's decision, the company confirmed that it would appeal the ruling at a later date.
This case was the first to be referred to court among thousands of lawsuits against opiate manufacturers and distributors, including codeine, vinaneti a and morphine.
Authorities in the U.S. state of Oklahoma reached a settlement with the State-owned Bordeaux Pharma, the state's producer of oxycontin, which included the company's payment of $270 million plus an $85 million settlement with Teva Pharmaceuticals, with Johnson & Johnson being the only defendant. which was fined by a court.
Judge Thad Polkman said the prosecution had made it clear to the court that Johnson & Johnson had contributed to 'harming the public interest' by deceptively promoting certain addictive painkillers.
He added: 'These measures have resulted in damage to the health and safety of thousands of Oklahomans. The opioid crisis poses a major threat and a threat to the state's population.'
He noted that the fine imposed on Johnson & Johnson would be spent on treating opioid addictions.
Deaths
The court's ruling against the company follows 2,000 people who have filed lawsuits against the global pharmaceutical company, cases that have been exposed to opioid painkiller addiction. The cases are scheduled to go to court in Ohio in October if the parties to the judicial dispute fail to reach a settlement.
Opium caused nearly 400,000 overdose deaths from 1999 to 2017, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 2000, about 6,000 people have died in Oklahoma from opioid overdoses, according to the Oklahoma State Attorney's Office.
During the seven-week hearings in The Oklahoma Court, the state attorney general's office said Johnson & Johnson launched a years-long marketing campaign aimed at underestimating the severity of addictive painkillers and promoting their benefits.
In its case, the prosecution described the company as the 'queen of opiates', suggesting that her marketing campaigns had caused 'harm to the public interest'. Doctors had prescribed drug-intensive painkillers, resulting in a high overdose mortality rate in the State of Oklahoma.
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