Judge to Weigh $17 Billion Opioid Case Against Johnson & Johnson
July 15 2019 - 3:51PM
Dow Jones News
By Sara Randazzo
Attorneys for the state of Oklahoma urged a judge Monday to hold
Johnson & Johnson responsible for the state's opioid epidemic
and make the company pay more than $17 billion.
"We are in a state of crisis," Oklahoma Attorney General Mike
Hunter said during closing arguments in the first trial in the
nation seeking to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable for
widespread opioid addiction and overdoses. The attorney general
said Johnson & Johnson "blamed everyone, everyone except
themselves for causing this crisis."
Over a seven-week trial, attorneys for Oklahoma presented
evidence and witnesses they say prove Johnson & Johnson was the
kingpin of the state's prescription opioid supply.
Oklahoma has proposed a more than $17.5 billion, 30-year plan to
abate the costs of opioid addiction that it says Johnson &
Johnson should fund. The plan includes money for addiction
treatment, education of the public and medical community, and
overdose prevention programs. The state says 6,100 Oklahomans died
from prescription-drug overdoses between 2000 and 2017.
Johnson & Johnson has pushed back against allegations that
it marketed its opioid drugs too broadly and played down addiction
risks. The pharmaceutical and consumer products giant says it is
being scapegoated as the only company willing to take the claims to
trial, and argues its marketing of drugs was legally protected
speech and regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
"These drugs help patients function," Larry Ottaway, an
Oklahoma-based attorney representing Johnson & Johnson, said
during closings, according to a broadcast of the proceedings on
Courtroom View Network.
Naming a victor in the case now falls to Oklahoma state court
Judge Thad Balkman, who is weighing the evidence in lieu of a jury.
The outcome is being closely watched in light of some 2,000 similar
lawsuits brought against drugmakers and distributors by states and
local municipalities.
The trial, which streamed live on local media, in many ways
became a showcase for the societal cost of all opioid abuse and
addiction, not just actions allegedly tied to Johnson &
Johnson-branded drugs.
The judge heard emotional testimony from the father of a college
football player who overdosed from opioids, a youth pastor who
detailed a fall into addiction that temporarily derailed his life,
and a foster mom who recounted the toll of caring for children born
dependent on opioids. None of those witnesses mentioned the impact
of Johnson & Johnson drugs specifically.
Brad Beckworth, a Texas attorney hired to represent Oklahoma,
said during closing arguments the case "is about all the opioids,"
because Johnson & Johnson contributed to broad pro-opioid
marketing campaigns. Johnson & Johnson also for many years
owned two businesses that supplied the narcotic raw materials and
active pharmaceutical ingredients for other companies' opioid
painkillers, which Oklahoma says gave them an incentive to make the
drugs more popular.
"If you oversupply opioids, you get death," Mr. Beckworth said
in court Monday.
Mr. Ottaway countered that painkillers serve a medical need and
that doctors know the risks. "This problem of untreated chronic
pain afflicts people here in Oklahoma," he said.
Sales practices figured heavily into parts of the trial,
including testimony on Johnson & Johnson sales representatives
visiting doctors who later faced criminal action for misprescribing
opioids. The company countered that the state knew about the
problem doctors long before their representatives visited them.
Johnson & Johnson's two primary opioid painkillers are
Duragesic, a fentanyl patch, and a tapentadol pill called Nucynta
that it sold in 2015. The state says company representatives
pitched Oklahoma doctors more than 140,000 times between 2000 and
2011. The state wheeled 35 boxes of call notes from Johnson &
Johnson sales representatives into court early on in the trial for
effect.
Johnson & Johnson became the lone defendant in the trial
after two other drug companies settled. Purdue Pharma LP agreed to
pay $270 million to resolve the claims, much of that to fund a
national addiction research and treatment center, and Teva
Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. contributed another $85 million.
Neither company admitted wrongdoing.
"We didn't run from this case," Mr. Ottaway said Monday, adding
that the company came to defend itself because it believes it is
innocent.
OxyContin-maker Purdue continued to be a presence in court. The
state repeatedly cited, for instance, that Johnson & Johnson's
opioid ingredient supply businesses benefited Purdue.
The entire case rests on Oklahoma's allegation that Johnson
& Johnson created a public nuisance in the state through its
aggressive marketing of prescription opioids. The company says the
state is improperly invoking public nuisance law, typically used in
property disputes. It pointed to the irony of Mr. Hunter, the
attorney general, recently signing on to a brief arguing against
the use of public nuisance law in climate-change lawsuits filed
against the oil industry. Mr. Hunter called the comparison shameful
during closing arguments and said public nuisance is correctly
being used in this case.
Johnson & Johnson's witnesses included former and current
employees and doctors who testified that the company's marketing
and sales practices were appropriate and that the pharmaceutical
industry isn't responsible for opioid misuse.
Write to Sara Randazzo at sara.randazzo@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 15, 2019 15:36 ET (19:36 GMT)
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