The pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson has been convicted of unlawful marketing of addictive painkillers to a relatively lenient punishment. Respective Judge Thad Balkman ordered a $ 572 million (€ 515 million) payment for contributing to the drug dependence epidemic in Oklahoma. Johnson & Johnson immediately announced that it would appeal the decision.
Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter accused the group of being a trailblazer for the opioid epidemic and drug crisis with addictive analgesics. According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, opioids were involved in over 400,000 overdose deaths between 1999 and 2017.
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In 2018, the number of drug-related deaths in the United States had dropped for the first time in two decades. According to the US health authorities, over 68,600 people died of an overdose in 2018, and in 2017 there were approximately 72,200 deaths. With the fine for J & J, the state should be supported over the next 30 years in the fight against the opioid crisis.
Investor relieved after judgment
Johnson & Johnson was accused in the lawsuit of veiling addiction risk in marketing the drugs due to misrepresentation. Oklahoma prosecutor Hunter had demanded an even higher fine of over $ 17 billion.
AFP
Pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson: The penalty was relatively low
Investors reacted relieved to the verdict that shares of Johnson & Johnson rose at times after hours by more than five percent. The lawsuit was also directed against other companies, but Purdue Pharma - the maker of the notorious painkiller Oxycontin - and Teva had agreed on settlement payments of $ 270 million and $ 85 million, respectively, and had averted a lawsuit. However, there are still many other similar lawsuits in the United States.
