Another Drug Company Implicated In Causing The Opiate Crisis

Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $572 million for its role in causing the Oklahoma opioid crisis.

Oklahoma’s attorney general showed during the lawsuit that the company aggressively marketed opioids to doctors while downplaying the risks of these highly addictive painkillers since the 1990s and costing the state of Oklahoma billions of dollars.

This was just off a previous lawsuit with Purdue Pharma, the maker of the opiate OxyContin that has been blamed for a significant part of the nationwide opioid epidemic.

The Oklahoma settlement was for $270 million in March. Oklahoma also recently settled an $85 million settlement against Teva Pharmaceutical for it’s role in Oklahoma’s opiate crisis. Both companies denied any wrongdoing in their cases.

We’ve talked about other lawsuits that have found pharmaceutical companies guilty and responsible in the opiate crisis. Insys Therapeutics executives case and here.

The state says that Johnson and Johnson directly caused a part of the opioid epidemic and was responsible for more than 6,000 deaths over nearly two decades.

Oklahoma’s attorney general argued that Johnson and Johnson aggressively marketed opiates to medical doctors and downplayed the serious risks of these addictive pain relievers beginning in the ’90s that caused massive damage to so many lives and cost Oklahoma $12.7 billion to $17.5 billion.

During arguments Oklahoma said Johnson and Johnson and others looked to make a “magic pill” for profit, while ignoring decades of research showing how dangerous opiates were for the public.

According to Oklahoma attorneys the company “embarked on a cynical, deceitful, multi-billion dollar brainwashing campaign to establish opioid analgesics(pain relievers) as the magic drug,” and went on to say, “Money may not be the root of all evil but … money can make people and businesses do bad things. Very bad things.”

In other words, the attorney is claiming that the drug company essentially bought distribution through doctors for it’s highly addictive drugs which it knew would cause a problem but also knew that it would make them a lot of money.

Johnson and Johnson countered the argument in court saying that its marketing of opiate pain medications was “appropriate and responsible.”

The state asked for $17 Billion settlement. The judge ordered a paltry $572 Million.

NOTE: This means that for the company, their practices yielded a massive financial return on investment, just like in the other 2 settlements mentioned above because if the order stands, the settlement is MUCH lower than the profit for the drugs.

The money the marketing practices cost tax payers (in Oklahoma and everywhere else) is one thing, the massive amount of suffering the drugs have caused is another much more important issue.

The company spokesperson claims, “Johnson and Johnson didn’t cause the opiod crisis in Oklahoma or anywhere.”

The court finds otherwise.

These companies should be held responsible for their marketing and information distribution practices.

These tactics lead MDs to believe that the drugs are much safer than they are AND in many cases reward them for prescribing.

You can’t help but think about how similar this appears to be to tobacco companies who likewise aggressively marketed their products as safe even though they knew the truth about them.

These companies also used MDs to market their cigarettes as evidenced below.

Opiods are FAR worse than tobacco though.

These drugs are destroying people’s lives, killing so many, and leading to babies being born addicted to opiates for which they’ll suffer some lifelong problems.

As a Chiropractor it’s shocking to think that people are being put on these highly addicted drugs in most cases for musculoskeletal problems without ever being told by their doctor, “Hey instead of getting on this dangerous medication, maybe you should try seeing a Chiropractor first.”

If this one thing happened in every discussion with people in pain from these problem… it would make a massive impact on the opiod crisis AND even more importantly on the person’s pain and suffering.

References:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/johnson-johnson-must-pay-over-572-million-its-role-oklahoma-n1046476

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/johnson-johnson-opioid-trial-judge-expected-issue-landmark-verdict-monday-n1046326