The judgment was relatively easy: Because of the marketing of narcotic pain agents are hazardous, the U.S. should pay pharmaceutical company approximately $ 570 million. The Prosecutor had demanded several times.
In the process of controversial Opioid pain relievers, the US pharmaceutical group Johnson & Johnson comes around a billion penalty. A district court in the state of Oklahoma sentenced the company to a compensation payment of 572 million dollars. The attorney General of Oklahoma, Mike Hunter, had demanded that J&J a payment of more than $ 17 billion. Thus, the state should be supported in the next 30 years in the fight against the so-called Opioid crisis.
The risks were played down
“The Opioid crisis is a direct threat to the residents of Oklahoma,” said judge Thad Balkman, as he said after the seven-week process of his judgment. Lawyers for the state had argued, Doctors would have prescribed the medicines excessively, leading to an increase in Overdose deaths. J&J has rejected, however, the accusations are always, over the years, the risks for addictive painkillers to have in its marketing campaigns downplayed. The group said that it would appeal against the judgment.
The case is pointing the way for thousands more claims, which were brought by US authorities against the manufacturers of opioids. The company is accused of the abuse of strong prescription painkillers feed done.
This abuse has cost many American lives: Between 1999 and 2017, the number of people who died in the U.S. due to Opioid Overdose was, according to the authorities at nearly 400,000. In Oklahoma, where now the verdict has been spoken, have died, according to lawyers since the year 2000, approximately 6000 people.
haz/wa (rtr, dpa, afp)