Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million for its role in the state's opioid crisis

The Coffee Shop
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Multiply 572 million x 50 and that’s a healthy chunk of change;

In a landmark decision, an Oklahoma judge on Monday ordered pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million for its role in the state’s opioid crisis.

The verdict issued by Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman marks the end of the first state trial attempting to hold a pharmaceutical company accountable for one of the worst health epidemics in history. In his ruling, Balkman said the opioid crisis has “ravaged” the state of Oklahoma.

The defendants “engaged in false and misleading marketing of both their drugs and opioids generally, and the law makes clear that such conduct is more than enough to serve as the act or omission necessary to establish the first element of Oklahoma’s public nuisance law,” Balkman wrote in his ruling (PDF).

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/26/health/oklahoma-opioid-trial-verdict-bn/index.html

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Yawn will be reduced on appeal
.

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Now to get the politicians that enabled them to start this whole thing, and then feed it like a hungry bear for the past decade+. There is a lot more blame than the manufacturers, some doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and a lot more in the food chain of drugs should be losing at least a little sleep now…

But I do like that one of the big guys is in the spotlight now, time to clean this house all the way to the attic…

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Yawn will be reduced on appeal

That’s what Big Tobacco said after the first state court ruled against them.

So far tobacco companies have paid more than $100 billion to state governments as part of the 25-year, $246 billion settlement.

https://www.npr.org/2013/10/13/233449505/15-years-later-where-did-all-the-cigarette-money-go

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Yawn will be reduced on appeal

You sure about that? What is the basis for being certain it’ll be reduced? There is no tort reform in OK for this area of injury/law. There are no caps applicable and the provable economic damages on which this verdict is based are astronomical. This verdict and the danger it poses for J&J cannot be underestimated - OK is a small state. Much smaller than Texas and many others who have brought similar suits. And more than 1500 counties have filed similar suits.

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Yawn will be reduced on appeal

That’s what Big Tobacco said after the first state court ruled against them.

So far tobacco companies have paid more than $100 billion to state governments as part of the 25-year, $246 billion settlement.

https://www.npr.org/2013/10/13/233449505/15-years-later-where-did-all-the-cigarette-money-go

Where does all this money go? Is there an accounting?

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I doubt any appeals are going to go far in this case, much like the tobacco litigations. And forget about 100’s of millions, here is another company that is going all in at 10 to 12 BILLION!! Privately held maker of oxytocin, probably ground zero for this long nightmare in our country. Lots of details to work out, looks like they want to keep doing other business, and pay as you go on the billions they are willing to settle for…

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/purdue-pharma-offers-10-12-billion-settle-opioid-claims-n1046526

The ships are sinking, Teva down about 50% this year, along with many other companies in the line of fire. It’s going to be ugly for the small/ medium companies, maybe J&J survives because they are so big and can absorb large losses, but I bet if this is the amount in each state, they will be looking at some form of bankruptcy too. That or somehow peel off the drug business, but not sure they get to do that now after the fact…

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JnJ has already cut its consumer products workforce by 30% fairly recently.

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Yawn will be reduced on appeal

That’s what Big Tobacco said after the first state court ruled against them.

So far tobacco companies have paid more than $100 billion to state governments as part of the 25-year, $246 billion settlement.

https://www.npr.org/2013/10/13/233449505/15-years-later-where-did-all-the-cigarette-money-go

Makes me wonder who’s next. Kellogg’s for not making it clear that the sugar they add to their cereal can be addictive, may cause obesity, diabetes, hypertension, etc leading to increased healthcare spending and early death?

Only half joking…

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Yawn will be reduced on appeal

That’s what Big Tobacco said after the first state court ruled against them.

So far tobacco companies have paid more than $100 billion to state governments as part of the 25-year, $246 billion settlement.

https://www.npr.org/...e-cigarette-money-go

Makes me wonder who’s next. Kellogg’s for not making it clear that the sugar they add to their cereal can be addictive, may cause obesity, diabetes, hypertension, etc leading to increased healthcare spending and early death?

Only half joking…

Yeah, but the Kelloggs sales people weren’t going to doctors and telling them when your patients come in and complain of weight gain and the fact that they keep running out of cereal it’s not because they are addicts…it’s because they are really hungry and starving…these are the people that need our cereals the most.

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https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/190825233945-thad-balkman-drash-07-exlarge-169.jpeg
Thad is a douche for having that picture posted in the paper as if he and my boy are friends.

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Now to get the politicians that enabled them to start this whole thing, and then feed it like a hungry bear for the past decade+. There is a lot more blame than the manufacturers, some doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and a lot more in the food chain of drugs should be losing at least a little sleep now…

But I do like that one of the big guys is in the spotlight now, time to clean this house all the way to the attic…
The other question to ask is whether the existence for the FDA made this problem worse. I get the feeling like everyone – customers, doctors, and suppliers – feel like they’ve no need to think anymore about these drugs because the FDA has made them legal, and they don’t do that without science, and the government, and approvals, and everything.

Once the FDA gives its approval I’ve noticed that everything in the US medical system goes on autopilot for a long, long time.

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Yawn will be reduced on appeal

I think you said that when the Tabaco companies lost their first lawsuit.

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Yawn will be reduced on appeal

That’s what Big Tobacco said after the first state court ruled against them.

So far tobacco companies have paid more than $100 billion to state governments as part of the 25-year, $246 billion settlement.

https://www.npr.org/...e-cigarette-money-go

Makes me wonder who’s next. Kellogg’s for not making it clear that the sugar they add to their cereal can be addictive, may cause obesity, diabetes, hypertension, etc leading to increased healthcare spending and early death?

Only half joking…

Really… not the same… J&J advertise and push their drug as not addictive and an improvement over other more addictive forms of Opioids… and apparently they new it was not true, but kept on selling.

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Yawn will be reduced on appeal

That’s what Big Tobacco said after the first state court ruled against them.

So far tobacco companies have paid more than $100 billion to state governments as part of the 25-year, $246 billion settlement.

https://www.npr.org/...e-cigarette-money-go

Where does all this money go? Is there an accounting?

Have you not seen all the anti-tabaco anti-smoking ads. Paid for by the tabaco fund

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Yawn will be reduced on appeal

That’s what Big Tobacco said after the first state court ruled against them.

So far tobacco companies have paid more than $100 billion to state governments as part of the 25-year, $246 billion settlement.

https://www.npr.org/...e-cigarette-money-go

Where does all this money go? Is there an accounting?

Have you not seen all the anti-tabaco anti-smoking ads. Paid for by the tabaco fund

Ok. So where’s the other $97B and what will they do with the next $146B?

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Related news:
"Purdue Pharma in Talks to Resolve Opioid Cases Through Bankruptcy Deal valued at $10 billion to $12 billion would direct proceeds to governments that sued OxyContin maker

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP and its owners, the Sackler family, are in talks with state and local governments to resolve more than 2,000 opioid cases in a deal valued at between $10 billion and $12 billion, according to people familiar with the matter."

https://www.wsj.com/articles/purdue-pharma-in-talks-to-resolve-opioid-cases-through-bankruptcy-11566945535?mod=hp_lead_pos1
.

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Now to get the politicians that enabled them to start this whole thing, and then feed it like a hungry bear for the past decade+. There is a lot more blame than the manufacturers, some doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and a lot more in the food chain of drugs should be losing at least a little sleep now…

But I do like that one of the big guys is in the spotlight now, time to clean this house all the way to the attic…
The other question to ask is whether the existence for the FDA made this problem worse. I get the feeling like everyone – customers, doctors, and suppliers – feel like they’ve no need to think anymore about these drugs because the FDA has made them legal, and they don’t do that without science, and the government, and approvals, and everything.

Once the FDA gives its approval I’ve noticed that everything in the US medical system goes on autopilot for a long, long time.

It’s not quite that simple. The bigger issue is a lot of reimbursement/funding/hospital ratings are tied to patient satisfaction. One of the big questions being were you satisfied with your pain management.

https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2017/10/pain-scale-patient-satisfaction-leads-death.html

That is a couple years old but explains the issue there are more articles out there. I don’t think it’s as much of a autopilot vs. someone comes in and says I’m in a lot of pain. There is no test for pain so the doctor proceeds under the impression they are.

This seems to have gotten better from a post surgery perspective. I’m king of needing ortho surgeries. They have really accelerated the drawdown and decreased the total number of narcotics you get from surgery in the last few years. But it still goes back to the same issue. If the patient wants them bad enough and is convinced they are in pain then they will find a doctor to prescribe them.

Because of all the ortho issues I’ve had. I’ve been off and on pain killers for years. I really don’t love being on the stuff it doesn’t give me the high that some people talk about. I don’t get addicted to them psychologically, I have once physically which was a bitch, I shouldn’t have cold turkeyed the medicine, not the smartest idea I’ve ever had. But this brings me to my next point, these drugs do not interact the same with everyone. So yes we can put a lot of blame on the drug companies, doctors etc. but it’s also damn hard to prescribe these and know how they are going to affect the person. So yes there are doctors who just said fuck it and prescribed a ton of them and didn’t care. However I believe the majority of the doctors were trying to do the right thing, and they were stuck between a rock and a hard place and could only do so much.

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JnJ has already cut its **consumer **products workforce by 30% fairly recently.

Name brand high price consumer products aren’t doing great. P&G hasn’t been doing swell there either with people buying store brands and cheaper no-name brand options.

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Related news:
"Purdue Pharma in Talks to Resolve Opioid Cases Through Bankruptcy Deal valued at $10 billion to $12 billion would direct proceeds to governments that sued OxyContin maker //

Check out post #8

But yes, I thought this was the big domino to fall in this whole cleaning house in the opioid mess we have gotten in. Now the question is do the plaintiffs go for the long term big money, that keeps them in business, or blast them out of existence and grab a couple billion right now? I wonder if they can also go after the family personally, seems they have built their fortune on this drug, couldn’t believe the amount of it sold since inception…