Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, has agreed to pay $230 million (£165 million) to resolve charges that contributed to the opioid addiction crisis in New York State. In reaching a settlement with the state, the company did not acknowledge any wrongdoing or liability. The payments will keep it out of a trial that is set to start on Tuesday and will involve several significant opioid manufacturers and dealers.
J&J said the settlements were in line with a previous agreement to pay $5 billion to settle opioid claims in the United States. J&J also agreed to stop selling the medications all throughout the country as part of the settlement with New York State. “The opioid epidemic has wreaked havoc on countless communities across New York state and the country, leaving millions hooked to harmful and deadly narcotics,” said Letitia James, the state’s attorney general.
“Johnson & Johnson contributed to the fire, but today they’re pledging to get out of the opioid industry – not only in New York but across the country,” she said, adding that her priority was “putting cash into areas devastated by opioids as swiftly as possible.”
Opioids are a group of potent medications derived from opium poppies that can be used to inhibit pain signals between the brain and the body. They are available as legal prescription pharmaceuticals, as well as illegal street drugs like heroin. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioid addiction to both legal and illegal substances has been a severe, continuous problem in countries such as the United States, where almost half a million people died from overdoses between 1999 and 2019. Johnson & Johnson and the three major US drug distributors – AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson – have suggested settling thousands of opioid cases for a total of $26 billion.
J&J has also been challenging an Oklahoma judge’s judgment in 2019 that it must pay the state $465 million for fraudulent opioid marketing. The opioids experiment on Tuesday is one of six planned this year, with others currently underway in California and West Virginia. Defendants include drugmakers AbbVie and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, as well as a number of distributors.
Purdue Pharma, the producer of OxyContin medicines, negotiated an $8.3 billion settlement and agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges in October to end a probe into its role in the opioid crisis in the United States.
