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On 31 December The Wall Street Journal reported on the results of a civil trial which had ended the previous day.
Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. was found liable, in a case that had gone on for five years, for creating a public nuisance.
The drugmaker was sued by New York State and two Long Island counties over its role in the nationwide opioid epidemic. The case was one of thousands of opioid-related lawsuits brought against the pharmaceutical industry by state and local governments.
Other manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies had been named in the suit, and all had been consolidated for trial. But most of those others reached settlements—totaling some $1.5 billion—leaving Teva and some of its subsidiaries as defendants. Another trial is yet to be held, to determine how much Teva will have to pay.
The jury found that New York State bore ten percent of the responsibility for creating a public nuisance.
Prosecutors for New York State and for Nassau and Suffolk Counties alleged that Teva had contributed to the epidemic of opioid abuse and addiction via deceptive marketing, and that the drugmaker had been remiss in its tracking and reporting of suspicious orders, and had caused an oversupply of the pain pills.
Defense attorneys claimed that the state had failed to prove its case, and also that the state had failed to prevent doctors from overprescribing the drugs. They said they would be preparing to appeal the verdicts.
The opioid epidemic continues unabated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated last month that U.S. drug overdose deaths had exceeded 100,000, the highest number ever logged in a 12-month period.
TRENDPOST: For background on the opioid epidemic (which actually goes back to 1998), see “THE OPIOID WARS” (22 Oct 2019) and “FENTANYL: A KILLER OPIOID” (20 Apr 2021).
Also, in “COVID LOCKDOWNS INCREASE DRUG ABUSE” (15 Sep 2020), “COVID WAR = FATAL DRUG OVERDOSES” (20 Jul 2021), and “SADLY, AS FORECAST: FIGHTING THE COVID WAR = RECORD-BREAKING OPIOID DEATHS” (23 Nov 2021), Trends Journal asserted that the isolation, anxiety and depression imposed by COVID War lockdowns, and the resultant impact on lives and livelihoods, were driving up the numbers of opioid-induced fatalities.