State, opioid makers make final pitch in trial
NORMAN — Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries should be ordered to pay the state of Oklahoma more than $17.17 billion to help abate a devastating opioid epidemic that they “willfully, wantonly and intentionally” helped cause, attorneys for the state of Oklahoma told a Cleveland County judge in court documents filed Wednesday.
Johnson& Johnson attorneys countered that the state failed to prove that their companies' promotions“caused any harm in Oklahoma( let alone a crisis of opioid abuse).” The companies contended they shouldn't be required to pay anything.
Wednesday was the deadline for attorneys to file their proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law in a nationally watched lawsuit where the state has accused opioid manufacturers of helping cause the opioid crisis by waging false and deceptive marketing campaigns.
The state accused Johnson & Johnson and other opioid manufacturers of understating the risks of addiction and overdose deaths while overstating the therapeutic benefits of opioids. The companies' actions have contributed to more than 6,000 prescription-opioid overdose deaths in Oklahoma since 2000, the state alleges.
Attorneys presented their closing arguments in the nonjury trial on July 15.
Wednesday's filings were essentially the last opportunity for each side to try to persuade Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman of the merits of their arguments before he issues a verdict. A ruling is expected in about a month.
In the state's 713- page court filing, it accused Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries of helping create a deadly public nuisance.
“They developed and carried out a plan to directly influence and convince doctors to prescribe more and more opioids, despite the fact that defendants knew increasing the supply of opioids would lead to abuse, addiction misuse, death and crime,” the state alleged. “Defendants did not target all doctors. To the contrary, they targeted those doctors that defendants thought would be more likely to prescribe more opioids more liberally.”
Johnson & Johnson's “marketing scheme was driven by a desire to make billions for their pain franchise,” the state alleged.
In a 182-page counterargument, attorneys f or Johnson& Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., contended their “opioid medications offered superior benefits to chronic and acute pain patients with reduced risks compared to other opioid medications.”
They said Oklahoma doctors were highly aware of the risks of opioids, which were detailed on FDA warning lablels.
Johnson & Johnson also said its marketing claims had “substantial scientific and clinical support” and aligned with “the views of mainstream Oklahoma doctors and the FDA.”
“The state introduced no evidence explaining how Janssen's promotion of its own infrequently prescribed or abused opioid medicines caused a crisis fueled both by illegal drugs and illicit diversion and abuse of other companies' oxycodone and hydrocodone pills,” the companies' attorneys said.
Johnson& Johnson' s attorneys reiterated their complaint that the state was attempting to misapply Oklahoma's public nuisance law.
“The state' s proposed `abatement plan' demands a multi-billion dollar payment by Janssen to fund — for decades — dozens of government programs that the state contends are necessary to remedy Oklahoma's opioid abuse problems,” the drug companies' attorneys said. “But that remedy is unavailable under Oklahoma' s nuisance statute, violates Janssen's jury-trial rights, tramples basic separation of powers principles, lacks support in the trial evidence, and would amount to an unconstitutional excessive fine.”
The state's attorneys said the $17.17 billion abatement payment they are asking the judge to award was calculated by subtracting $355 million that other opioid manufacturers have agreed to pay through settlement agreements from the more than $17.5 billion that the state's expert witnesses testified would be necessary to abate the opioid crisis over a 30-year time frame.