Boston Herald

MATH PROBLEM

Oklahoma judge reduces J&J opioid payments by $107M due to error

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OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma judge who last summer ordered consumer products giant Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million to help address the state’s opioid crisis on Friday reduced that amount in his final order in the case by $107 million because of his miscalcula­tion.

District Judge Thad Balkman’s latest order directs the company to pay the state $465 million. In it, Balkman acknowledg­ed that he miscalcula­ted in his original award how much it would cost to develop a program for treating babies born dependent on opioids. The cost should have been $107,000 not $107 million.

The judge declined a request by the defendants to further reduce the amount to take into account pre-trial settlement­s totaling $355 million the state reached with Oxycontinm­aker Purdue Pharma and Israeliown­ed Teva Pharmaceut­icals.

Balkman also denied a request by Gov. Kevin Stitt, state House Speaker Charles McCall and state Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat to intervene in the case and said he would not revisit the settlement in the future to order additional payments, as requested by the state.

“Though several of the state’s witnesses testified that the plan will take at least 20 years to work, the state did not present sufficient evidence of the amount of time and costs necessary, beyond one year, to abate the Opioid Crisis,” according to the order.

The governor’s office did not immediatel­y return phone calls for comment while spokesmen for McCall and Treat said the two legislativ­e leaders had no immediate comment.

Attorneys for Johnson & Johnson said the company plans to appeal Balkman’s ruling to the Oklahoma Supreme Court. The company did not immediatel­y respond to a request seeking further comment.

Alex Gerszewski, spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter, said state attorneys were reviewing the more than 40-page order.

Following a seven-week trial this summer, Balkman ruled Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiari­es helped fuel the opioid crisis with an aggressive and misleading marketing campaign that overstated how effective the drugs were for treating chronic pain and understate­d the risk of addiction. Hunter says opioid overdoses killed 4,653 people in the state from 2007 to 2017.

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