A California judge said Monday he would rule against several large counties that accused four drugmakers of fueling an opioid epidemic, saying they failed to prove their $50 billion case. .
Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson issued a provisional decision finding Johnson & Johnson, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Endo International plc and AbbVie Inc.’s Allergan unit not liable for causing public nuisance.
Wilson said he was aware of the toll that the deadly opioid epidemic had taken on society and that hospitalizations resulting from drug abuse and opioid-related overdose deaths “clearly illustrate the enormity of the ongoing problem.” Displays from.”
But he added that even if any drug manufacturer’s marketing contains false or misleading statements about the risks and benefits of opioids, the populous Santa Clara, Los Angeles and cities of Orange County and Oakland cannot hold them liable.
That’s because “any adverse downstream consequences flowing from clinically appropriate prescriptions may not constitute an actionable public nuisance,” the federal and state government already weighed in on the drugs’ social utility.