Exclusive: Lawsuit says Johnson & Johnson was opioid “kingpin”
Johnson & Johnson was the “kingpin” that fueled America’s opioid crisis, serving as a top supplier, seller and lobbyist, according to the Oklahoma official leading the legal fight against the companies that helped create the crisis, Axios health care business reporter Bob Herman writes.
- Why it matters: Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin, has been the main target so far in lawsuits. But court documents show attorneys general also are trying to cast a wider net, drawing more attention to J&J’s role in the global opioid market.
The first big trial of the opioid epidemic is set to begin in May in Oklahoma. It will set the stage for similar litigation in other states, as well as the consolidated nationwide lawsuit that has been compared to the tobacco litigation of the 1990s.
- Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter has asked a state courtto publicly release millions of pages of confidential documents that J&J submitted during the discovery phase of the case.
- “The public interest in this information is urgent, enduring and overwhelming,” he wrote.
The intrigue: Johnson & Johnson may be better known for selling Band-Aids and baby powder, but the company has an extensive history with prescription painkillers.
- J&J producedraw narcotics in Tasmanian poppy fields, created other active opioid ingredients, and then supplied the products to other opioid makers — including Purdue Pharma.
- The company boasted at the time that one of its opium poppies “enabled the growth of oxycodone,” and said the morphine content of a different poppy was “the highest in the world,” according to investor slidesobtained by Axios.
- J&J soldthe 2 subsidiaries that handled that business, Noramco and Tasmanian Alkaloids, to a private equity firm in 2016 for $650 million.
- J&J also soldoff Nucynta, an opioid pill it had marketed, for $1 billion in 2015.
- It still sellsDuragesic, a fentanyl patch that had peak sales of $2 billion in 2004.
That’s not all: Oklahoma is alleging J&J targeted vulnerable populations, including children and older adults, for painkiller prescriptions. The state also says J&J funded groups that aggressively advocated for easy access to opioids.
- Because J&J divestedits opioid businesses, Oklahoma’s lawyers say, documents related to those activities aren’t valuable trade secrets to J&J anymore, and therefore should be made public.
J&J urged the Oklahoma court to deny the attorney general’s request, saying the state is seeking “sensationalistic headlines and to poison potential jurors.”
- In statements to Axios,J&J said its subsidiaries “met all laws and regulations” and that all allegations are “baseless and unsubstantiated.”
Πηγή: axios.com
