J&J shares up after judge finds the company liable in Oklahoma opioid epidemic, Purdue wants to settle - NBC

Record ID: 1428798

  • Title: J&J shares up after judge finds the company liable in Oklahoma opioid epidemic, Purdue wants to settle - NBC
  • Date: 27th August 2019
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 27, 2019) (REUTERS) COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL PROFESSOR, JOHN COFFEE WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL, PROFESSOR, JOHN COFFEE, SAYING: "This is a sort of offbeat case. This involves a nuisance theory, which hasn't been used in other cases, but, essentially, if you lose what was the strongest case the defendants face, that is the strongest case for the defendants, that means you've got to recognize all the other cases could be larger. Oklahoma is a small state. You apply the number of people who died in California, or some other state, and you're gonna get numbers that will be, not just a multiple, but an order of magnitude higher. And when you take all these cases together, we're talking about possibly the largest settlement for a mass torts action in U.S. history."
  • Embargoed: 10th September 2019 20:34
  • Keywords: Oklahoma opioid epidemic trial Johnson & Johnson attorney general drugmakers judge Purdue Pharma OxyContin lawsuits
  • Location: NORMAN, OKLAHOMA, + NEW YORK, NEW YORK, + PROVO, UTAH, + NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES
  • City: NORMAN, OKLAHOMA, + NEW YORK, NEW YORK, + PROVO, UTAH, + NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Company News Markets,Economic Events
  • Reuters ID: LVA002ATZVNNX
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Shares of Johnson & Johnson rose on Tuesday (August 27), a day after an Oklahoma judge ordered the company to pay $572.1 million to the state for its part in fueling an opioid epidemic by deceptively marketing addictive painkillers.
    The sum was substantially less than investors had expected and drove up J&J's shares.
    The state's attorney general had filed the lawsuit, seeking $17 billion to address the impact of the drug crisis on Oklahoma. It had been considered a bellwether for other litigation nationwide over the opioid epidemic.
    J&J said it would appeal the decision.
    Separately, NBC News reported that OxyContin maker, Purdue Pharma, and its owners, the Sackler family, offered to settle more than 2,000 lawsuits against the company for $10 billion to $12 billion.
    (Production: Aleksandra Michalska, Hussein Waaile)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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