J&J ‘Did Everything’ to Push Opioids, Oklahoma Witness Says
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Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
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Oklahoma’s star witness told a state judge that Johnson & Johnson pressed doctors to prescribe its painkillers even as the potentially fatal addictive threat posed by the drugs became clear more than a decade ago.
The judge, Thad Balkman, is presiding over the non-jury case and will make the final decision in the first trial where a state seeks to hold a drug maker responsible for contributing to the U.S. opioid epidemic. Oklahoma is seeking $13 billion in damages from J&J.