The pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has agreed to pay 230 million dollars to the state of New York to resolve a lawsuit by the Prosecutor’s Office for its responsibility in the opiate crisis in the United States.
As announced this Saturday by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, the pact implies that J&J suspend throughout the country the production and sales of its opiate products, which are highly addictive, and that it make payments to that state for 9 years.
The prosecutor filed an extensive lawsuit against several manufacturers and distributors in March 2019, and this agreement with J&J, one of them, has occurred a few days before the trial begins.
In a separate statement, J&J stressed that it will be out of the New York prosecution process that begins in a Suffolk County court on Monday, but continues to face lawsuits in other parts of the country.
“The opioid epidemic has devastated countless communities in New York State and the rest of the nation, leaving millions of people addicted to dangerous and deadly opioids,” James said in the note.
It is estimated that in the last two decades, this crisis has killed almost half a million Americans.
“Johnson & Johnson helped fuel this fire, but today they are pledging to get out of the opioid business not just in New York, but the entire country. Opioids will no longer be manufactured or sold in the US by J&J, ”he added.
The pharmaceutical company developed two drugs “designed to help patients with pain” under the trade names Duragesic and Nucynta, and said they have accounted for “less than 1% of total prescriptions” for opiates in the US since their launch.
The Prosecutor’s Office indicated that J&J will have to pay New York a good part of the monetary compensation, about 130 million, as early as February 2022 if the state passes legislation to create a compensatory fund for the epidemic.
The money from the settlement with J&J will go to fund prevention, treatment and education against opiates while the prosecution takes the rest of the defendants in the lawsuit to court this week.
According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), US state and local authorities that have sued these companies for their role in the opioid crisis are negotiating a settlement of more than $ 26 billion to close the case.
The companies McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health participate in the negotiations, which together distribute most of the drugs sold in the country, together with J&J.
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