New York Post - 27.08.2019

New York Post, Tuesday, August 27, 2019

nypost.com

20

J&JUSTICE AT LAST

Co. takes $572M hit for role in opioid crisis

$120M aid

for Newark

Newark on Monday an-

nounced a plan to borrow

$120 million to drastically

cut the time it will take to

replace pipes causing ele-

vated lead levels in drinking

water.

The plan is expected to

cut the time from 10 years

to under 30 months to re-

place about 18,000 lines,

city, state and county offi-

cials said.

The plan depends on ap-

proval by city and county

officials, who are expected

to vote on the $120 million

bond proposal Tuesday.

Newark began distribut-

ing water bottles to resi-

dents in about 14,

homes about two weeks ago

after it was discovered that

the nearly 40,000 water fil-

ters it gave out last year did

not adequately filter out

lead in the water. AP

By TAMAR LAPIN

This will be a bitter pill for John-

son & Johnson to swallow.

An Oklahoma judge on Monday

ordered the New Jersey-based phar-

maceutical giant to pay $572 million

in damages for its role in fueling the

state’s opioid epidemic.

“The opioid crisis has ravaged the

state of Oklahoma. It must be abated

immediately,” said Cleveland

County District Court Judge Thad

Balkman.

The landmark ruling was in re-

sponse to a $17 billion lawsuit alleg-

ing the drugmaker helped fuel the

opioid epidemic by deceptively ped-

dling painkillers and flooding the

market with the deadly drugs.

Out of thousands of lawsuits filed

by state and local governments

against opioid makers and distribu-

tors, this case brought by Oklahoma

Attorney General Mike Hunter was

the first to go to trial.

The litigation was closely watched

by the plaintiffs in over 1,500 similar

lawsuits consolidated before a fed-

eral judge in Ohio, who has been

pushing for a settlement before a

trial set for October.

Oklahoma sued J&J in an effort to

help it address the crisis in the state

with addiction treatment and pre-

vention programs.

More than 4,000 people died of

opioid overdoses there between

2007 and 2017, lawyers said.

During the non-jury trial, Hunter

blasted J&J as a “kingpin” company

motivated by greed.

He said the corporation’s years-

long, aggressive marketing cam-

paign had caused a public nuisance,

with doctors over-prescribing the

drugs, leading to a surge in overdose

deaths.

An ad campaign overstated how

effective the pills were in treating

chronic pain and minimized the risk

of addiction, the state claimed.

Two of J&J’s subsidiaries,

Noramco and Tasmanian Alkaloids,

have produced a lot of the raw

opium used by other drug manufac-

turers to make the painkillers, the

state said.

“They’ve been the principal origin

for the active pharmaceutical ingre-

dient in prescription opioids in the

country for the last two decades,”

Hunter said.

“It is one of the most important el-

ements of causation with regard to

why the defendants... are responsi-

ble for the epidemic in the country

and in Oklahoma.”

Lawyers for the company main-

tained that it is part of an industry

regulated by the federal govern-

ment, and that it answers to the US

Drug Enforcement Agency and the

Food and Drug Administration,

among others, during every step of

the supply chain.

J&J said it would appeal.

Its shares rose 5 percent in ex-

tended trading after the decision.

Opioids were involved in nearly

400,000 overdose deaths from 1999

to 2017, according to the US Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention.

With Wires

Disney

What’s black and white and evil all over? It’s

Emma Stone as everyone’s favorite fur-loving vil-

lain, Cruella de Vil. Put out by Disney, the image

is the first look at the actress, along with Paul

Walter Hauser and Joel Fry as her henchmen, in

“Cruella,” a spinoff of the animated “One Hun-

dred and One Dalmatians.” Stone has a big fur

coat to fill, following Glenn Close’s portrayal of de

Vil in the 1996 and 2000 live-action adaptations of

the ’61 classic. “Cruella” is due out in May 2021.