J&J Appeals $572 Million Oklahoma Opioid Ruling

Johnson & Johnson and its Janssen subsidiary appealed Oklahoma’s $572 million opioid court verdict to the state’s Supreme Court, arguing they were unjustly singled out as responsible for the opioid crisis.

Cleveland County District Court Judge Thad Balkman ruled in August that the state “met its burden” in proving that J&J’s misleading marketing and promotion of opioids caused the state’s incurred costs during the epidemic.

In its appeal, J&J asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court to decide whether there was enough evidence to find that Janssen’s conduct was a cause of the state’s opioid abuse crisis. The drugmaker argued that Janssen’s Duragesic (fentanyl) and Nucynta (tapentadol) accounted for “negligible shares” of opioid prescriptions and were “rarely diverted or abused.”