California judge rules in favour of drugmakers in $50B lawsuit over state opioid crisis

It marked the first trial win for any drug companies in the more than 3,300 lawsuits filed by states and local governments over the U.S. drug abuse crisis.

A California judge on Monday said he would rule against several large counties that accused four drugmakers of fueling the U.S. opioid epidemic, saying they failed during a trial to prove their $50 billion case.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson issued a tentative ruling finding Johnson & Johnson, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Endo International PLC and AbbVie Inc’s Allergan unit not liable.

It marked the first trial win for any drug companies in the more than 3,300 lawsuits filed by states and local governments over a drug abuse crisis that the U.S. government says led to nearly 500,000 opioid overdose deaths over two decades.

The ruling came as J&J and the three largest U.S. drug distributors — McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and AmersourceBergen — work to finalize a proposed deal to pay up to $26 billion to settle the thousands of cases against them.

A bankruptcy judge in August approved a settlement by OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and its wealthy Sackler family owners of the claims against them that the company values at more than $10 billion.

During a months-long, non-jury trial, the populous Santa Clara, Los Angeles and Orange counties and the city of Oakland argued the drugmakers’ marketing downplayed opioids’ addictive risks and promoted them for broader uses than intended.

They argued the advertising led to billions of pain pills flooding their communities and a rise in overdose deaths. They said the companies should pay more than $50 billion to cover the costs of abating the public nuisance they created, plus penalties.

But Wilson said even if the drugmakers’ marketing contained any misleading statements, the counties put forward no evidence to show that their promotional activities caused any medically inappropriate prescriptions to be written.