Opioid Makers Win Major Victory in California Trial
The New York Times
In one of the first cases to be brought against drug manufacturers over the crisis, a judge ruled that there was “simply no evidence” the companies were liable in the epidemic.
Four manufacturers of prescription opioids won the pharmaceutical industry’s first major legal victory in the opioid crisis, turning aside claims by local California governments that they contributed substantially to the epidemic.
In a bench trial decision late Monday, a state judge flatly rejected a legal argument being employed in thousands of cases against the industry over its role in an epidemic of abuse that, according to federal data, has contributed to the deaths of some 500,000 people in the United States since the late 1990s and grown worse during the pandemic.
“There is simply no evidence to show that the rise in prescriptions was not the result of the medically appropriate provision of pain medications to patients in need,” wrote Judge Peter Wilson of Orange County State Superior Court, who presided over a four-month bench trial.
