Take one and call us in the morning... Mega drug company Johnson & Johnson was handed a verdict by an Oklahoma judge: pay the good people of the state $572M for what you did.
- The crime: J&J was over-selling Oklahomans about the application of its prescription pain medications and under-warning about the risk of addiction.
- The damage: In 2015, 326M opioid pills were prescribed in the state — that's enough for each adult to have 110 pills. And 6K died from overdoses since 2000.
- The penalty: $572M. But it's way less than the $17.5B the state's Attorney General pushed for.
It's over for J&J in Oklahoma... But the legal tour goes on. Next is Cleveland, where a bunch of drugmakers and distributors suit up for another courtroom trial. J&J investors were pleased about the smaller-than-expected dent in the company's bank account — shares rose 3% despite the half-a-billion dollar fine.
Dirty corporate deeds will chase you for years... Johnson & Johnson's exited many of its opioid-dealing businesses. But its drug marketing has left huge emotional and physical wounds — these cases call it a "public nuisance" — which are now facing lawsuits in civil court. Fyi, over 2K other opioid cases remain.