Oklahoma high court erases J&J's $465M opioid defeat

Finding the landmark award was based on an inappropriate understanding of "public nuisance" law, the Oklahoma Supreme Court reversed a trial verdict against the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson. In the 28-page decision, the ruling noted "This court defers the policy-making to the legislative and executive branches and rejects the unprecedented expansion of public nuisance law."

Finding the landmark award was based on an inappropriate understanding of "public nuisance" law, the Oklahoma Supreme Court reversed a trial verdict against the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson. In the 28-page decision, the ruling noted "This court defers the policy-making to the legislative and executive branches and rejects the unprecedented expansion of public nuisance law." Johnson & Johnson (J&J) appealed the verdict following a bench trial in a 2019 public nuisance lawsuit filed by the State of Oklahoma (ex. rel. Hunter v. Purdue Pharma, L.P., et. al.) in which it sued three prescription opioid manufacturers and requesting that the district court hold them liable for violating the state’s public nuisance statute.

The State alleged that Appellant Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (and its related entities), a wholly owned subsidiary of J&J, used branded and unbranded marketing to actively promote the concept that physicians were undertreating pain. Ultimately, the State argued J&J overstated the benefits of opioid use, downplayed the dangers, and failed to disclose the lack of evidence supporting long-term use in the interest of increasing its profits. J&J argued the company no longer promotes prescription opioids and has not done so for several years. Specifically, J&J stated they stopped promoting one of their FDA-approved prescription opioids in 2007 anddivested their second manufactured prescription opioid in 2015. The company argued their two medications amounted to less than 1% of all Oklahoma opioid prescriptions, and overall sold only 3% of all prescription opioids statewide, leaving the other opioid manufacturers named in the suit responsible for selling 97% of all prescription opioids. In the Decision, the court ruled that Oklahoma’s public nuisance statute does not extend to the manufacturing, marketing, and selling of products such as the drugs at issue in the case.

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