Pharmaceutical multinational Johnson & Johnson (J&J) will pay $ 230 million to New York state as part of an agreement to settle its legal disputes over the opioid crisis, the pain-relieving drugs whose use has long since spiraled out of control. in the United States, causing an overdose of about 800,000 people over the past 20 years, according to US health authorities. The agreement also stipulates that J&J undertakes to permanently exit the opioid market in the United States.
Various pharmaceutical companies are facing a wide range of legal initiatives, over three thousand, across the United States for helping to market opioids without exerting sufficient control over orders, or by indiscriminately promoting their use on indictments. One of these processes will begin in a few days in New York and should have also involved J&J, but following the agreement the position of the company was removed.
The company said the deal is not an admission of responsibility or guilt, because it believes the marketing campaigns it has been running for opioids over the past few decades were “appropriate and responsible.” J&J is however involved in several other legal initiatives in other states, where it intends to enter into new agreements together with other companies involved. Last August, an Oklahoma court ordered the company to pay a $ 465 million fine after it was held responsible for the state’s opioid crisis.