(CNBC) — An Oklahoma judge on Monday ruled against Johnson & Johnson in the Oklahoma opioid trial, forcing the company to pay the state $572 million in the first trial in the U.S. seeking to hold a drugmaker accountable for helping fuel the epidemic.
Calling the opioid crisis an “imminent danger and menace,” District Judge Thad Balkman said “the state met its burden that the defendants Janssen and Johnson & Johnson’s misleading marketing and promotion of opioids created a nuisance as defined by [the law], including a finding that those actions compromised the health and safety of thousands of Oklahomans.
“Specifically, defendants caused an opioid crisis that’s evidenced by increased rates of addiction, overdose deaths and neonatal abstinence syndrome,” he added.
