J&J and other pharma giants secure first legal win in €43bn opioid legal case

Opioid crisis on US: Sprawling four-year litigation in the US over the drugs.

Johnson & Johnson, Teva Pharmaceutical, and other former opioid makers have scored the pharmaceutical industry’s first win in the sprawling four-year litigation in the US over the drugs. They  defeated a lawsuit by local governments in California that claimed they created a public-health crisis through misleading marketing.

Superior court judge Peter Wilson in Santa Ana rejected claims that units of J&J, Teva, Endo International, and Abbvie's Allergan duped doctors and patients about the addictiveness of opioid painkillers and created a 'public nuisance' tied to the medications.