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 The trial is one of several looking to hold companies accountable
for the overdose and abuse crisis that are set to take place this
year after the coronavirus pandemic delayed litigation, putting
renewed pressure on them to enter into multi-billion dollar
settlements.
J&J, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Endo International PLC and
Abbvie's Allergan unit are accused by several California counties of
deceptively marketing painkillers in ways that downplayed their
addictive risks to boost sales.
If the companies are held liable by Orange County Superior Court
Judge Peter Wilson following a trial conducted virtually, the
counties say they should have to pay $50 billion to help foot the
costs of abating the public nuisance they created plus penalties.
Opioids have resulted in the overdose deaths of nearly 500,000
people from 1999 to 2019 in the United States, according to U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We need these companies to fund what it takes to try to undo the
harms that they have caused, and the scope and scale of that is
enormous," Santa Clara County Counsel James Williams said in an
interview.
His county is suing the companies along with Los Angeles and Orange
counties and the city of Oakland.
The drugmakers deny wrongdoing, arguing they acted appropriately in
marketing medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, and that the counties cannot prove their promotion
of opioids caused the crisis.
J&J in a statement called its marketing of the drugs "appropriate
and responsible," Israel-based Teva said it will defend itself
against these "unproven allegations." Endo and Allergan declined to
comment.
More than 3,400 lawsuits brought largely by states and local
governments are pending against companies accused of fueling the
opioid epidemic.
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 The state of Oklahoma in 2019
won a $465 million judgment against J&J in only
such trial so far. Opioid cases that were set to
go to trial in 2020 were put off as a massive
new public health crisis made gathering jurors
and lawyers in the same room untenable.
'DAY OF RECKONING'
Some plaintiffs' lawyers said the delays
benefited the companies at the cost of states,
counties and municipalities who say they need
settlements to help pay for the costs of
addressing a painkiller addiction epidemic that
only grew worse during the coronavirus pandemic.
The nation's three largest drug distributors -
McKesson Corp, AmerisourceBergen Corp and
Cardinal Health Inc - and J&J have proposed
paying a combined $26 billion to resolve the
cases against them.
The proposal, a version of which was first put
forward in 2019, has yet to be finalized, and
some plaintiffs lawyers say that only with
trials will they and other companies come to the
table to finalize payouts.
"They keep putting off the day of judgment,"
Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, a law professor at
University of Georgia, said of the companies.
"You really need trials to create that moment of
pressure."
Next month, a closely-watched case is set to go
to trial in West Virginia accusing the three
drug distributors of ignoring red flags
indicating the highly addictive painkillers were
being diverted for improper uses. They deny the
allegations.
That case will be followed in June by a jury
trial in New York against several drugmakers and
distributors, which was delayed on the eve of
trial in March 2020 because of the pandemic.
"The day of reckoning is coming," said Hunter
Shkolnik, a lawyer at Napoli Shkolnik who is
representing New York's Nassau County. "They've
been able to slow roll because there was no
trial like looming over their heads. Now they
have a trial."
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