A devastating opioid epidemic has been raging in the United States for years. Four pharmaceutical companies are said to have ruthlessly marketed their pain killers and concealed the risk of addiction. Now there is a comparison.
In a lawsuit over addictive pain killers that has been going on for years, four large US pharmaceutical companies have accepted a billion-dollar settlement with numerous plaintiffs.
The drug wholesalers McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health as well as the drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson could ultimately pay up to 26 billion dollars (22 billion euros), as New York attorney general Letitia James and her counterparts from several other US states announced on Wednesday.
However, the money, which is to be used to finance aid programs, among other things, would flow over a long period of 18 years. In addition, so far it is only a draft that many US states, cities and counties have yet to finally pass. Overall, the large settlement that has been negotiated for over two years is intended to settle almost 4,000 lawsuits and various proceedings in one fell swoop. McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and Johnson & Johnson would avoid further prosecution by compromising.
The four corporations were accused of contributing to the rampant drug addiction and drug epidemic in the United States with pain killers. State and local authorities have long been demanding billions of dollars back from pharmaceutical companies that they spent fighting opiate addiction and overdose. Several other companies had previously made individual comparisons. The focus of the conflict was initially the manufacturer of the pain reliever Oxycontin, Purdue Pharma, which is now in bankruptcy proceedings.
US drug dealers and manufacturers are accused of using reckless and aggressive methods to market pain relievers while masking the dangers of addiction. From the plaintiffs’ point of view, this laid an important foundation stone for the devastating opioid epidemic in the United States, which, according to US authorities, has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths from overdoses in recent years. Opioids are drugs with, among other things, pain-relieving properties, but with which there are also enormous risks of dependency and high potential for abuse.
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
