a fine of 572 million dollars in the opiate crisis

It is a health crisis that President Trump calls a "public health emergency" that has killed 400,000 people in less than 20 years. This is the opioid dependence, or opiate, of opioid painkillers. Pharmaceutical companies will have to pay billions of dollars for their responsibility in this crisis.

There is a famous case of the effects of these drugs consumed to excess: the singer Prince, died of an overdose of opiates. They are derivatives of opium, such as morphine, methadone, but also Vicodin, Oxycodone, codeine, and so on. Prescribed by doctors to fight pain, after an operation or injury, they can create an addiction.

All patients are not concerned. Two million have a form of addiction, to varying degrees, but in 2017, for example, 47,000 Americans died after an opioid overdose. In other words, there are more Americans who die because of opioids than in road accidents or because of the weapons.

This health crisis strikes rather disadvantaged areas of small towns or rural areas. Rather white America. Rather in states that vote Donald Trump. Moreover, the President has made it a priority. One of the most sincere and touching moments of his presidency was during a speech on this crisis.

The laboratories involved

On Monday, August 26, a judge sentenced the Johnson & Johnson group to pay $ 572 million to the state of Oklahoma for deliberately minimizing the dangers and over-selling the benefits of these painkillers, in marketing campaigns "false, misleading and dangerous" according to the judge. It was the first trial of a pharmaceutical group for its responsibility in the crisis.

But thousands of cases are ongoing. And this Tuesday, August 27, it was learned that the group Purdue, which belongs to the family Sackler, 19th fortune of the United States, and which produces the Oxycontin, one of these most widespread painkillers, proposes to pay $ 10 billion to $ 12 billion to stop prosecution. 2,000 complaints were filed. Never had a private company offered so much money for its responsibility in a health crisis.

A sword in the water ?

In the case of Johnson & Johnson, half a billion dollars to pay, this is a little slap on the fingers since the group was risking $ 17 billion in damages. This half billion represents only 4% of their 2018 net profits. So when the fine, ultimately modest, was announced, the Johnson & Johnson stock took 5% in the markets.

In the case of Purdue, it's a bit to take or leave because the company will declare itself in bankruptcySo basically they say to the victims, if you do not take that money, you may not have anything.

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