Oklahoma court overturns $465M opioid ruling against J&J

By KEN MILLER
Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Supreme Court has overturned a $465 million opioid ruling against drugmaker Johnson & Johnson, finding that a lower court wrongly interpreted the state’s public nuisance law. It’s the second blow from a court this month to the legal theory, which thousands of governments across the U.S. are using to try to hold the drug industry accountable for the nation’s opioid epidemic. The Oklahoma court ruled in a 5-1 decision Tuesday in overturning a district judge’s 2019 finding against New Jersey-based J&J and its Belgium-based subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Spokespeople for the state’s current attorney general, John O’Connor, and for J&J did not immediately respond to a requests for comment.