J&J ‘worse’ than Purdue Pharma expert witness says

pharmafile | June 12, 2019 | News story | Research and Development J&J, JJ, Johnson & Johnson, Oklahoma, opioid crisis, phamra 

The role Johnson & Johnson played in the opioid crisis was ‘in some ways worse’ than that of Purdue Pharma, an expert witness said in the Oklahoma trial of J&J.

Dr Andrew Kolodny, the co-director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandeis University, has said that healthcare conglomerate J&J may have played a bigger role in the opioid crisis than the Sackler owned firm Purdue Pharma.

“Until I had an opportunity to review discovery documents I really was not aware of how bad Johnson & Johnson was,” Kolodny said. “I had been much more aware of Purdue’s misdeeds and wrongdoing.”

Oklahoma prosecutors have accused J&J subsidiaries Tasmanian Alkaloids and Noramco of supplying the “narcotic raw materials necessary to manufacture the opioid pain medications thrust upon the unsuspecting public since the 1990s.”

Kolodny added that J&J “did everything it possibly could to get doctors to prescribe more and more opioids.

J&J’s lawyer John Sparks responded in suggesting: “The testimony of the State’s witness, Dr. Kolodny, was filled with rampant speculation and conclusions not derived from facts”

“The evidence remains that Johnson & Johnson and its former subsidiaries appropriately and responsibly met all laws and regulations on the manufacturing, sale and distribution of active pharmaceutical ingredients and pharmaceutical products and did everything you’d expect a responsible company to do.”

Louis Goss

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