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Consumer products giant Johnson & Johnson was a “kingpin” company that helped fuel the most devastating public health crisis in Oklahoma history, the state attorney general argued Monday during the close of his case against the opioid drug manufacturer. Mike Hunter said the New Jersey-based company and its subsidiaries, including Janssen Pharmaceuticals, created a public nuisance by launching a “cunning, cynical and deceitful” marketing campaign that overstated the benefits of opioid drugs for treating chronic pain and understated the risk of addiction. (Murphy, 7/15)

State and company lawyers delivered spirited closing arguments that capped the landmark seven-week proceeding — the first state trial in what has become a nationwide effort to recoup money from the drug industry for the cost of the crisis. Judge Thad Balkman is expected to issue a decision near the end of August. The stakes are high for both sides and dozens of other states suing the pharmaceutical industry. A win for Oklahoma and a penalty in the billions of dollars — the state wants $17.5 billion over 30 years to “abate” the epidemic — would be a big blow to Johnson & Johnson. It might also establish a settlement threshold for future defendants. (Bernstein, 7/15)

Even after illegally promoting opioid painkillers to reap billions of dollars in profit over the past two decades, Johnson & Johnson has accepted “zero responsibility’’ for its central role in fueling a public-health crisis, Oklahoma’s top law-enforcement official told a trial judge. J&J engaged in a “cunning” scheme to dupe doctors into over-prescribing addictive medications that “wrecked thousands” of families in the state, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said during closing arguments Monday. The trial in Oklahoma City is the first of more than 1,900 local U.S. government lawsuits against drug makers and distributors over the fallout from opioid abuse. (Feeley, 7/15)

Over a seven-week trial, attorneys for Oklahoma presented evidence and witnesses they say prove Johnson & Johnson was the kingpin of the state’s prescription opioid supply. Oklahoma has proposed a more than $17.5 billion, 30-year plan to abate the costs of opioid addiction that it says Johnson & Johnson should fund. The plan includes money for addiction treatment, education of the public and medical community, and overdose prevention programs. The state says 6,100 Oklahomans died from prescription-drug overdoses between 2000 and 2017. (Randazzo, 7/15)

Before adjourning the trial, Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman said he anticipates taking about a month to reach a decision in the case. The case could lay a road map for other states and municipalities seeking to hold drugmakers responsible for opioid crises in their communities. (Howard, 7/15)

In the first trial aimed at holding drug companies accountable for the opioid crisis, Oklahoma earlier this year reeled in more than $350 million in settlement payments from drugmakers Purdue Pharma and Teva. But skirmishes between the attorney general and a group including the governor, lawmakers and local governments over who gets to spend the money threaten to bog down efforts to use it for much-needed prevention, treatment and recovery services. Nationwide, similar struggles loom in opioid cases brought by attorneys general in nearly every state and in a consolidated class action lawsuit involving nearly 2,000 plaintiffs, including local, county and tribal governments, as well as some insurers and medical groups. (Vestal, 7/15)