UPDATED STATEMENT: Teva Did Not Cause a Public Nuisance or Make False or Misleading Statements About Opioids, California Judge Confirms Verdict
UPDATED STATEMENT: Teva Did Not Cause a Public Nuisance or Make False or Misleading Statements About Opioids, California Judge Confirms Verdict
November 2021
Orange County, California, Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson finalized his November decision finding that Teva did not cause a public nuisance in Orange County, Los Angeles County, Santa Clara County, and the City of Oakland and that Teva did not make any false or misleading statements in connection with marketing prescription opioids in California.
The People have shown the volume of opioid prescriptions (in both numbers and dosage) increased dramatically. But the mere proof of a rise in opioid prescriptions does not, without more, prove there was also a rise in medically inappropriate opioid prescriptions. The People made no effort to distinguish between medically appropriate and medically inappropriate prescriptions. There is simply no evidence to show that the rise in prescriptions was not the result of the medically appropriate provision of pain medications to patients in need.
Additionally, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma recently held that the state's public nuisance law does not extend to the manufacturing, marketing and sales of prescription opioids and overturned a lower court’s decision which held Johnson & Johnson liable for causing a public nuisance in the state.
While we remain pleased by the California and Oklahoma decisions, a clear win for the many patients in the US who suffer from opioid addiction will only come when comprehensive settlements are finalized and resources are made available to all who need them. Teva continues to pursue a national settlement framework as well as to support the business of Teva, which remains dedicated to providing uninterrupted access to affordable medicines throughout the world.