[from AMA Morning Rounds]

The New York Times (8/26, Hoffman) reports Judge Thad Balkman of Oklahoma’s Cleveland County District Court “ruled against Johnson & Johnson...and ordered it to pay the state $572 million in the first trial of an opioid manufacturer for the destruction wrought by prescription” pain medications. Oklahoma argued that the company, “which contracted with poppy growers in Tasmania, supplied 60 percent of the opiate ingredients that drug companies used for opioids like oxycodone,...and aggressively marketed opioids to doctors and patients as safe and effective.” The article says the ruling “may indicate what lies ahead in 2,000 more lawsuits.”

The Washington Post (8/26, A1, Bernstein) reports the “decision is the first to hold a drugmaker culpable for the fallout of years of liberal opioid dispensing that began in the late 1990s, sparking a nationwide epidemic of overdose deaths and addiction.”

For more information on the AMA’s policy regarding opioid-related costs, click here.