Dismissal motion denied, trial against opioid makers continues

Pharmaceutical companies can't end a $50 billion false advertising suit after an Orange County judge denied motions to dismiss allegations that deceptive marketing fueled an opioid crisis in the state.

After the state rested its case earlier this month, the pharmaceutical companies immediately filed motions for judgment as a matter of law, hoping to snuff the false advertising, unfair competition, and public nuisance claims brought by the plaintiff counties of Los Angeles, Orange and Santa Clara, along with the city of Oakland.

However, after hearing oral arguments and reviewing extensive briefs from both sides, Orange County Judge Peter Wilson on Tuesday denied the companies' bid to end the trial. Wilson said the trial will resume June 28.

Following Wilson's decision, the plaintiffs, represented among others by Julia Spiegel of the Santa Clara County Counsel's office, released a statement saying they looked forward to continuing the trial, and working to abate the opioid crisis in their communities.

"In only the second trial of its kind nationwide, the people have shown that defendants' aggressive marketing campaign -- which downplayed the risks and overplayed the benefits of opioid use -- helped drive up the market for highly addictive opioids and ignited a public health crisis," the statement read. "Trial testimony from medical experts, researchers, front-line physicians, and first responders confirmed the public health devastation that persists in California communities because of the manufacturers' wrongful conduct.

The remaining drug companies in the suit -- Teva Pharmaceuticals, Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., Allergan PLC and Janssen -- are accused of helping to create an opioid crisis in the state from 1997 to 2017 by deceptively marketing prescription opioids as rarely addicting. Purdue, also named as a defendant, is sitting out the trial, pending the completion of a bankruptcy case in New York.

In addition to civil penalties, the state seeks $50 billion to abate an opioid crisis in the plaintiff counties and city, according to attorneys involved in the suit. People v. Purdue Pharma et al., 14-00725287 (Orange Super. Ct., filed May 21, 2014).