Jury Concludes Pharmaceutical Companies Fueled Opioid Crisis in NY

MELVILLE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today a jury held Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., Cephalon, Inc., Actavis, LLC, Actavis Pharma, Inc., Watson Laboratories, Inc., and Anda, Inc. responsible for causing a public nuisance in Nassau County, Long Island. Over the six-month-long New York Opioid Trial, the jury heard evidence of how the companies minimized the addictiveness of opioids with misleading marketing.

“It has been a long road to hold Teva and Anda accountable for their conduct that has resulted in the deaths and grief of hundreds of thousands of Americans. Teva and Anda need to now hear this jury and step up to take care of those who have suffered at their hands,” says Hunter J. Shkolnik, lead trial counsel for Nassau county.

Attempts by the defendants to blame other entities fell short with the jury who disagreed and found these defendants wholly responsible for the opioid epidemic in Nassau County.

“You would be hard pressed to find a person, family or community who has not been touched by the opioid crisis these corporations caused,” shares Paul Napoli. “This is another significant step towards justice and rebuilding lives and neighborhoods.”

Napoli Shkolnik began this journey with Nassau County in 2017, committed to achieving this precedent-setting result. A damages trial will be held in 2022.