In landmark ruling, New York jury finds Teva Pharmaceuticals liable for state's drug epidemic
In a landmark case in New York, a jury has found Teva Pharmaceuticals responsible for contributing to the state's opioid crisis. Teva told CBS News that it was preparing an appeal and asking for a mistrial, claiming the plaintiffs presented "no causal relationship between Teva's conduct, including its marketing, and any harm to the public in the state."
New York Attorney General Letitia James called the verdict "significant for every family and community torn apart by opioids."
"A jury has found an opioid manufacturer responsible for the death and destruction they inflicted on the American people," she said.
Teva will now face another trial to determine damages in the case.
The precedent-setting verdict came from one of several ongoing lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies across the country.
Earlier this month, a judge rejected OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma's bankruptcy settlement of thousands of lawsuits over the opioid epidemic because of a provision that would protect members of the Sackler family from facing legal action.
U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in New York found that federal bankruptcy law does not give the judge who accepted the plan the authority to grant that kind of release for people who are not declaring bankruptcy themselves.
In a statement on December 16, Purdue Pharma said that it would appeal the ruling and at the same time try to forge another plan that its creditors will agree to.
Representatives of the two branches of the family who own the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesman for the descendants of Mortimer Sackler, one of the late brothers who owned the company, had no comment.