Pharmaceutical Companies

A federal appeals court on Thursday cleared the way for a landmark trial over the nation’s opioid crisis, rejecting a bid by eight drug retailers and distributors to disqualify the judge, and a request by Ohio and other U.S. states to delay an Oct. 21 trial.

Johnson & Johnson and two Ohio counties have reached a tentative $20.4 million settlement that removes the corporation from the first federal lawsuit against opioid manufacturers, scheduled to begin later this month.

Shares of Mallinckrodt PLC MNK, -6.82% surged 4% in premarket trading Monday

U.S. District Judge Dan Polster, who is overseeing the first federal opioid trial on Oct. 21, also wrote on Tuesday that the Ohio AG's petition before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit was based on a "faulty premise."

(Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson said on Tuesday it will pay $20.4 million to settle claims by two Ohio counties, allowing the U.S. healthcare giant to avoid an upcoming federal trial seeking to hold the industry responsible for the nation’s opioid epidemic.

With jury selection in a landmark opioid trial just three weeks away, lawyers for two Ohio counties said Wednesday they would prove that opioid manufacturers and distributors harmed public health and safety, and demanded they be held accountable.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Any money Ohio might receive from a settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and other drugmakers should be spent at the local level, the state's top lawyer said Wednesday.

For the families of the roughly 400,000 Americans who have died of opioid drug overdoses since 1999, a legal drama scheduled to unfold in an Ohio courtroom next month may feel like a true shot at justice.