UBC experts on opioid crisis lawsuits

A court in Oklahoma has found that Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries helped fuel the U.S. state’s opioid crisis and has ordered the company to pay $572 million. British Columbia also filed a proposed class-action lawsuit a year ago against dozens of pharmaceutical companies alleging the companies falsely marketed opioids as less addictive than other pain drugs and played a role in the province’s overdose crisis.

UBC experts are available to comment:

Dr. Michael Curry
Clinical Associate Professor, UBC department of emergency medicine
Email: michael.curry@ubc.ca

• Medical-legal issues, emergency medicine (prior to attending medical school, Dr. Curry obtained a law degree from UBC)

Eugenia Oviedo-Joekes
Associate Professor, UBC school of population and public health
Scientist, Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences (CHÉOS)
Email: eugenia@cheos.ubc.ca

• Public health and substance use, with a focus on improving access to care for those with individual and structural vulnerabilities