By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters] – New York’s state courts will hear closing arguments on Wednesday about whether drugmakers are guilty. AbbVie Inc Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NYSE 🙂 Ltd and (NYSE 🙂 fueled the opioid epidemic in the state. A trial which lasted for more than five years concluded.

The Attorney General of New York, Nassau County and Suffolk Counties seek to hold these two companies accountable for their failures in dealing with the opioid epidemic. They claim they adhered to federal regulations, and that the changing standard of care led to an increase in prescriptions for opioids.

It is the third of nearly 3,300 such cases brought by states, localities and tribes across the country. Drugmakers are accused of trying to minimize opioid drug addiction and distributers and pharmacists of not noticing signs that illegal routes were being used.

Jurors witnessed the final evidence, which included parody videos that were made in 2006 to promote a Cephalon Inc sales meeting, and later purchased by Teva.

The character of Dr. Evil in Austin Powers as an employee of Cephalon complaining about Fentora’s child-resistant packaging. One was an imitation of a courtroom scene from “A Few Good Men,” in which a Cephalon employee tells a lawyer that he cannot handle the truth about sales representatives meeting quotas.

In a November report, more than 100,000 drug-related deaths occurred in the twelve month ending April 2021. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that this record is largely driven by opioids.

The three largest U.S. drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:) in July agreed to pay up to $26 billion to resolve the lawsuits against them.

The September bankruptcy hearing was approved by Purdue Pharma LP’s OxyContin manufacturer, which included $4.5 billion in contributions from the wealthy Sackler families.