Nate Raymond

(Reuters) – The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a $465 million judgment against Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:) in a lawsuit by the state alleging the drugmaker fueled the opioid epidemic through the deceptive marketing of painkillers.

A 5-1 decision by the court was that the state’s law of public nuisance does not apply to prescription opioid manufacturing, marketing, and sale. The trial judge had gone too far in holding it did.

J&J had no immediate comment. The spokesperson for Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor didn’t immediately reply to our request for comment.

It was the latest blow for local and state governments who are pursuing lawsuits to hold drug companies accountable for the drug abuse crisis that the U.S. government said led to almost 500,000 overdose deaths in the last two decades.

The case against J&J by Oklahoma’s attorney general was the first to go to trial nationally of more than 3,000 similar cases against pharmaceutical manufacturers, drug distributors and pharmacies.

A similar trial in California pitting several large counties against J&J and three other drugmakers resulted in a judge on Nov. 1 ruling in the companies’ favor and concluding the epidemic could not be considered a public nuisance.