By Dietrich Knauth

(Reuters) – Rhode Island is ready to sq. off on Monday in opposition to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NYSE:) Ltd, as a multibillion-dollar trial begins over whether or not the Israeli firm contributed to an opioid disaster that has brought on greater than 500,000 deaths over the previous 20 years.

Rhode Island says Teva created a “public nuisance” by downplaying the dangers of opioid habit and selling the off-label use of highly effective fentanyl-based opioids that had been accepted just for sure sorts of most cancers ache.

Rhode Island is looking for $5.9 billion from the businesses, in response to a Teva courtroom submitting. Rhode Island officers declined to touch upon the particular quantity.

Teva subsidiaries Actavis (NYSE:) Pharma and Cephalon Inc are additionally defendants within the case in Rhode Island Superior Courtroom in Windfall.

The businesses have denied the allegations, saying they bought medication that had been authorized and accepted for ache remedy.

In courtroom filings by Teva, it calls Rhode Island’s lawsuit an improper try to blame a wide-ranging public well being disaster on “a small subset of opioid producers” that make “area of interest” medicines like Actiq and Fentora. In response to Teva’s filings, these most cancers medication account for simply 0.02% p.c of all opioid prescriptions within the state since 1998.

The corporate additionally sells generic opioids akin to oxycodone.

The Rhode Island lawsuit is considered one of greater than 3,300 filed by state, native and Native American tribal governments throughout the nation accusing drugmakers of minimizing the addictiveness of opioid ache drugs. The lawsuits additionally accuse distributors and pharmacies of ignoring pink flags that the medication had been being diverted into unlawful channels.

The trial will start as Teva makes an attempt to barter a nationwide settlement of its opioid legal responsibility. After a latest $225 million settlement with the state of Texas, Teva Chief Government Kåre Schultz instructed Reuters the corporate will possible find yourself paying $2.7 billion to $3.6 billion to resolve opioid claims.

Different defendants within the Rhode Island case settled earlier than trial, together with drug distributors McKesson Corp (NYSE:), AmerisourceBergen (NYSE:) Corp and Cardinal Well being Inc (NYSE:), which joined a nationwide $21 billion settlement.

Purdue Pharma LP, which was additionally a defendant, gained preliminary approval final week for a $6 billion settlement funded by its Sackler household homeowners that may resolve litigation over its function within the opioid disaster.

The general public nuisance principle has been used with combined leads to circumstances in opposition to different opioid distributors, producers and pharmacies.

The Rhode Island trial comes greater than two months after a New York jury discovered Teva accountable for making a public nuisance within the state. And a federal jury in November discovered that pharmacy chain operators CVS Well being Corp (NYSE:), Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:) Inc and Walmart (NYSE:) Inc created a public nuisance in two Ohio counties, within the first trial in opposition to these corporations over the opioid epidemic.

Damages haven’t but been determined in both the New York or Ohio circumstances.

Courts in California and Oklahoma have dominated the opposite method, discovering in favor of opioid defendants, together with Teva and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:), in public nuisance circumstances.