Episode details

World Service,3 mins
Drugs firms face claims for billions over the opioid crisis
World Business ReportAvailable for over a year
Several pharmaceutical companies, which have been accused of downplaying the risks of their products, after 400,000 deaths linked to opioid drugs over 20 years, go on trial in Ohio. A court will consider charges that they are responsible for failures which allowed a health crisis to develop in the US as tens of thousands got hooked on pain killing drugs and many died after overdosing. The trial will be a bellwether case, expected to set a benchmark for all compensation claims, as the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s Russell Padmore hears from David Noll, a professor of Law, at Rutgers Law School in Newark, New Jersey. (PIcture: Opioid drug Hydrocodone. Credit Tom Kelley/Getty.)
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