By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) was slightly in the red in Monday’s premarket trading after the company agreed over the weekend to pay $230 million to settle claims that it fueled the opioid crisis.
The settlement with New York state means it won’t be part of a slew of litigations that allege a link between use of opioids and nearly 500,000 deaths in the last two decades.
As part of the settlement, the company will resolve opioids-related claims and allocate payments over nine years.
The drugmaker has also agreed to permanently end the manufacturing and distribution of opioids across New York and the rest of the nation, New York Attorney General Letitia James said Saturday.
The company had last year decided to discontinue its business related to opioids – basically marketing of two opioid prescription medicines developed by its arm Janssen Pharmaceutical.