It’s an interesting time for big pharma companies over in the US, and it’s a time that everyone from lawmakers to repackaging companies will be watching with interest, as a number of US states have started to take legal action against drug companies for ‘promoting’ opioid products and contributing to a crisis of addiction that has swept the US.

This latest case, reported by the BBC, concerns big pharma company Johnson & Johnson, who has entered a multi-billion dollar lawsuit trial with the US state of Oklahoma. The trial is based on claims by public prosecutors that the company has marketed painkillers ‘deceptively’ while playing down the risk of addiction that comes with such products.

This case represents the first of some 2,000 cases brought by various state, local and tribal governments against large pharmaceutical companies in the US and may set a precedent for future cases put to trial.

While Johnson & Johnson deny any wrongdoing and claim that they have marketed products responsibly, the state argues that not only has the company put lives at risk, but also caused a public nuisance which will cost the state between $12 and $18 billion dollars to try to correct over the next 30 years.

Oklahoma state lawyer Brad Beckworth, in the opening statement, suggested that Johnson & Johnson, alongside other pharmaceutical companies, had misled the public with marketing in the 1990s, which suggested that painkillers were ‘safe and effective for everyday pain’, which caused an oversupply. Its also been suggested that doctors were encouraged to prescribe higher doses of the opioid, as a result, contributing to a health crisis that has led to addiction and a high rate of death linked to opioid overdoses. Mike Hunter, Oklahoma’s attorney general, described it as: “the worst man-made public health crisis in our state’s history. To put it bluntly, this crisis is devastating Oklahoma.”

However, the lawyer for Johnson & Johnson said that marketing was in line with that done by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2009, which says that painkillers can be an effective pain management tool that when properly managed do not cause addiction. They also argued that the public nuisance law did not apply in this case.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 130 Americans die everyday from opioid overdoses, and 68 per cent of all overdoses are caused by an opioid, either an illegal drug or a prescribed medication.

Teva Pharmaceuticals and Purdue Pharma both settled cases with Oklahoma this month, with settlements in the realms of $85 to $270 million.

It’s far from a one-off instance in Oklahoma, as CNBC confirms that nearly every US state is suing Purdue Pharma, who are responsible for the manufacturing of OxyContin, an opioid based drug at the heart of the scandal. At least 48 states have brought a case against the manufacturer, who says that they will ‘continue to defend itself against these misleading attacks.’ Purdue Pharma also say that their OxyContin makes up as little as two per cent of products in the painkiller market.