Nassau County Opioid Trial: Jury Finds Teva Liable for Public Nuisance

For years, Teva Pharmaceuticals marketed its brand-name fentanyl drugs Actiq and Fentora well beyond their approved use for cancer-related pain, while downplaying the drugs' addiction risks to prescribers across New York. Nassau County and Suffolk County, along with New York State, argued in court that this conduct flooded Long Island communities with dangerous opioids, driving up overdose deaths, taxing emergency services, and straining public health systems.

The case went to trial in Suffolk County Supreme Court in June 2021. Other major opioid defendants, including Johnson and Johnson, Allergan, McKesson, and Cardinal Health, had settled before or during the proceedings. Teva, the last manufacturer standing, chose to contest liability before a jury.

Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik served as lead trial counsel for Nassau County, working alongside Jayne Conroy of Simmons Hanly Conroy, who represented Suffolk County. The trial lasted nearly six months, making it one of the longest in New York state history. Jurors heard evidence that Teva suppressed data on how addictive its pain medications were and used aggressive sales tactics to push prescriptions beyond the patient populations for which the drugs had been approved.

On December 30, 2021, the jury returned a liability verdict for the plaintiffs on their public nuisance claim. Teva said it strongly disagreed and intended to appeal. A separate damages proceeding was scheduled to determine what Teva would owe. Rather than face that phase, Teva later negotiated a resolution: in 2022 it agreed to pay New York State $523 million as part of a broader settlement covering both the state and county claims, bringing total opioid funds flowing to New York to more than $2 billion from various defendants.

At the time of the verdict, Shkolnik called it a 'massive victory' and said the evidence aired at trial needed to be public so communities could understand the company's role in the crisis. The December 2021 liability finding stood as one of the first jury determinations in the country to hold an opioid manufacturer accountable at trial.