Class-action lawsuit targeting opioid manufacturers certified by B.C. Supreme Court

B.C.’s lawyer wide says the B.C. Supreme Court has certified the province’s class-action suit against opioid manufacturers and distributors.

Niki Sharma says B.C. tin present proceed arsenic a typical plaintiff connected behalf of different Canadian governments with the litigation aimed astatine recovering the costs of treating opioid-related diseases allegedly caused by the industry’s conduct.

She says successful a connection the apical tribunal determination reaffirms B.C.’s committedness to holding pharmaceutical companies accountable for their relation successful the opioid crisis, which was declared a nationalist wellness exigency successful the state successful April 2016.

Last November, the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the constitutionality of a instrumentality allowing B.C. to prosecute a class-action suit connected behalf of different Canadian governments.

That’s aft respective opioid companies argued successful B.C. Supreme Court that the state was overstepping its authorization nether the constitution.

But a bulk of the apical tribunal recovered that B.C.’s instrumentality respects the legislative authorization of different Canadian governments, which tin take to opt retired of the proceeding, and the determination noted that astir each state and territory arsenic good arsenic the national authorities intended to instrumentality portion successful the class-action.

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Sharma says the class-action’s certification marks a “significant milestone” successful the proceedings that day backmost to 2018, erstwhile the state archetypal launched the lawsuit.

“Our extremity was clear: to retrieve the health-care costs of treating opioid-related harms and to clasp manufacturers and distributors accountable for their relation successful allegedly utilizing deceptive selling practices to thrust sales, contributing to addiction and overdose rates successful the country,” she says.

The astir caller information from the B.C. Coroners Service released successful December says successful the archetypal 10 months of past twelvemonth determination were 1,925 overdose deaths, marking a 9 per cent alteration from the aforesaid clip play successful 2023.

Canadian authorities statistic accidental determination were much than 49,000 opioid toxicity deaths reported betwixt January 2016 and June 2024 crossed the country.