大象传媒

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 大象传媒'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.)