James Moore: Johnson & Johnson’s punishment for opioids turns out to be a tonic

Given the court ruling against it, you might think Johnson & Johnson’s shares would be drowning.

A judge in Oklahoma has found it ran a “false and dangerous” campaign that fuelled the state’s opioid addition crisis. The penalty for that? Some $572 million (£467 million).

It’s a huge number, and the case could be a dambreaker. The phrase “landmark ruling” has been freely tossed around as lawyers prepare for the deluge to come. This represents the first finding of liability against an industry participant.

Why then, with the issue set to be one of the hot buttons of forthcoming Presidential campaign, did the shares jump on a jet ski and join the other opioid-linked pharma companies in a pool party?

As ever, it’s all about expectations. Big as that number is, it’s far less than the markets had feared.

Remember, the state had asked for $17 billion and even the most optimistic of analysts thought the company would be due a bare minimum of $1 billion, with most going for at least twice that.

Fearful investors had looked at J&J like the England cricket team before Ben Stokes got going, and with good reason. In the aftermath, J&J and other opioid-related firms were bargains. Billions of dollars duly poured in.

The company might have been trashed during the proceedings; the names of it and its peers are probably spat out at drug-treatment centres across the US, which are dealing with the horrific consequences of the country’s poppy fetish.

But the corporate losses now look manageable, and there’s still the prospect of an appeal.

A bitter pill? The industry’s opponents may have most trouble with swallowing after this result.