British Columbia’s attorney general is hailing the B.C. Court of Appeal’s dismissal of challenges to the province’s class-action lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies over their alleged role in the overdose crisis.
“With these decisions, the last barriers have been cleared, and the trial will proceed as scheduled in early 2028,” said Niki Sharma in a statement on Monday.
“These decisions are two more wins in a long fight to hold these companies accountable for their part in a crisis that was declared a public-health emergency in 2016, and has devastated families in B.C. and across Canada,” she said.
B.C. launched the suit in 2018 on behalf of Canadian governments, seeking to recover health care costs due to the alleged harms caused by over-prescription of opioid medications.
The province alleges the pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors wrongfully promoted opioids for the treatment of chronic pain and other conditions for which the medications were not suitable.
The B.C. Supreme Court certified the class-action in January 2025, but the defendants challenged the decision.
In a June 24 decision, called Noramco LLC v. British Columbia, a panel of appeal court judges rejected the companies’ arguments that the province didn’t produce enough specific evidence to support its allegations and the need for a class-action lawsuit.
“Our government remains committed to supporting people affected by this crisis and strengthening mental-health and addictions care, while continuing to advance this case through the courts,” said Sharma. “We will keep fighting for people in British Columbia and across Canada, because seeking justice for people harmed by this crisis is the right thing to do.”
Federal data show there were 56,631 opioid toxicity deaths reported across Canada between 2016 and 2025.
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