The u. S. Has struggled for years with an epidemic of opioid drug addiction now landmark trials underway that could hold drug maker johnson and johnson partly responsible well give you the details. Also on the show mergers and restructurings arent so easy when youre talking about french jobs just ask g. E. Which is looking to make cuts. And chinas government has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty so how does it get the rest well look at one story. Welcome to your business im Stephen Beards in berlin good to have you with us Consumer Products giant johnson and johnson has begun defending itself in a landmark u. S. Trial that seeks to assign blame for the countrys Prescription Painkiller Epidemic the state of oklahoma accuses the firm of deceptively marketing Opioid Painkillers and understating their addictive potential it to other pharmaceutical companies
produce pharma and israels teva of already settled with Oklahoma The Trial is the 1st against a Drug Manufacturer in connection with the crisis and its being watched by dozens of other states which have filed similar suits. Theres now for more on this im joined now by washington Correspondent Oliver Salih oliver could have you on the show 1st off one of the accusations against johnson and johnson and what does the company say. Well the major accusation is that johnson and johnson has been for years now producing and marketing highly addictive opioid substances and basically under playing the risks off addiction here and one of the most prominent drugs they produce are patches with the substance of fenton ill and fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin so essentially here the ex is ation is that their Marketing Practice and Marketing Practices of other drug makers in the united
states can be held accountable for the ongoing crisis in the United States and of course drug makers are fighting back they say that its not the fault of the producers because the industry is already heavily regulated in the United States but its rather the fault of those distributing these trucks like physicians for instance that they hand out Opioid Painkillers to easily for instance and so essentially making the case that this is all about drug abuse. Bellaver this shows close to being followed in the u. S. Can you give us an idea of how big and how much scale this crisis this Addiction Crisis has there. Well you can easily see and feel that when you travel the United States whether you go up to rural areas like in new england or also West Virginia which is one of the areas that are very heavily hit by the ongoing crisis but you can also see people under the influence of opioids in certain areas of bigger cities like even washington d. C. Now the Attorney General in oklahoma today called this the worst manmade Public Health crisis in the history of the United States and for that reason in light of that this is a very important and interesting lawsuit that began today also because some other 2000 lawsuits are set to follow that were filed by states by counties also by Native American tribes that are very heavily affected and it will be a test also whether the drug makers can be held accountable for the opium crisis in the United States are not dollar these are often Prescription Drugs were talking about why has it been so hard to regulate the briefly if you can well 1st of all these drugs have become stronger in recent years and also more addictive and that led to a situation where you would be able to obtain them from your local drug dealer on
the streets and sort of like their Out Of Control of physicians that is one reason the other reason is that the threshold that the hurdle to obtain these substances is not very high so if you were to make the case that you are suffering from chronic pain your doctor might prescribe you an Opioid Painkiller very easily other addicts see their doctors even willing to hurt themselves to obtain them there are reports of people even shooting themselves in their legs just to get those offense a little overzealous joining us from washington following a trial that will be keeping tabs on as well thank you. General electric is considering plans to cut more than a 1000 jobs and friends of us despite the french government repeatedly urging the u. S. Engineering firm not to do so proposals would see most of the cuts made at g. E. Is Power Equipment business for in the east of the country earlier this year g. E. Was fined by the government in france for failing to meet a promise to create a 1000 jobs after required the french firm Al Storms Power Business in 2015. Lets go over to new york now and talk to our financial correspondent jose luis de haro whos a g. E. Has been struggling lately in europe whats going on there well General Electric is still struggling with power would be she knew wed lost nearly 1000000000 dollars last year were we to make. Systems for gas and coal fired power plants for actually 71 percent launch in the 1st quarter profit do you older as a Business Area has seen its margin levels dropped and for said to turn around the business are taking way longer than many had expected and potentially lucrative Chinese Market its not giving ged opportunities for growth that the company has expected to see something that could explain the d. S. Is chinas a rising determination to replays imports from g. E. Gaza power turbans we dont mess with production also lets not forget about all the factors such as a slow johnny Global Economy competition from Major Players like siemens and the threat of a rising target and all the. Eightys also worth noting that General Electric eliminated 30000 Jobs Last Year was a lose the heart of the force in new york thank you. And speaking of french jobs renault and chrysler are considering joining forces to create one of the largest Car Companies in the world and the french government wants a guarantee that no jobs will be cut in any merger. Fear is stalking the Assembly Lines of fear at chrysler and. For the workers turn out cars and buses and negotiating a possible merger the idea is to create a new auto giant but its not just french workers the french state also wants jobs to be protected should you take hold renault chairman john dominic said now
a very clearly that it was the 1st of the guarantees i wanted from him in the opening of these negotiations with. A guarantee for French Industrial Jobs On Sites and another guarantee required by the minister any deal must strengthen the alliance between of unknown japans nikkei. So there i want this deal within the framework of the known Isaan Alliance which goes back 20 years we want to strengthen it its resulted in important technological investments dont the government owns 15 percent of the novel which explains why its so vocal about the mega deal power is once the new group to be a Global Leader in developing batteries for electric. Chrysler include no hope to achieve cost savings of 5000000000 euros annually with the merger the theory being that if they are successful theyll have much more to invest in electro mobility. Over the asian our china appears to be signaling that it could restrict exports of
rare earth metals to the u. S. That would open a new front in the Trade Dispute between the 2 countries report by the state controlled global Times Newspaper said beijing was already making such plans a State Official told reuters on the same day the domestic consumption would be the future priority although china is willing to meet what it called reasonable demands from other countries and china accounts for 80 percent of rare earth metals which are critical for Tech Products and military weapons. And lets stay with china the countrys Economic Transformation has been one of the biggest stories of the past decades since 1979 Market Reform and Foreign Investment have helped 700000000 people work their way out of poverty chinas become the worlds 2nd largest economy and the Communist Party says that because because of reform only around 30000000. 00 people now live below beijings poverty line which is about a dollar a day the government says it can bring that number to 0 by 2020 as the next year
and meanwhile chinas wealth gap is growing the richest 100 people now have more wealth than the poorest 2 fits of the population combined the difference is income between urban and rural areas is a key driver of Income Inequality and the states efforts to combat poverty are not always welcome. Sunny and she is the latest and perhaps last of generations of name Attic Fisherman who worked at the y. And yellow rivers in phnom province peace watch from the water as the skyline of Nearby Junk Joe has expanded and expanded with the prosperity thats enabled the provincial capital to grow has not made it as far as son and his family. Lineage all about how you could tell you if i was high rise buildings have nothing to do with me. Or for others enough for me. Theyre just beautiful to look at theyre high that. They have nothing to do with me. Either way we
all. Conditions in which son and his family live a star like ours a little boy spends much of his time playing in the rubble of their last home. The new temporary place is better but with son and his wife sometimes making just 75. 00 a month between them the family falls below beijings threshold for extreme poverty of a dollar a day per person some hopes for better for his children. For the other because of me this is all they can do. But if i switch jobs and i were able to encourage my kids they might become a big boss or something. Like could happen 100 percent certain that it is possible. Fishing of the rivers is now illegal not just for environmental reasons china wants to eradicate extreme poverty by 2020 by driving than a Magic Fisherman off the water the government hopes to push them into the city
into houses and into better paid work. And thats it for me in the Business Team im Stephen Beard lets watch a. Little
we were. When we were. 80 percent of americans at some point in our lives will experience hardship. So we make improvements all the time we have more Public Transportation and i was in the city is. Some of it is the car sharing the point is that energy has to call on the phone to clean source renewables. We need to produce wonderful better ways for cars so that all cars with while on the electricity with no emission but do it with a high capacity of electricity it will take on this are hundreds of kilometers