Following a yearslong back-and-forth in the courts, a clutch of major drugmakers will get to re-challenge allegations that the companies helped fund terrorism through their business dealings in Iraq.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia must reevaluate whether the plaintiffs can go forward with their claims in the case involving 21 pharmaceutical and medical device companies, including AstraZeneca, GE Healthcare Technologies, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Roche.
A 2022 judgment in the legal imbroglio has been vacated and remanded to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for further consideration, the U.S. Supreme Court said in an order Monday.
The original complaint was filed in 2017 and sought damages under the federal Anti-Terrorism Act on behalf of 395 Americans who were killed or wounded in Iraq between 2005 and 2011. The suit accused the companies of making corrupt payments to terrorists in charge of Iraq’s health ministry, alleging that the firms obtained contracts through bribes that financed attacks on Americans.
The case was dismissed by a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C. in 2020, but it was revived by the D.C. appeals court in early 2022. The defendants asked the Supreme Court to step in and rescind the complaint in 2023.
The defendants told Reuters in a joint statement that they welcomed SCOTUS’ decision and that the lawsuit should be dismissed based on a prior Supreme Court ruling involving X, the social media company formally known as Twitter.
The Supreme Court also referenced that case, Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh, in its decision to pass the lawsuit back to the lower court for review.
In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that social media behemoth X could only be held liable for aiding-and-abetting claims under the Anti-Terrorism Act if it was shown the company had “consciously and culpably” taken part in helping conduct a terrorist act.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden's administration last month took the side of the 21 pharma firms. At the time, he asked the Supreme Court to vacate the appeals verdict from 2022.
The companies at the heart of the case have long denied any wrongdoing.