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Costs push states to dust off tobacco strategy
Jun 25, 2017 | fosters.com
By Jef Feeley
State and local leaders fighting a worsening opioid-abuse epidemic are studying tactics used in the tobacco lawsuits of the 1990s, as they try to claw back billions from the companies who make and sell the powerful painkillers. -
Missouri AG sues drug firms for ‘fraud and deception’ over risks of opioids
Jun 25, 2017 | Providence Journal
By Jim Salter
ST. LOUIS — Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against three large pharmaceutical companies, saying their “campaign of fraud and deception” led to a startling opioid crisis in the state.
Issue 1
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Costs push states to dust off tobacco strategy
Jun 25, 2017 | fosters.com
By Jef Feeley
State and local leaders fighting a worsening opioid-abuse epidemic are studying tactics used in the tobacco lawsuits of the 1990s, as they try to claw back billions from the companies who make and sell the powerful painkillers.
More than 20 U.S. states, counties and cities have sued firms including Johnson & Johnson, Purdue Pharma Inc., and McKesson Corp. in the past year, claiming they fueled a public-health crisis with misleading marketing and aggressive distribution of opioids. Attorneys general in Alaska and Tennessee are also considering lawsuits as their health and legal budgets are stretched to a breaking point by the surge in addictions, overdoses and crime.
It’s a strategy cigarette manufacturers will recognize: Two decades ago, they faced similar allegations as states and local governments sued, saying they’d shouldered huge costs for treating diseases blamed on tobacco.
Last month, Ohio sued five drugmakers, alleging they made false and deceptive statements about the risks and benefits of prescription opioids. And Nassau County, New York, this week sued drugmakers, distributors and doctors, saying it has had to increase spending on health care and law enforcement as a result of the epidemic.
“The costs of this opioid crisis are more severe for governmental entities than those posed by tobacco,” said Steve Berman, a plaintiffs’ lawyer aiding the states, who helped negotiate the $246 billion tobacco settlement in 1998. “States and cities are getting slammed with opioid-dependence costs that are a much more immediate threat than long-term illnesses tied to tobacco.”
It’s difficult to say how successful such legal action will be. The companies who make and distribute opioids defend the drugs’ safety and say they work actively to keep them from being abused.
Janssen, the J&J unit that sells opioids, has acted “appropriately, responsibly and in the best interests of patients,” said Jessica Castles Smith, a spokeswoman. Purdue Pharma said it’s concerned about the crisis and is working toward solutions. McKesson said that it doesn’t comment on pending litigation. The Healthcare Distribution Alliance -- a trade group that includes McKesson -- called attempts to target the industry “misguided and unsupported by the facts.”
There were 33,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2015, up from 19,000 in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Costs related to opioid abuse, including spending on treatment and policing as well as lost economic output, amount to tens of billions of dollars per year, according to a study by Wolters Kluwer Health in the journal Medical Care last year.
In Lorain, Ohio, about 30 miles west of Cleveland, Mayor Chase Ritenauer says that the epidemic is wearing out his fleet of police cars. A 25 percent jump in overdose-response calls is putting so much strain on the department’s Ford Explorers and Tauruses that some are breaking down.
“We had to have one towed after it just shut down during a call,” he said.
Ritenauer says he may have to put off replacing the roof on the police headquarters or fixing the jail’s elevator to come up with enough money to buy new cruisers.
“All these unexpected costs are crashing down on cities and leaving them scrambling to shift money around to keep things going,” said Hunter Shkolnik, a plaintiff’s lawyer who sued pharma makers and sellers on the city of Lorain’s behalf.
Alaska Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth has asked law firms involved in the tobacco battle to pitch a possible opioid suit after Gov. Bill Walker declared a state of disaster in February and ordered statewide distribution of naloxone, a drug that can reverse overdoses. There were at least 95 opioid-overdoses deaths in Alaska last year, up from 86 in 2015, and a cluster of nine deaths linked to fentanyl in Anchorage this year, said Jay Butler, the state’s chief medical officer.
“We saw that other states were gaining some traction with these suits and thought we should look at whether we have a shot at offsetting some of these opioid costs,” said Clyde “Ed” Sniffen, Lindemuth’s deputy. He said the state wants to hire an outside lawyer by August.
Tennessee lawmakers have encouraged Herbert Slattery, the state’s attorney general, to consider suing drugmakers to recoup opioid costs.
“We’re moving toward a critical mass” of states and municipalities suing pharma makers over their handling of opioids, “but we aren’t there yet,” said Joe Rice, a plaintiffs’ lawyer who helped New York and other states in the tobacco fight and who has sued drugmakers on behalf of cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles.
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Missouri AG sues drug firms for ‘fraud and deception’ over risks of opioids
Jun 25, 2017 | Providence Journal
By Jim Salter
ST. LOUIS — Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against three large pharmaceutical companies, saying their “campaign of fraud and deception” led to a startling opioid crisis in the state.
Hawley, a Republican, filed suit in St. Louis Circuit Court, naming Endo Pharmaceuticals, Purdue Pharma, and Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Hawley said at a news conference that the lawsuit will seek “hundreds of millions of dollars” in both damages and civil penalties.
Hawley said the three companies over several years misrepresented the addictive risks of opioids, often using fraudulent science to back their claims. As a result, thousands of Missourians dealing with chronic pain were given unnecessary opioid prescriptions.
“For years now, the citizens of Missouri have been the victims of a coordinated campaign of fraud and deception about the nature of drugs known as opioids,” Hawley said. The companies named in the suit “have profited from the suffering of Missourians,” he said.
Officials with Janssen and Purdue Pharma said in statements that their companies share concerns about the opioid crisis, but both denied wrongdoing. Janssen spokeswoman Jessica Castles Smith said the company “has acted appropriately, responsibly and in the best interests of patients regarding our opioid pain medications ...” Purdue Pharma said the company “vigorously” denied the allegations in the lawsuit and is an industry leader in developing “abuse-deterrent technology.”
Messages seeking comment from Endo Pharmaceuticals were not immediately returned.
Two other states have filed similar lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies: Mississippi in 2015 and Ohio in May.
Hawley said any money awarded in the Missouri suit should go toward drug rehabilitation services and efforts to help families affected by drug addiction.
He was joined at the news conference by Eddie Bunnell, a recovering opioid addict, and Jammie Fabick, of St. Louis, whose 17-year-old daughter, Helen, was an honor student who loved horses. Her father found Helen dead in her bed in February 2014, the morning before a father-daughter dance at her high school.
Issue 1
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