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Opioid Daily media report 9/6/17
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Communities Rally To Sue Big Pharma For Igniting Addiction Epidemic
Sep 5, 2017 | The Daily Caller
By Steve Birr
Dozens of communities are banding together to sue some of America’s largest drug makers for their role in spreading addiction in Connecticut. -
Seeking Payback for Opioid Costs, Manchester Files Suit Against Drug Makers
Sep 5, 2017 | New Hampshire Public Radio
By Casey McDermott
Last month, New Hampshire became the latest state to go after Purdue Pharma, alleging the company’s marketing practices were partially to blame for the state’s opioid epidemic. Now, the city of Manchester is also suing Purdue — as well as other opioid manufacturers and distributors — seeking payback for the cost it's incurred because of the drug crisis. -
Dem candidate Graham says she’d sue Big Pharma over opioid costs
Sep 5, 2017 | Palm Beach Post
By George Bennet
Democratic candidate Gwen Graham says if she becomes Florida governor she’ll file a lawsuit against pharmaceutical makers to get them to offset the costs of dealing with the opioid crisis. -
Gwen Graham wants Florida to sue drug makers to cover costs of treating opioid addiction
Sep 5, 2017 | Sun Sentinel
By Anthony Man
Governor candidate Gwen Graham said Tuesday the state of Florida should sue the pharmaceutical industry to recover costs of treating people addicted to opioids. -
DA Crump says opioid epidemic to worsen first
Sep 5, 2017 | Cleveland Daily Banner
By Brian Graves
Tenth District Attorney General Steve Crump says the opioid problem is likely to get worse before it gets better. -
11 News at 4:30am and 5am
Sep 6, 2017 | WBAL (NBC)
VIDEO LINK: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29203970?token=e7746956-b786-4bb6-a697-1e970e2017b0
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Communities Rally To Sue Big Pharma For Igniting Addiction Epidemic
Sep 5, 2017 | The Daily Caller
By Steve Birr
Dozens of communities are banding together to sue some of America’s largest drug makers for their role in spreading addiction in Connecticut.
The mayor of Waterbury held a press conference Thursday announcing the lawsuit and said he expects another 15 to 20 towns to join the effort over the coming weeks. A number of mayors in neighboring cities have since publicly thrown their support behind the lawsuit, while decrying the damage done in the state by drug makers who they allege knowingly pushed false information about the effects of their drugs, reports CT News Junkie.
Health care costs continue to rise for localities throughout the state. Opioid prescriptions cost the city of Waterbury $1.4 million last year. The city of Milford, which joined the lawsuit, spent 20 percent of their annual budget on health care last year, totaling $40 million.
“We know it goes beyond just the medical costs,” Milford Mayor Benjamin Blake said, according to CT News Junkie. “Not only the cost from a financial standpoint but, even more so, the human toll that this epidemic extracts.”
A report from the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner says opioid deaths are on pace to rise again in 2017 and are estimated to claim 1,000 lives by the end of the year.
The lawsuit targets Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Johnson & Johnson and Endo Health Solutions, along with a number of subsidiaries. They allege that pharmaceutical companies knowingly marketed false information on their drugs, leading unsuspecting users down the hole of addiction.
“While we vigorously deny the allegations, we share local officials’ concerns about the opioid crisis and we are committed to working collaboratively to find solutions,” a representative for Purdue Pharma said in a statement to the Hartford Courant.
The legal action so far includes Bristol, Bridgeport, New Milford, Naugatuck, Oxford, Wolcott and Roxbury.
Lawsuits are mounting against the largest drug makers in the country for their alleged complicity in sparking the opioid crisis through dishonest advertising. The law firm Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC is spearheading cases in New York, as well as two lawsuits in California, two in West Virginia, one in Chicago and one in Washington state.
An Illinois county hit hard by the opioid crisis launched a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical industry July 1. This is the second lawsuit leveled against major drug makers by officials in Illinois, adding to more than 25 civil cases that have already been filed this year against the top pharmaceutical companies and their distributors.
Brendan Kelly, the state attorney for St. Clair County, Ill., filed a 159-page lawsuit April 20 against Purdue Pharma and Abbott Laboratories, also accusing the company of consumer fraud and profiting off deception.
The National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released the first preliminary federal report, giving an accounting of drug overdose deaths in 2016. The CDC estimates that drug deaths rose by more than 22 percent in 2016, killing 64,070 Americans. Opioid deaths rose from 33,000 in 2015 to nearly 50,000 in 2016, driven primarily by fentanyl, a painkiller roughly 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine.
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Seeking Payback for Opioid Costs, Manchester Files Suit Against Drug Makers
Sep 5, 2017 | New Hampshire Public Radio
By Casey McDermott
Last month, New Hampshire became the latest state to go after Purdue Pharma, alleging the company’s marketing practices were partially to blame for the state’s opioid epidemic. Now, the city of Manchester is also suing Purdue — as well as other opioid manufacturers and distributors — seeking payback for the cost it's incurred because of the drug crisis.
The city’s 234-page complaint, filed Friday in Hillsborough County Court North, minces no words. It begins: “This case is about one thing: Corporate greed. Defendants put their desire for profits above the health and well-being of the City of Manchester, its residents and consumers, all at the cost of the plaintiff.”
Those defendants in this case include Purdue Pharma as well as several other opioid manufacturers and distributors: Teva Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Cephalon, Allergan and Endo Pharmaceuticals, among others.
In the lawsuit, attorneys representing Manchester claim the city was forced to spend "millions of dollars" on healthcare, public safety and lost productivity related to opioid addiction. The city doesn’t specify the amount it’s seeking in damages but does ask for "compensatory damages in an amount sufficient to fairly and completely compensate" Manchester for the damage it's incurred because of the drug crisis.
The lawsuit was filed with the help of a New York-based firm, Napoli Shkolnik, that's handled similar cases on behalf of towns and counties in New York, Ohio and elsewhere.
Nashua is examining whether to pursue its own opioid-related lawsuit, and a Napoli Shkolnik attorney told NHPR last month that the firm is also talking with other New Hampshire communities about possible litigation.
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Dem candidate Graham says she’d sue Big Pharma over opioid costs
Sep 5, 2017 | Palm Beach Post
By George Bennet
Democratic candidate Gwen Graham says if she becomes Florida governor she’ll file a lawsuit against pharmaceutical makers to get them to offset the costs of dealing with the opioid crisis.
To me, we need to do with the opioid crisis what (former Gov.) Lawton Chiles did with the tobacco crisis. We need to be holding the pharmaceutical companies accountable for their role in addicting so many people across the state to opioids,” Graham said Tuesdsay during a visit to the Caron Renaissance addiction treatment center.
In a lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County while Chiles was governor, tobacco companies agreed in 1997 to an $11.3 billion settlement to help pay Florida’s costs of treating smoking-related illnesses.
Graham blamed “excessive advertising” by pharmaceutical companies for an increase in opioid addiction.
During a discussion with Caron personnel, Dr. Barbara Krantz, Caron’s director of addiction treatment, told Graham the increase in opioid addiction began “around the late 1990s (when) we saw more direct consumer advertising for pain medication” as well as physicians’ use of the 1-to-10 pain scale as “the fifth vital sign” for patients.
Graham said that if Florida sues the pharmaceutical industry, “I look forward to a settlement that will be significant enough to help cover the incredible costs of this not only for the patients but for our communities and societies as well….Counties across the state of Florida are being forced to divert resources that could be used for other purposes for their first responders toward dealing with the need to go out and help people that are overdosing.”
The Delray Beach city commission voted in July to sue drug manufacturers for their alleged role in the heroin crisis, becoming the first Florida jurisdiction to do so. Delray Beach says it spent an average of $2,000 per call responding to 690 heroin overdoses last year.
The state of Ohio — whose Republican attorney general, Mike DeWine, served in the U.S. Senate with Graham’s father Bob Graham — filed a lawsuit against drugmakers in May, as did Mississippi in 2015. Chicago and Dayton, Ohio, are among local governments that have sued the pharmaceutical industry.
Palm Beach County has been hit hard by the opioid crisis, which has also made it a stopping point for candidates.
Caron Renaissance, which hosted Graham on Tuesday, also hosted New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in 2015 during his 2016 presidential bid.
Florida Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, visited Palm Beach State College last month for a roundtable discussion on the opioid crisis a few days before launching his campaign for governor.
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Gwen Graham wants Florida to sue drug makers to cover costs of treating opioid addiction
Sep 5, 2017 | Sun Sentinel
By Anthony Man
Governor candidate Gwen Graham said Tuesday the state of Florida should sue the pharmaceutical industry to recover costs of treating people addicted to opioids.
Other states and local governments are taking or have contemplated similar actions. Graham said Florida would join them if she’s elected governor.
Taking a break from a “workday” at an addiction treatment center in Boca Raton, Graham said it would be similar to Florida’s landmark case against the tobacco industry undertaken by the late former Gov. Lawton Chiles.
“This is such an important issue for Florida,” she said, citing 4,000 deaths in the state in the past year. “I’m going to be pursuing legal action against the pharmaceutical companies.”
She said the drug manufacturers have a responsibility to cover the costs created by people who became addicted to their products. She said she didn’t have an amount of money in mind but said she would strive for “a settlement that would be significant enough” to cover appropriate treatment for people addicted to opioids.
Earlier in her workday at Caron Renaissance/Ocean Drive addiction treatment in Boca Raton, Graham held a roundtable with people who run programs there.
Dr. Barbara Krantz, director of addiction medicine, told Graham that she noticed an uptick in opioid addictions starting in the late 1990s — when drug makers began heavily advertising their products.
Graham said she would develop the plan for the case between now and the time she hopes to take office in January 2019. She’s one of three candidates — with more potential candidates waiting in the wings — seeking the Democratic nomination for governor. Two Republicans, with more entrants likely, are seeking their party’s nomination to run for governor.
“This is not a partisan issue. This is a human issue. This is a caring issue,” she said. “We have a crisis in this state.”
Graham, a former congresswoman from Tallahassee, has been holding workdays around the state as she campaigns for the job once held by her father, former Gov. Bob Graham, who is also a former U.S. senator. Like her father, she spends a day immersing herself in a particular occupation or workplace.
Besides the roundtable, Graham was shown equipment for used for neurological scans. Unlike many politicians, who are unwilling to don unusual headgear that shows up in pictures, Graham put on a neurofeedback cap, a white covering with 19 red electrodes attached, so she could get some sense of one of the treatment approaches used for patients at Caron.
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DA Crump says opioid epidemic to worsen first
Sep 5, 2017 | Cleveland Daily Banner
By Brian Graves
Tenth District Attorney General Steve Crump says the opioid problem is likely to get worse before it gets better.
he county’s top elected law enforcement official made his projection at a recent gathering of the Cleveland Rotary Club.
Crump’s remarks were part of the recent circuit he is making to publicize the initiative he launched earlier to combat the issue.
“One million Tennesseans are at risk,” Crump said. “One out of seven Tennesseans are somewhere on the opioid addiction spectrum. They are either taking it, abusing it, addicted to it or die from it.”
He said the number of opioid deaths in Bradley County totals 22.
“This year we have already had 18,” Crump said. “We will double the number this year. We will double the number next year.”
He said in most places the number of overdoses are greater than auto fatalities and homicides combined.
“Fifty-three percent of the overdose deaths come from medicines in the medicine cabinet,” he said.
He pointed out the first goal of the initiative is prosecution.
“That’s what I do,” Crump said.
“More importantly we have to be involved in education,” he added. “All of our community outreach is important because this affects every segment of society — every group, every age, every class, every race — it affects everybody in this community.”
“No more can we just sit back and say it’s somebody else’s problem,” Crump said. “It’s the problem of the person sitting next to you in church, at a ballgame.”
Crump said the idea of treatment has been ignored.
“We’ve said it is for somebody else to take care of. Now, we’re all taking care of it,” he said.
Crump added increased funding for treatment is the only part of his initiative over which he has no control.
“I intend to advocate for it, but cannot direct any funding for treatment,” he said. “That will take local and state legislative bodies working to find these funds as a priority. We have to develop a different strategy to beat this problem.”
He said there would also be increased prosecution of dealers.
“The vast majority of medical providers are responsible and doing the right thing,” Crump said. “But, those who operate outside of the law we are going to send to prison. It’s just that simple.”
He said the Drug Task Force would be working specifically in the opioid area.
Crump said he is joining with other DAs from across the state to initiate a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical companies that have pleaded guilty to fraudulent advertising.
“For many, many years several of those companies said there was no link between addiction and these drugs,” he said. “This is the opportunity to hold them accountable.”
“I recently got a note from a friend of mine,” Crump said. “It said, ‘Thank you for doing this. My 73-year-old mother overdosed because she didn’t know what she was doing.’”
He said in the same week he got an email from the mother of a 16-year-old who died.
“I want to say to Dr. [Linda] Cash, we could not have a better partner than Dr. Cash,” Crump said. “The Bradley County Schools have stepped up in a way that is extraordinary.”
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Sep 6, 2017 | WBAL (NBC)
Rough Transcript: "Arundel county expected to announce the first lawsuit in the state of maryland against the opioid manufacturers and doctors accused of running pill mills. they will discuss the legal claims and next stems."
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