Preview Newsletter
Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report 9/27/17
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Drug companies ask judge to dismiss lawsuit
Sep 27, 2017 | Associated PRess
Drug companies have asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Oklahoma’s attorney general accusing them of fueling the state’s opioid epidemic through fraudulent marketing. -
Miami may sue big pharma over opioid epidemic
Sep 27, 2017 | Bradenton Herald
By David Smiley
Miami, a city grappling with a toxic drug addiction, may add another lawsuit to big pharma’s growing legal woes. -
41 State Attorneys General Lock Horns With Opioid Manufacturers
Sep 27, 2017 | Seeking Alpha
America's addiction to opioids has risen to crisis levels. The matter has captured the attention of President Trump, and now 41 state attorneys are widening their investigation into the marketing practices of opioid manufacturers: -
Beshear contracts outside legal help to go after drug companies
Sep 27, 2017 | The Morehead News
By Ronnie Ellis
Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear has contracted on a contingency basis with four outside legal firms to assist in investigating and perhaps suing drug manufacturers and distributors for promoting opioids which fueled a drug epidemic in Kentucky. -
Philadelphia Labor Union Plans to Sue Big Pharmaceutical Over Opioid Crisis
Sep 27, 2017 | NBC 10 (PA)
By Alicia Victoria Lozano
Philadelphia-area union workers are joining a wave of litigation against opioid manufacturers after losing eight members to addiction in 11 months. -
Plaintiffs seek MDL for opioid litigation; Lawyer argues for Ohio or Illinois
Sep 27, 2017 | Madison St. Clair Record
By Ann Maher
Plaintiffs in opioid litigation pending in federal court seek to consolidate approximately 66 government actions into multi-district litigation in Ohio or Illinois. -
Luzerne County plans to sue drug firms
Sep 27, 2017 | The Times Tribune
By Bill Wellock
Luzerne County will sue opioid manufacturers and distributors, after county council approved moving forward on a lawsuit at its Tuesday meeting. -
Scott County suing opioid manufacturers
Sep 27, 2017 | The Journal Gazette (IN)
By Staff
Scott County, Indiana, became the face of the nation's opioid epidemic with an HIV outbreak in 2015. -
Kankakee County Sues Drug Companies Amid Opioid Crisis
Sep 26, 2017 | CBS Chicago
By Bernie Tafoya
Pharmaceutical companies are the target of a lawsuit filed by Kankakee County in response to the growing opioid overdose crisis. -
Lawsuits against opioid manufacturers could benefit all
Sep 27, 2017 | Union Bulletin
By Editorial Board
While the opioid crisis has engulfed America in tragedy, the pain and grief are not as obvious in the Pacific Northwest as they are in Ohio and other Rust Belt areas suffering economically as industrial factors have closed. -
Guest Voice: Whatever happened to the national emergency on opioid abuse? (OPINION)
Sep 27, 2017 | St. Louis Post Dispatch
By St. Louis Post Dispatch Editorial Board
There are 29 active national emergencies in place today in the United States. The latest is the one that President Donald Trump declared on Aug. 10: “The opioid crisis is an emergency, and I am saying, officially, right now, it is an emergency. It’s a national emergency. We’re going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis. It is a serious problem the likes of which we have never had.” -
Good Day OK at 7am
Sep 27, 2017 | KOKH (FOX)
By Oklahoma City, OK
VIDEO LINK: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29673685?token=d53beac9-c345-4834-8fea-b4f32af5cd18 -
2 News Works for You Today 6am
Sep 27, 2017 | KJRH (NBC)
By Tulsa, OK
VIDEO LINK: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29673695?token=d53beac9-c345-4834-8fea-b4f32af5cd18 -
KSWO 7 News at 10pm
Sep 27, 2017 | KSWO (ABC)
By Wichita Falls, TX
VIDEO LINK: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29673703?token=d53beac9-c345-4834-8fea-b4f32af5cd18
OK & MO MTD
Miami, FL
AG Coalition Investigation
Philadelphia Labor Union
WV AG James Peterson seeks MDL
Luzerne County, PA
Scott County, IN
Kankakee County, IL
Opinion
National Emergency Declaration
Broadcast Media Coverage
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Drug companies ask judge to dismiss lawsuit
Sep 27, 2017 | Associated PRess
Drug companies have asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Oklahoma’s attorney general accusing them of fueling the state’s opioid epidemic through fraudulent marketing.
About a dozen pharmaceutical companies, including Purdue Pharma L.P., Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Allergan PLC, filed a brief Friday saying they’ve complied with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s requirements to warn the public about potential risks that come with using their drugs.
They also say they can’t be blamed for all the state’s opioid-related problems.
“Attributing all of Oklahoma’s opioid-related problems to supposedly fraudulent marketing materials and other publications, many of which are over a decade old, the state misconstrues a complex public-health crisis involving a host of different actors and intervening causes,” the companies say in the brief.
If Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman doesn’t dismiss the case, drug companies are asking for proceedings to be delayed until the FDA can complete an investigation of the risks and benefits of opioids.
The companies were responding to Attorney General Mike Hunter’s June lawsuit accusing them of making billions of dollars through fraudulent marketing that has created “a generation of Oklahomans who have become addicts, convicts or have met their deaths from opioid overdoses.”
One example Hunter cited was a promotional video that claimed drug addiction rates among pain patients who are treated by doctors is less than 1 percent and that drugs don’t have serious medical side effects.
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Miami may sue big pharma over opioid epidemic
Sep 27, 2017 | Bradenton Herald
By David Smiley
Miami, a city grappling with a toxic drug addiction, may add another lawsuit to big pharma’s growing legal woes.
City commissioners on Thursday are poised to hire a private law firm to pursue a complaint against prescription opioid manufacturers and distributors that would seek compensation for the resources Miami has been forced to dedicate to reviving overdose victims, policing drug-related crimes and healthcare.
The litigation, proposed by Commissioner Francis Suarez, would hinge on allegations that pharmaceutical companies “have manufactured, promoted, and marketed opioid medications by omitting critical information about the drugs’ addictive qualities and other risks associated with prolonged use.”
“It’s become a country-wide epidemic and I think that the drug manufacturers and the distributors are responsible,” Suarez said in an interview. “They know the highly addictive needs for the opioids and the destructive affect they have on society and yet they push and promulgate these drugs that are destroying families and cities.”
Heroin and prescription painkillers have caused dozens of deaths and hundreds of overdoses in South Florida in recent years. Overtown, a historically black neighborhood near downtown, has been the epicenter of the crisis.
Through all of 2016 and the first six months of this year, 177 people died in the city from opioid overdoses, according to records compiled by the police department. That list does not include non-fatal overdoses. Nor does it include the June death of Alton Banks, a 10-year-old boy who died of a suspected fentanyl overdose.
Last September, Miami’s fire chief said that paramedics had administered an antidote used to combat overdoses of fentanyl, a prescription painkiller, to 1,023 people during the first eight months of 2016, up from 493 doses the previous year. The city’s costs for the medicine alone increased from $43,000 to more than $155,000 during the first nine months of 2016.
Miami Fire Rescue was not able to provide updated figures Tuesday.
Dozens of states, cities and counties, including Delray Beach, have sued companies like Johnson & Johnson, and Purdue Pharma over allegations that they share some blame in the addiction crisis gripping the country. Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who has declared an opioid epidemic in his state, called Tuesday for new regulations and $50 million in new funding from the state to address the problem.
The proposal before commissioners Thursday would allow their city attorney to contract with an outside law firm on a contingency fee basis.
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41 State Attorneys General Lock Horns With Opioid Manufacturers
Sep 27, 2017 | Seeking Alpha
America's addiction to opioids has risen to crisis levels. The matter has captured the attention of President Trump, and now 41 state attorneys are widening their investigation into the marketing practices of opioid manufacturers:
They announced Tuesday that they had served subpoenas requesting information from five companies that make powerful prescription painkiller and three distributors. Forty-one attorneys general are involved.
The investigation into marketing and sales practices seeks to find out whether the industry's own actions worsened the epidemic.
If the industry cooperates, the investigation could lead to a national settlement.
“We must hold opioid manufacturers and distributors accountable for their roles in the nationwide opioid epidemic,” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said. “My investigations have shown that drug companies pressure physicians into prescribing powerful, addictive drugs without regard for the law or patients’ well-being.”
The attorneys general have served subpoenas on five companies who make powerful prescription painkillers and three distributors. The companies include Endo (ENDP), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Allergan (AGN), Teva (TEVA), AmerisourceBergen (ABC), Cardinal Health (CAH), McKesson (MCK) and privately held Purdue Pharma.
The Situation
America's opioid crisis could be quantified by the rising number of accidental deaths caused by drug overdoses, and the rising percent of opioid related accidental deaths. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2015, the number of drug overdoses were 52,404, more than twice 23,518 in 2002. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental deaths, surpassing car accidents. In 2002 opioid prescription drug overdoses were 32% of total drug overdoses. That figure increased to 43% in 2015; opioid prescription overdoses continue to hit record highs even after the government made concerted efforts to reduce them.
Some believe the rise in opioid addiction and overdose could be driven by the rise in prescriptions. Opioid prescriptions were 219 million in 2011; this was nearly triple number reported 20 years earlier despite the fact that the level of pain felt by Americans may not have increased proportionately. Others believe opioid manufacturers might have aggressively marketed these drugs to doctors without informing them. In his lawsuit against certain opioid manufacturers earlier this year, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley even accused them of fraudulently misrepresenting how deadly and addictive prescription opioids were.
In some cases, patients with unused opioid pills might have offered them to friends or family members to treat pain relief, though they were not specifically prescribed to take them. Ultimately, the rise in opioid prescriptions have led to the rise in opioid use.
A Tobacco-Sized Settlement?
Opioid manufacturers and distributors face a growing number of lawsuits pursuant to opioids, in addition to the 41 attorneys general previously mentioned. The popular narrative is that the opioid investigations could lead to tobacco-sized settlements:
The number of government officials launching legal action against drugmakers and wholesalers has soared in the past year in what some lawyers see as a harbinger of a settlement that could echo the more than $200bn extracted from the tobacco industry in 1998. At least 30 states, cities and counties have either filed lawsuits or are formally recruiting lawyers using a process that tends to prelude full-blown legal action, according to a Financial Times analysis.
There likely will be financial settlements with opioid manufacturers. However, their pockets might not be as deep as tobacco companies' so a settlement in the hundreds of billions of dollars might not be feasible. Secondly, in its defense of a lawsuit brought by the state of Ohio, Purdue Pharma said opioids are government regulated products and unlike tobacco:
Purdue contends that since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Oxycontin for use as a painkiller, and approved its safety warnings, federal law bars Ohio from seeking to hold it liable under state law.
Unlike suits brought against tobacco makers that resulted in a $246 billion settlement in 1999, cases focusing on opioids are targeting a government-regulated product. That means judges must defer to the FDA’s finding that the painkillers are safe and effective, and that Purdue properly disclosed addiction risks on its warning label, according to the company’s filing.
The remainder of this article is under paywall: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4109749-41-state-attorneys-general-lock-horns-opioid-manufacturers?page=2
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Beshear contracts outside legal help to go after drug companies
Sep 27, 2017 | The Morehead News
By Ronnie Ellis
Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear has contracted on a contingency basis with four outside legal firms to assist in investigating and perhaps suing drug manufacturers and distributors for promoting opioids which fueled a drug epidemic in Kentucky.
Three national firms — Morgan & Morgan, Motley Rice and The Lanier Firm — and one from Kentucky, Ransdell Roach & Royse, were chosen following evaluation of bids submitted to Beshear’s office. The costs will be borne by the law firms while the state will receive a portion of any settlement which might result.
In his announcement, Beshear said the three national firms have all worked on similar cases in the past and, collectively, have won awards in the billions of dollars.
“We look forward to working with this experienced team of local and national attorneys who have the resources and knowledge to help this office secure funds,” Beshear said in a statement announcing the contracts. “We need the best team to help us repair the harm caused by those who have played a role in Kentucky’s opioid crisis.”
There were 1,404 overdose deaths in Kentucky last year, more than were killed in vehicular crashes, and Beshear announced in June he was considering suits against several pharmaceutical and distribution companies.
Morgan & Morgan is high profile personal injury firm based in Orlando, Florida, with a five Kentucky offices. The firm frequently advertises on television. Former AG and Speaker of the state House of Representatives Greg Stumbo joined the firm after his term as AG ended. Morgan & Morgan has pursued similar litigation in West Virginia.
Motley Rice is based in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and has won settlements in health, environmental and consumer fraud cases.
According to Beshear’s statement, Mark Lanier and The Lanier Law Firm, with offices in Houston, New York and Los Angeles, has recovered billions of dollars from several large medical device and pharmaceutical firms.
Former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice John Roach is one of the partners in Lexington based Ransdell Roach & Royse.
Kentucky is participating in a multi-state coalition of attorneys general addressing their opioid crises. Attorneys general in Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri and West Virginia recently filed legal actions against drug manufacturers, distributors and retailers.
Kentucky previously won a judgment against Purdue Pharma, claiming the company aggressively and irresponsibly marketed a powerful opioid pain killer, OxyContin, fueling a drug crisis in the state.
The suit was originally filed by Stumbo when he was attorney general but settled by Beshear’s predecessor Jack Conway, both Democrats like Beshear.
Some Republicans have criticized the settlement and claimed Beshear may have had a conflict of interest because he was a partner in Stites & Harbison which represented Purdue Pharma.
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Philadelphia Labor Union Plans to Sue Big Pharmaceutical Over Opioid Crisis
Sep 27, 2017 | NBC 10 (PA)
By Alicia Victoria Lozano
Philadelphia-area union workers are joining a wave of litigation against opioid manufacturers after losing eight members to addiction in 11 months.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 98 (IBEW) said it is preparing to file a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies that have contributed to the growing opioid crisis. They plan to file in civil court later this week after consulting with other local and national unions interested in joining a class action suit.
"IBEW Local 98 will no longer allow the manufacturers and marketers of these deadly drugs to peddle their poison to our members without facing severe consequences," Local 98 business manager John Dougherty said.
"I have seen far too many of our members lose their lives to opioids," Dougherty said. "It's a national epidemic and I believe the only way to get the attention of Big Pharma is to hit them in the wallet."
The fight against opioid manufacturers is also extending to local municipalities, who are waging their own wars against the deadly epidemic. Bensalem Township is bringing claims against several drug companies and their subsidiaries, including Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Cephalon, Johnson & Johnson and Endo Pharmaceuticals.
Similar litigation is already underway in Oklahoma, Ohio and Mississippi.
But in Philadelphia, construction workers are especially susceptible to injury and, as a result, often turn to opioids for rehabilitation, Dougherty said. But addiction is never far behind.
“They don't want to miss any work time, so they work through injuries, which compounds the pain and leads to the use and abuse of opioids. I'm sick of seeing our members working themselves into an early grave,” he said.
Earlier this year, Local 98 changed its opioid prescription policy in an effort to prevent addiction. Members using the union’s health care provider are now limited to five days on any opioid prescription for injury or pain management. Previously, their plan allowed for unlimited prescriptions.
"We researched it and found that for those Local 98 members who received opioid prescriptions of five days or less, the addiction rate was 10 percent. For those members who received opioid prescriptions of 10 days' duration or more, the addiction rate jumped to 25 percent,” Dougherty said. “We had to change the policy for the health and safety of our members."
But it took the union, which has more than 7,000 members, nearly two years of fighting with insurance providers before a change was made, spokesman Frank Keel said.
In 2016, 907 people died from overdoses in Philadelphia, more than three times the number of homicides in the city.
But officials project as many as 1,200 people could die from opioid-related overdoses this year, with thousands more suffering from non-deadly overdoses, according to Mayor Jim Kenney’s Task Force to Combat the Opioid Epidemic.
Often users will quickly move from powerful painkillers to heroin when they can no longer afford the legal drugs. NBC10 explored this transition and how the crisis is claiming an increasing number of lives in a special, six-month long investigation, Generation Addicted.
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Plaintiffs seek MDL for opioid litigation; Lawyer argues for Ohio or Illinois
Sep 27, 2017 | Madison St. Clair Record
By Ann Maher
Plaintiffs in opioid litigation pending in federal court seek to consolidate approximately 66 government actions into multi-district litigation in Ohio or Illinois.
West Virginia attorney James Peterson, who called opioid addiction a "national calamity," recommends cases be overseen by either Southern District of Ohio Judge Edmund Sargus, Jr. or Southern District of Illinois Judge Staci Yandle in a brief filed Sept. 25.
He wrote that 11 different federal courts are hearing "at least 66" substantially similar cases brought on behalf of counties and cities and that they all involve common questions of law and fact arising from defendants' "manufacture, distribution and/or sales of dangerously addictive opioid drugs which, due to defendants’ breaches of non-delegable duties, foreseeably caused an epidemic of misuse and crippling addiction."
Defendants include the "Big Three" distributors McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health, Inc., as well as manufacturers Purdue, Teva/Cephalon, Janssen, Endo, Actavis,and Mallinckrodt. The drugs at issue belong to the general "families" of oxycodone or hydrocodone.
Theories being advanced in the litigation include public nuisance, negligence, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO), and/or state corrupt or trade practices laws.
Among the many common questions plaintiffs outline in the brief are defendants' legal duty to design and operate a "closed system" to prevent drugs from going into illegitimate channels; whether defendants breached duty to design and operate a closed system; whether defendants breached duty to stop suspicious orders into illicit channels; whether and the degree to which defendants promoted the drugs for off-label purposes; and "whether the flood of dangerous prescription opioid drugs into illicit channels caused, and the degree to which such diversion caused, individuals to suffer crippling addiction and to then turn to heroin."
"Across the nation, local governments are struggling with a pernicious, ever-expanding epidemic of opioid addiction and abuse," Peterson wrote. "Every day, more than 90 Americans lose their lives after overdosing on opioids. There can be no dispute that the litigation instituted by the Movants addresses one of the most dire problems currently facing the country."
Peterson argues for consolidation in the interests of a cohesive and efficient judicial methodology, "rather than risking inconsistent decisions on pre-trial issues and duplication of efforts in different federal courts."
Other courts hearing cases are the Southern District of West Virginia, the Northern District of Alabama, the Eastern District of California, the Eastern District of Kentucky, the Western District of Kentucky, the District of New Hampshire, the Northern District of Ohio, the Eastern District of Tennessee, and the Western District of Washington.
Peterson represents 46 of the approximate 66 government entities suing, which include counties and cities in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia.
He points to Yandle as an "excellent selection to shepherd" the litigation as she presides over opioid litigation, and is not currently handling an MDL.
At least two counties in Illinois - St. Clair and Alexander - are litigating opioid claims.
Peterson, however, favors forum at the Southern District of Ohio saying it is "most appropriate" as the state is one of the hardest hit by opioid addiction.
"From 2000 to 2015, Ohio’s death rate due to unintentional drug poisonings increased 642 percent, driven largely by opioid related overdoses," he wrote.
He also cites corporate headquarters of Cardinal Health within the district, as well as some manufacturers having distribution facilities in the district as reasons for naming the Southern District of Ohio as overseer.
Further, he states that the district is "underutilized" in a busy federal court system.
He also heaps praise on the district and Sargus.
"The Southern District of Ohio provides a well-prepared, well-staffed, and overall top-notch staff and Clerk’s office...The proposed Multidistrict Litigation would address a nationwide crisis of deaths and other tragedies caused by opioid addiction, and Judge Sargus’ well-established credentials and track record make him an excellent choice for judicial proceedings of this magnitude."
The economic impact of opioid addiction in terms of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment and criminal justice costs is $78.5 billion a year, Peterson wrote.
He cited a news report which stated that 60,000 lives are lost a year due to opioid addiction and "is now killing babies and toddlers because ubiquitous, deadly opioids are 'everywhere' and mistaken as candy."
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Luzerne County plans to sue drug firms
Sep 27, 2017 | The Times Tribune
By Bill Wellock
Luzerne County will sue opioid manufacturers and distributors, after county council approved moving forward on a lawsuit at its Tuesday meeting.
The vote follows other lawsuits from other Pennsylvania counties, such as Lackawanna and Delaware, against drug manufacturers. Although the county will begin litigation on its own, it could become part of a class action lawsuit in the future, County Manager David Pedri said.
Pedri had announced the plan Friday. He said Tuesday he was reviewing those lawsuits with the solicitors office to decide who exactly to file against. He said he had contacted six national law firms and planned to bring a contract proposal to council at the Oct. 10 meeting for a vote.
Addiction to painkillers has caused suffering across the country, including in Luzerne County.
The coroner’s office has recorded 95 overdoses so far this year. Last year, the coroner saw 140 overdose deaths, a record for a single year.
The county has spent millions of dollars on the problem, for the criminal justice system, human services and other functions.
The lawsuit will be a contingency fee agreement, meaning there will be no cost to file the lawsuit and no cost if it is unsuccessful. If the county is successful in recovering money, it will pay attorney’s fees from that award. Similar lawsuits paid attorneys about 25 to 33 percent of the money awarded, Pedri said.
“We’re continuing to pay for this opioid crisis,” he said. “No matter what happens here, we’re continuing to pay for it.”
Tax assistance
Council also approved an application for Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance, called a LERTA, for IRIS USA, a company that makes plastic products for storage and organizing.
The company is planning to build a manufacturing and distribution center in the Humboldt Industrial Park in Hazle Twp.
This would be the company’s fourth facility in the United States, said president Chet Keizer. The area’s rail connection made the site attracted. The average wage would be about $16 per hour, he said.
The company plans to stay in the area, Keizer said.
“We don’t let incentives drive us. They are temporary. The LERTA will end after ten years. We’re going to be here for more than ten years,” he said.
Even with the tax break, said councilman Harry Haas, a company occupying the space and paying taxes would be considerably better than the current situation.
Blighted properties
The county’s blighted property review committee will begin accepting applications Oct. 1, Haas reported to the council.
The committee held a public launch Monday to tell municipal officials more about how the group could help them deal with blight.
The committee can certify properties as blighted and add them to a database. That could prompt the owner to repair the property in an attempt to get off the list.
Another possibility is that the Redevelopment Authority of Luzerne County sees the property as a problem and begins a legal process to acquire the structure be razed or rehabilitated. The redevelopment authority could also not take any action.
Haas has called the committee another tool for municipalities dealing with blight.
“You’ve all heard, like myself, the public outcry. We have a lot of blighted properties in our communities,” Haas said.
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Scott County suing opioid manufacturers
Sep 27, 2017 | The Journal Gazette (IN)
By Staff
Scott County, Indiana, became the face of the nation's opioid epidemic with an HIV outbreak in 2015.
Now the county has sued two drug manufacturers it alleges are responsible for the scourge. The Scott County Board of Commissioners filed suit this month against Purdue Pharma and Endo Pharmaceuticals, charging the companies “began a marketing scheme designed to persuade doctors and patients that opioids can and should be used for chronic pain.” The companies, manufacturers of Oxycontin and Percocet, spent millions of dollars on marketing and promotional activities, according to the lawsuit.
“The reason for the suit is the devastating nature of what's happened in our county, almost compared with anything else in the world per capita,” said Bob Houston, the Scottsburg attorney representing Scott County in its suit. The county seeks to recover economic damages related to the ongoing epidemic and HIV outbreak, including costs for public safety, detention, EMS services, medical treatment and more.
The states of Ohio, Kentucky, New Hampshire and South Carolina also have filed suit against pharmaceutical companies, in lawsuits patterned after those targeting tobacco manufacturers in the 1990s. Indiana has yet to join the class-action suits.
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Kankakee County Sues Drug Companies Amid Opioid Crisis
Sep 26, 2017 | CBS Chicago
By Bernie Tafoya
Pharmaceutical companies are the target of a lawsuit filed by Kankakee County in response to the growing opioid overdose crisis.
The lawsuit accuses drug-making companies with aggressive and fraudulent marketing of painkilling opioid drugs, leading to the heroin epidemic that’s taking more and more lives every year.
Officials say there have been 44 opioid-related overdose deaths in Kankakee County so far this year, which is eight more than last year’s end of the year total.
State’s Attorney Jim Rowe says that pharmaceutical companies that recklessly distribute opioids into his community are nothing more than heroin dealers in business suits.
“The communities in Kankakee County, and the county itself, that have had to spend, I guess, rare resources to combat this pandemic — we’d like to be compensated for that.”
The lawsuit says, “The county seeks relief in the complaint that includes compensatory and punitive damages, for the millions of dollars it spends each year to combat the public nuisance created by the drug companies’ deceptive marketing campaign that misrepresents the safety and efficacy of long-term opioid use.”
Kankakee is not only seeking money damages to help pay the mounting costs from the crisis, but it is also seeking to deter pharmaceutical companies from continuing to do what they’re accused of doing.
Rowe says the epidemic is costly in other ways, as well.
“People now live on streets where they find heroin needles right out in front of their home, where kids play,” he said. “That certainly results in a declined quality of life and impacts the community as a whole.”
In addition to Kankakee County, similar lawsuits have been filed in New York, Louisiana, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
WBBM Newsradio has reached out to the spokesperson for Abbott Laboratories, one of the Chicago-area pharmaceutical companies named in the lawsuit.
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Lawsuits against opioid manufacturers could benefit all
Sep 27, 2017 | Union Bulletin
By Editorial Board
While the opioid crisis has engulfed America in tragedy, the pain and grief are not as obvious in the Pacific Northwest as they are in Ohio and other Rust Belt areas suffering economically as industrial factors have closed.
Nevertheless, the opioid crisis — fueled by addiction to prescription pain killers too often followed by heroin use — has hit in Walla Walla and other parts of Washington state. And it’s clear the situation will only grow worse.
So it’s great to see two cities in the state — Everett and Tacoma — are taking legal action against the manufactures of three prescription opioids. Tacoma did so earlier this month.
Melissa Santos of The News Tribune newspaper reported Tacoma is suing three manufacturers alleging the companies’ actions have fueled the city’s homelessness crisis, strained police resources and caused the city’s health insurance costs to skyrocket.
The lawsuit accuses the companies of falsely claiming the risk of becoming addicted to opioids was low, while ignoring the risks of long-term use.
About 30 state and local jurisdictions throughout the nation, including Ohio, have filed similar cases against drug manufacturers.
This approach is likely to yield results, much as when states took Big Tobacco to court, led by Chris Gregoire, Washington’s former attorney general and governor. The settlement forced the companies to pony up cash to mitigate problems from tobacco use. In addition, it pushed Big Tobacco to act more responsibly in peddling its deadly product.
Tacoma is seeking damages of three times the amount of its actual costs, as permitted under the state’s Consumer Protection Act and the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
“In very general terms, this was not just a misrepresentation here and a misrepresentation there,” said David Ko, one of the lead attorneys working on the case. “This was a well-orchestrated, sophisticated scheme over the course of the last 20 years to really deceive doctors, patients and really the entire public about the safety and efficacy of opioids, while simultaneously minimizing the risk associated with consuming them.”
If Tacoma, Everett, Ohio and other governments prevail — and we hope they do — every city and state in America will win. It will put some teeth (and cash) behind the effort to fight the opioid crisis.
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Guest Voice: Whatever happened to the national emergency on opioid abuse? (OPINION)
Sep 27, 2017 | St. Louis Post Dispatch
By St. Louis Post Dispatch Editorial Board
There are 29 active national emergencies in place today in the United States. The latest is the one that President Donald Trump declared on Aug. 10: “The opioid crisis is an emergency, and I am saying, officially, right now, it is an emergency. It’s a national emergency. We’re going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis. It is a serious problem the likes of which we have never had.”In spite of Trump’s penchant for hyperbole, this declaration was a wise decision and came in response to draft recommendations of a presidential commission Trump appointed last spring. Unfortunately, it’s been six weeks since the emergency was declared, and the only step the administration has taken is to form a public-private partnership on the issue with some of the drug companies that have profited mightily from the addiction crisis.
At least 21,000 overdose deaths were attributed to opioids last year. An additional 30,000 overdose deaths are attributed to heroin and powerful synthetic opioids. Feuds among drug dealers are contributing to higher homicide rates in St. Louis and elsewhere. So yes, it’s a national emergency. And America needs to act like it.
In Trump’s defense, he’s had more immediate emergencies from hurricanes to deal with in the past six weeks, both of them drawing down funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. If the opioid crisis were treated as a real national emergency, FEMA would have statutory authority for dealing with it — though its expertise in drug abuse is negligible. Congress had natural disasters in mind when it passed the 1988 Stafford Act to govern federal emergency response.
In fact, most of the other 28 national emergencies still on the books impose economic sanctions against individuals doing business with governments we don’t like or terrorist organizations. The oldest dates from 1979 and blocks Iranian government property. A president can invoke the National Emergencies Act of 1974 and claim certain statutory powers to deal with the crisis of the moment.
In the case of the opioids emergency, the presidential commission, chaired by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, urged Trump to “force Congress to focus on funding.”
The commission endorsed “the gold standard” of making medication-assisted treatment freely available. Experience has shown that by substituting less addictive drugs for opium-derived painkillers or heroin, addicts have a far better chance of recovery.
But such treatment is both expensive and controversial. Tens of billions of dollars would be required, as well as a recognition that addicts do better in treatment centers than prison.
The Senate had $45 billion for opioid treatment in its first Obamacare replacement bill. It has zero in the health care bill it’s considering now. Real national emergencies require real national leaders.
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Sep 27, 2017 | KOKH (FOX)
By Oklahoma City, OK
VIDEO LINK: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29673685?token=d53beac9-c345-4834-8fea-b4f32af5cd18
Rough Transcript: 12 major drug companies fighting back against oklahoma saying they did warn the public about the risk of opioid. we told you that the oklahoma attorney general filed a lawsuit against the company accusing them of fueling the opioid epidemic through misleading marketing but the companies responded saying they comply with the f.d.a. guidelines and they want the case thrown out. if the judge doesn't dismiss the case it could lead to investigation.
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2 News Works for You Today 6am
Sep 27, 2017 | KJRH (NBC)
By Tulsa, OK
VIDEO LINK: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29673695?token=d53beac9-c345-4834-8fea-b4f32af5cd18
Rough Transcript: a group of drug companies have asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the oklahoma attorneygeneral. the lawsuit accuses the compans of fueling the state's opioid epidemic throuh fraudulent marketing. the drug companies say they've complied with the f-d-a's requirements to warn the public about potential risks.the brief also says the company can't be blamed for all the state's opioid-related problems.
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Sep 27, 2017 | KSWO (ABC)
By Wichita Falls, TX
VIDEO LINK: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29673703?token=d53beac9-c345-4834-8fea-b4f32af5cd18
Rough Transcript: a dozen drug companies are asking a judge to dismiss the oklahoma attorney general's lawsuit that accuses them of fueling the state's opioidepidemic. attorney general mike hunter's lawsuit says the companies downplayed the risks of opioid abuse when marketing their drugs. but the companies say they've complied with the fda's requirements to warn the public about the risks -- and that they can't be blamed for the overdose epidemic. if the case is not dismissed, the companies say they want the trial to at least be delayed until the fda can complete an investigation into opioids. hunter says around 3-thousand people overdosed in oklahoma over the past three years.
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