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Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report 10/6/17

Indianapolis Suit

Indianapolis announces plans to sue opioid makers
Oct 6, 2017 | 13 WTHR (IN)
By Mary Milz and Steve Jefferson

The City of Indianapolis is going after drug companies that make and distribute opioids.
Mayor Hogsett to sue opioid manufacturers, distributors over opioid addiction ‘epidemic’
Oct 5, 2017 | CBS 4 Indy (IN)
By Russ Mcquiad

Last year, 345 Marion County residents died of drug overdoses.
Indianapolis preparing to sue opioid makers, distributors
Oct 6, 2017 | The Indiana Lawyer (IN)
By John Russell

The city of Indianapolis is preparing to take legal action against the makers and distributors of opioids, Mayor Joe Hogsett announced Thursday morning at a press conference.
Indianapolis Opioid Battle Targets Pharma Companies
Oct 6, 2017 | Inside Indiana Business (IN)
By Dan McGowan

Indianapolis will be the first city in the state to take the fight against the opioid epidemic to the corporations it says have contributed to the crisis. Mayor Joe Hogsett has announced the city has hired locally-based law firm Cohen & Malad, LLP to handle a planned lawsuit targeting opioid manufacturers and distributors. The stakes are high, officials say, citing 345 deaths in Marion County last year from drug overdoses.
Indy to Sue Drug Companies Over Opioid Epidemic
Oct 5, 2017 | WIBC (IN)
By Eric Berman

Indianapolis will sue at least three manufacturers of prescription painkillers.
Hogsett announces Indianapolis will sue opioid manufacturers and distributors
Oct 5, 2017 | NUVO.net (IN)
By Katherine Coplen

This morning, Mayor Joe Hogsett announced Indianapolis will be the first city in Indiana to pursue legal action against both opioid manufacturers and distributors. Indianapolis joins cities like Louisville and the state of Washington in this action. The mayor says likely defendants include Purdue Pharma, who manufactures OxyContin, Endo and Teva.
Indianapolis to sue opioid manufacturers, distributors: 'Opioids are killing Hoosiers'
Oct 5, 2017 | Indy Star (IN)
By Ryan Martin

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett unveiled a provocative new strategy Thursday to fight a burgeoning opioid epidemic: suing the pharmaceutical companies and drug distributors.

New Jersey and Newark Suits

N.J. sues opioid drugmaker Insys over its role in deadly epidemic
Oct 5, 2017 | North Jersey.com (NJ)
By Dustin Racioppi

New Jersey on Thursday filed a four-count lawsuit against drugmaker Insys Therapeutics over its involvement in the deadly opioid crisis that Gov. Chris Christie has committed his final year in office to fighting on the state and national levels.
New Jersey Sues Drugmaker Insys Over Opioid Painkiller
Oct 5, 2017 | The Wall Street Journal
By Sara Randazzo

it was only intended to treat serious cancer pain New Jersey’s lawsuit alleges Insys unlawfully pushed Subsys on a broad population. New Jersey’s lawsuit alleges Insys unlawfully pushed Subsys on a broad population. PHOTO: HANDOUT ./REUTERS By Sara Randazzo Oct. 5, 2017 3:30 p.m. ET 0 COMMENTS New Jersey’s attorney general filed a lawsuit Thursday against drugmaker Insys Therapeutics Inc., INSY +0.55% claiming it fraudulently marketed a powerful painkiller for widespread use that was intended to treat serious cancer pain.
Newark sues 11 opioid makers, citing their 'catastrophic' impact on the city
Oct 6, 2017 | NJ.com (NJ)
By Noah Cohen

NEWARK -- Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on Thursday announced the city has sued 11 opioid manufacturers -- including the maker of the painkiller OxyContin -- in a lawsuit that accuses the companies of deceptive advertising.

Texas Counties

Upshur County Is First in Texas to File a Lawsuit Holding Drug Makers Responsible for Opioid Epidemic
Oct 6, 2017 | Dallas Observer (TX)
By Christian McPhate

At 54 years old, the unnamed subject of a Purdue Pharma ad, a writer, suffered from osteoarthritis of the hands, a degenerative joint disease that guitarists and other musicians dread. Purdue claimed in its 2012 ad, which it called a “pain vignette,” that OxyContin was the key to the writer's chronic pain relief and his return to the computer to write; it failed to mention the trail of dependence and destruction the opioid often left in its wake.
1st Texas county files opioid lawsuit against drugmakers, distributors
Oct 5, 2017 | Becker's Hospital Review
By Brian Zimmerman

Attorneys representing Upshur County, Texas, filed a lawsuit Sept. 29 against more than a dozen drugmakers and drug distributors for their alleged role in the state's opioid epidemic.

Other Coverage

Brick plans to sue drugmakers over opioid epidemic
Oct 6, 2017 | App.com (NJ)
By Amanda Oglesby

The township will likely be the latest Jersey Shore municipality to join a growing collection of government organizations suing opioid manufacturers, claiming the companies misrepresented the dangers of their products
Manufacturers next to be targeted in opioid crisis
Oct 5, 2017 | Portsmouth Daily Times (OH)
By Chris Stone

The Scioto County Commissioners met in regular session Tuesday to adopt several resolutions before the Columbus Day weekend.
Christine Gregoire compares famous tobacco lawsuit to opioid cases
Oct 5, 2017 | KIRO Radio (WA)
By Staff

Before Christine Gregoire was Washington state’s Governor, she was the state attorney general who led the national fight against big tobacco.
Across the North Country, counties consider suing opioid manufacturers
Oct 6, 2017 | North Carolina Public Radio (NC)
By Lauren Rosethal

The epidemic of drug abuse and opioid addiction that's sweeping the country is headed to court. Several states have filed lawsuits against the manufacturers of prescription painkillers. Those cases have reached the North Country.
Kuster: White House must formally declare the opioid crisis a national emergency
Oct 5, 2017 | Concord Monitor (NH)
By Rep. ANN KUSTER, Rep. TOM MacARTHURRep. BRIAN FITZPATRICK and Rep. DONALD NORCROSS

A little over a month ago, President Trump announced his intention to declare the opioid epidemic a national emergency. He was right – it is an emergency. Drug overdoses killed almost 54,000 people in 2015, and the majority of those deaths involved an opioid. Last year, about 12 million Americans misused an opioid, and the overdose death toll rose to 65,000.
Calcasieu, four other parishes sue opioid manufacturers
Oct 5, 2017 | KATC.com (LA)
By Staff

Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso has joined four other sheriffs to sue opioid manufacturers.

Broadcast Media Coverage

Bloomberg Markets: Americas
Oct 5, 2017 | Bloomberg (BLOOM)
By National Programming

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930338?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
News 12 New Jersey
Oct 6, 2017 | N12NJ (News 12)
By New York, NY

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930354?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
FOX23 News This Morning
Oct 6, 2017 | KOKI (Fox)
By Tulsa, OK

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930364?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
RTV 6: Good Morning Indiana
Oct 6, 2017 | WRTV (ABC)
By Indianapolis, IN

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930745?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
News 18 This Morning at 5:30a
Oct 6, 2017 | WLFI (CBS)
By Lafayette, IN

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930747?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
ABC21 Morning News
Oct 6, 2017 | WPTA (ABC)
By Ft. Wayne, IN

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930754?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
RTV6: The News at 11:00
Oct 5, 2017 | WRTV (ABC)
By Indianapolis, IN

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930758?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
24 Hour News 8 at 11
Oct 6, 2017 | WISH (CW)
By Indianapolis, IN

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930766?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
Fox 8 News at 9pm
Oct 5, 2017 | WVUE (FOX)
By New Orleans, LA

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930770?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12

Indianapolis Suit

Indianapolis announces plans to sue opioid makers

Oct 6, 2017 | 13 WTHR (IN)

By Mary Milz and Steve Jefferson

The City of Indianapolis is going after drug companies that make and distribute opioids.
Mayor Joe Hogsett announced plans to sue those companies on the grounds they've misled doctors and patients about the dangers of addiction.
The problem in Marion County is staggering. For every 100 people, there were over 72 opioid prescriptions written. Hogsett said last year alone, opioid addiction took 345 lives in Marion County many more than die in traffic accidents.
"Opioids are killing Americans, opioids are killing Hoosiers, opioids are killing our neighbors throughout the city," Hogsett said.
While many other cities across the country have filed suit against opioid makers, Indianapolis becomes the first city in Indiana to do so. It's hired the law firm of Cohen & Malad, LLP.
The mayor said of the opioid crisis, "The claim has been made that no one saw this coming, but someone should have."
He blames the opioid makers and distributors for failure to warn doctors and patients about the dangers of opioid addiction and overdose. The lawsuit looks to recoup an unspecified amount of money the police, courts and other agencies have spent responding to drug epidemic.
Irwin Levin, a managing partner at Cohen & Malad said, "It's time for manufacturers and distributors of opioids, those responsible for the crisis to be held accountable for the harm they've caused to our cities and our counties. These potential defendants have spread the false message that opioids were safe for chronic pain and not addictive."
Licensed clinical addiction counselor Scott Watson said, "It's a story we see at Heartland Intervention almost every day."
Watson said he's glad to see the city taken legal action. He said the opioid epidemic has taken a huge toll on families across the state.
"Someone calls and it started with surgery or an elective procedure and they're given a small amount of opioids and that morphs in to a larger amount and at some point it transitions to heroin or becomes a full-fledged addiction to that prescribed medication," Watson said adding that the "emotional and financial price tag" is huge.
Levin said his firm has spent "many hundreds of hours" preparing for the case. He expects the suit to be filed in the next few weeks.
Police officers see effect first-hand
No one knows the impact of the opioid epidemic more than officers who carry naloxone, the life-saving drug given to people who overdose. Usually, they are back on their feet from the brink of death in just minutes.
Every officer in IMPD's Southwest District carries a dosage of naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, in case of an overdose run. In just the past five months, they have responded to more and more emergency calls where someone has overdosed on opioids.
"I never imagined I would be administrating Narcan," said IMPD Ofc. Jack Tindall.
Tindall is a veteran officer working in the Southwest District for IMPD the past five years. But he has put in more than 25 years on the police force and has seen it all.
The veteran policeman just never thought Narcan would be one of his crime fighting tools. But he is glad that it is now, based on the growing problems with drug overdoses he sees almost every time he puts on his uniform. Tindall grew up in Shelbyville and has dedicated his life to helping keep his Indianapolis community safe by serving as an officer of the law.
The opioid epidemic has hit the department's southwest district hard. So much so that while patrolling the streets, officers in Tindall's district are lucky not have someone overdose during his shift. It's almost become a regular police run in some cases. What's scary for some officers is that fact that Tindall is seeing things get worse before they better.
"Actually in the last six months it's gotten worse. About a month ago, we had six overdoses on our shift and two were fatal," said Tindall.
Since opioid drug addiction has been on the rise, officers stay ready. Tindall not only carries a treatment kit in his pocket, but he has a second dosage ready to go in a kit inside his police cruiser. He considers it a miracle to be able to help when the outcome looks grim.
"It's amazing what happens and how quick it can take somebody from being from almost deceased to standing up and walking out to an ambulance," said Tindall.
Tindall applauds the mayor's legal efforts to stop the influx of opioids into the Circle City. Until that time, he's on the front line where the prescription drugs are not the only challenge, so are illegal drugs people also use to get high.
"The fentanyl is really bad. I have seen people who have had two or three doses of Narcan and barely pull them out of it that is just really scary," Tindall said.
Tindall shared with Eyewitness News how paramedics who also respond to overdose calls are glad officers are carrying Narcan. Sometimes the location for overdoses are not safe such as drug houses.
The veteran officer applauds Mayor Hogsett's efforts to take legal action against opioid manufacturers and distributors. But he knows it will take time. In the meantime, he urges people with family members at risk of overdose to get help sooner rather than later.
Tindall also wants people to always call police for help because they are more interested in helping save lives than take someone to jail for drug possession.

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Mayor Hogsett to sue opioid manufacturers, distributors over opioid addiction ‘epidemic’

Oct 5, 2017 | CBS 4 Indy (IN)

By Russ Mcquiad

Last year, 345 Marion County residents died of drug overdoses.
“In the first four months of 2016, 98 of our neighbors in Indianapolis overdosed and died,” said Mayor Joe Hogsett. “This year, 2017, in that same four month period there were 130 overdose deaths.”
In 2016 Indianapolis EMS crews administered 1818 doses of Naloxone to save the lives of overdosing patients.
As of Monday, IEMS had doled out Naloxone 1670 times putting Marion County on another record breaking pace for responding to drug overdoses.
Hogsett said police, paramedics and health and medical care providers need more help and resources in their battle against what he called Indianapolis’ opioid “epidemic.”
“They are exhausted because fundamentally corporate executives were concerned with profits over people,” said the mayor. “The companies contributing to this crisis have failed in their duty to be responsible gatekeepers of highly addictive and potentially lethal drugs.”
Hogsett announced he has engaged the law firm of Cohen & Malad, LLP, to sue opioid manufacturers and distributors to hold them accountable for the flood of painkillers that has swamped Marion County and led to thousands of deaths in the last decade.
“These potential defendants spread the false message that opioids were safe for chronic pain and not addictive. They were at the top of the chain of distribution. They saw unquestionably suspicious orders of opioids but turned a blind eye to their legal duties and obligations to stop and report those orders,” said Irwin Levin, managing partner. “They’re the people who have certain legal obligations under certain federal laws as well as state law and when they see a suspicious order come through it is their duty and obligation not just to report it but to stop the order.”
Levin said the litigation, set to be filed within the next month, is patterned after lawsuits filed in dozens of other American cities as well as in the state of West Virginia which targeted pharmacy corporations for the millions of painkiller prescriptions written in one of the country’s smallest states.
Last year, 72 opioid prescriptions were written for every 100 Marion County residents which Cohen & Malad called, “way above the national average.”
“We know that if you only take ten pills you have a one in five chance of becoming addicted,” said Levin.
Tom Hanna knows about the battle against drugs from both sides as a retired warrior and grieving father.
As a narcotics detective, Hanna pursued drug dealers and users in northwest Indiana and as a father he buried his son Tommy in May of 2016 after his second overdose in two months.
Hanna has shared his story with state lawmakers and U.S. Senator Todd Young who intends to insert it into testimony on Capitol Hill when the senate takes on America’s opioid addiction problem.
Central to the city’s pending lawsuit is the contention that drug makers intentionally undersold and misled the addictive properties of their painkillers and then did not monitor what may have appeared to be excessive amounts of prescriptions flowing into Marion County.
In 2014, Indiana ranked 15th in the nation for overdose deaths with Marion County leading the state in OD deaths and non-fatal emergency room visits.
“That’s unconscionable. If they knew it was that addictive to keep it out on the streets they should be held accountable for that,” said Hanna. “I’ve known people where they get some sort of injury and then they proscribe them 30-, 60-, 90-days of painkillers when they may not need it and whether they use it for the whole ninety days and become addicted and keep going back for re-up or it gets stolen.”
Hogsett said the anticipated lawsuit is a component to the city’s overall strategy to combat opioid addiction including alternatives to arrest, referrals to services and plans for on-site treatment facilities at the county’s proposed $570 million criminal justice center campus.

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Indianapolis preparing to sue opioid makers, distributors

Oct 6, 2017 | The Indiana Lawyer (IN)

By John Russell

The city of Indianapolis is preparing to take legal action against the makers and distributors of opioids, Mayor Joe Hogsett announced Thursday morning at a press conference.
The city has hired the law firm of Cohen & Malad LLP, which plans to file a “robust lawsuit” in the coming weeks, city officials said.
Likely defendants include Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin, as well as Endo Health, Teva Pharmaceutical, Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen, Cohen & Malad managing partner Irwin Levin said.
Officials didn't specify an amount the city would seek in damages.
Hogsett said opioid addiction took the lives of 345 Marion County residents last year, more than four times the number of traffic-related deaths. In 2014, Indiana ranked 15th in the nation for the number of deaths due to drug overdose, and Marion County led the state with the highest number of deaths due to drug overdose as well as non-fatal emergency department visits, the city said.
As of Oct. 2, Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services had administered overdose medication naloxone 1,670 times in 2017, on pace to surpass last year’s record-high number of administrations, according to city figures.
Hogsett pointed a finger directly at opioid makers and distributors, saying they were seeking “profits over people.”
“Opioids are killings Americans,” Hogsett said. “Opioids are killing Hoosiers. Opioids are killing our neighbors here through the city of Indianapolis.”
In many cases, he said, victims were seeking relief from pain, as promised by opioid makers, following medical procedures. “They were instead administered addiction,” he said.
Levin said his office has already spent “many hundreds of hours” analyzing information on how much the city spends on police, social services and other efforts to treat victims and prosecute drug lawbreakers. “The impact is tremendous,” he said.
Indianapolis is joining a recent landslide of government entities filing similar lawsuits.
More than two dozen states, cities and counties—including Ohio, Mississippi, Orange County in California, and the Washington cities of Seattle, Everett and Tacoma—have sued the pharmaceutical companies.
Most other states have recently broadened a joint effort to investigate the companies' actions.
The governments hope to recoup costs of responding to drug addiction, including money spent on emergencies, criminal justice and social services.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that in 2015, drug overdoses killed more than 52,000 Americans. Most involved prescription opioids such as OxyContin or Vicodin or related illicit drugs such as heroin and fentanyl. People with addictions often switch among the drugs.

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Indianapolis Opioid Battle Targets Pharma Companies

Oct 6, 2017 | Inside Indiana Business (IN)

By Dan McGowan

Indianapolis will be the first city in the state to take the fight against the opioid epidemic to the corporations it says have contributed to the crisis. Mayor Joe Hogsett has announced the city has hired locally-based law firm Cohen & Malad, LLP to handle a planned lawsuit targeting opioid manufacturers and distributors. The stakes are high, officials say, citing 345 deaths in Marion County last year from drug overdoses.
During a news conference Thursday morning, Hogsett said the current picture is grim and this is only part of a larger approach. "We're in the process of what I believe is comprehensive criminal justice reform to try to address addiction-related challenges -- mental health and mental illness challenges. So, it's not as though the city, all that we're doing is trying to hold accountable those who we believe should be held accountable, but rather, this is just yet another tool in a holistic approach that the city is taking to criminal justice reform."
The targets of the legal action are what Cohen & Malad Managing Partner Irwin Levin calls "the people at the top of the chain." Irwin, the law firm and city stakeholders say the precise terms of the damages they will seek have not yet been determined, but he says "likely" defendants will include Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma LP, Endo International PLC (Nasdaq: ENDP) in Pennsylvania and Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (NYSE: TEVA) on the manufacturing side and Ohio-based Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH), McKesson Corp. (NYSE: MCK) in California and Pennsylvania-based AmerisourceBergen Corp. (NYSE: ABC) on the distribution side.
Opioid-related deaths have jumped 250 percent over the last six years in Marion County, according to the city. "Left unchecked, opioid addiction will continue to incite criminality, tear apart families, and take the lives of Indianapolis residents," said Hogsett. "As we work to combat this epidemic of addiction and connect affected community members with the treatment they need, those who have contributed to this crisis should be held accountable."
Cohen & Malad will partner with the Office of Public Health and Safety, the Office of Corporation Counsel, as well as public safety stakeholders determine the full list of defendants and applicable legal claims. The city says the firm will only be paid if the funds are recovered.
"These potential defendants spread the false message that opioids were safe for chronic pain and not addictive. They were at the top of the chain of distribution. They saw unquestionably suspicious orders of opioids, but turned a blind eye to their duties and legal obligations to stop and report those orders," Levin said. More details of the legal action, Levin said, will be revealed in the coming weeks.

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Indy to Sue Drug Companies Over Opioid Epidemic

Oct 5, 2017 | WIBC (IN)

By Eric Berman

Indianapolis will sue at least three manufacturers of prescription painkillers.
Mayor Joe Hogsett says the city will take prescription drug manufacturers and distributors to court, demanding damages for the health and public safety costs of an opioid addiction epidemic. 345 people died of drug overdoses in Marion County last year, and Indiana has the most pharmacy robberies of any state, with Indy the hardest hit.
Attorney Irwin Levin, whose firm Cohen and Malad will pursue the case for the city, says three-quarters of Marion County Jail inmates who are arrested again after being released are addicted to opioids.
Indy will be the first Indiana city to sue painkiller manufacturers, but at least three states and six cities and counties across the U-S have filed lawsuits accusing drug companies of downplaying the addiction risk of opioid painkillers. Barely an hour after Hogsett's announcement, New Jersey became the fourth state to lodge a similar suit.
Levin charges drug companies should have been able to tell from their sales data that they were shipping far more pills than could possibly be justified by medical need, and had a legal obligation to alert authorities.
Levin says he's still reviewing who the defendants will be, but says there will be at least six, including Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin, and Endo Health, whose painkiller Opana is blamed for the HIV outbreak in Scott County. Endo yanked Opana off the market in July under pressure from the Food and Drug Administration, making it the first drug ever to be pulled over addiction issues.
Levin says he'll also target Teva Pharmaceuticals, and distributors Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen. He says he'll file the suit in "the coming weeks."

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Hogsett announces Indianapolis will sue opioid manufacturers and distributors

Oct 5, 2017 | NUVO.net (IN)

By Katherine Coplen

This morning, Mayor Joe Hogsett announced Indianapolis will be the first city in Indiana to pursue legal action against both opioid manufacturers and distributors. Indianapolis joins cities like Louisville and the state of Washington in this action. The mayor says likely defendants include Purdue Pharma, who manufactures OxyContin, Endo and Teva.
In 2016, 345 people died of a drug overdose in Marion County, and in 2014 Indiana was 15th in the nation in overdose deaths. The mayor's office says manufacturers and distributors are targeted since they are, "those who have made a fortune actively exacerbating this epidemic—and who should be held responsible for the enormous financial burdens it has imposed on our city and its taxpayers."
Today's announcement follows increased actions by state and city government to control opioid addiction and related deaths in Indiana. Gov. Eric Holcomb wrote in an op-ed for the Indianapolis Star last week, "I didn’t intend to make attacking the opioid epidemic a part of my agenda as governor. But, as I traveled the state leading up to the 2016 election and saw firsthand the devastating effects of opioid addiction — I couldn’t look away from the lives and communities I saw ravaged." Holcomb appointed Jim McClelland as Indiana's executive director for drug prevention, treatment and enforcement earlier this year.
Find a full press release detailing Hogsett's announcement of the planned lawsuit below.
INDIANAPOLIS – Facing an epidemic of opioid addiction that took the lives of 345 Marion County residents last year, Mayor Joe Hogsett has hired the law firm of Cohen & Malad, LLP to pursue legal action against opioid manufacturers and distributors. The planned lawsuit will target those who have contributed to the rise in opioid addiction in Marion County – an epidemic that threatens the safety and well-being of our community and places added strain on the capacity of local public safety agencies and emergency medical departments. Indianapolis is the first city in Indiana to pursue such action.
“We remain dedicated to reforming our criminal justice system into one that does not simply detain offenders, but combats the root causes of their offense and breaks the vicious cycle of crime,” said Mayor Joe Hogsett. “Left unchecked, opioid addiction will continue to incite criminality, tear apart families, and take the lives of Indianapolis residents. As we work to combat this epidemic of addiction and connect affected community members with the treatment they need, those who have contributed to this crisis should be held accountable.”
Despite traditional efforts of law enforcement and public health agencies, 2016 saw the highest number of drug overdose deaths in Marion County, with 345 people losing their lives to this epidemic – a figure more than four times the number of traffic-related deaths. In 2013, the Marion County Juvenile Court saw a 31% rise cases in which parental rights were terminated, primarily as a result of parental addiction. In 2014, Indiana ranked 15th in the nation for overdose deaths, and Marion County had the highest numbers of deaths due to drug overdose as well as non-fatal emergency department visits. Marion County has led the state – which has led the country – in pharmacy robberies. And as of October 2nd, IEMS has administered naloxone 1,670 times in 2017, on pace to surpass last year’s record-high number of administrations.
The planned lawsuit comes as part of Mayor Hogsett’s commitment to holistic criminal justice reform in Marion County. Reform efforts focus on assessment and intervention with solutions that address the root causes of crime, save taxpayer dollars, and create a more just system. Of those incarcerated in Indiana, 53% are diagnosed with a substance use disorder, a figure that climbs to 75% for those who return to prison. To break this cycle of crime, reform efforts seek to connect those suffering from addiction with social services and treatment. The planned legal action announced today will target those who have made a fortune actively exacerbating this epidemic—and who should be held responsible for the enormous financial burdens it has imposed on our city and its taxpayers.
Founded in 1968 by former Indiana Attorney General John J. Dillon, Cohen & Malad, LLP has provided skilled representation to clients from the Indianapolis community and across the country for the last four decades. Over the coming months, Cohen & Malad, LLP will work with the Office of Public Health and Safety, the Office of Corporation Counsel, and stakeholders from public safety agencies within the City of Indianapolis to identify the appropriate defendants and determine applicable legal claims. The firm is working on a contingency basis and will only get paid if the suit recovers funds, at no immediate cost to taxpayers.

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Indianapolis to sue opioid manufacturers, distributors: 'Opioids are killing Hoosiers'

Oct 5, 2017 | Indy Star (IN)

By Ryan Martin

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett unveiled a provocative new strategy Thursday to fight a burgeoning opioid epidemic: suing the pharmaceutical companies and drug distributors.
Standing on the 25th floor of the Downtown City-County Building, with a sweeping view of Indianapolis below, Hogsett shared a grim reality about how painkillers such as OxyContin and Oxycodone have led many in the city down a path of addiction and into the throes of heroin.
The result, according to multiple people interviewed by IndyStar over several months, is a crisis that shows no sign of ending. Emergency rooms are full. Jails are overcrowded. And more people are dying of drug overdoses than in car crashes.
“Opioids are killing Americans. Opioids are killing Hoosiers. Opioids are killing our neighbors right here throughout the city of Indianapolis," Hogsett said.
Hogsett pointed the blame at opioid makers and distributors, saying corporate executives chose to collect profits while ignoring their responsibility to be gatekeepers of the "highly addictive and potentially lethal drugs."
There were 345 drug overdose deaths in Marion County last year, according to a city news release citing Indiana University research. State numbers, which differed from the city's, saw drug deaths spike to 1,498 last year, according to the state's new Next Level Recovery website
An attorney representing the city named three opioid makers — Purdue Pharma, Endoand Teva — and three distributors — Cardinal Health, McKesson Corporation and AmerisourceBergen — as likely defendants, though there could be others.
The companies released statements to IndyStar regarding the allegations.
“We are deeply troubled by the opioid crisis and we are dedicated to being part of the solution," a Purdue Pharma statement read, in part. "We vigorously deny these allegations and look forward to the opportunity to present our defense.”
"At Endo, our top priorities include patient safety and ensuring that patients with chronic pain have access to safe and effective therapeutic options," an Endo statement read. "We share in the FDA’s goal of appropriately supporting the needs of patients with chronic pain while preventing misuse and diversion of opioid products."
"Teva is committed to the appropriate use of opioid medicines, and we recognize the critical public health issues impacting communities across the U.S. as a result of illegal drug use as well as the misuse and abuse of opioids that are available legally by prescription," a Teva statement read. "Teva offers extensive resources for prescribers, patients and pharmacists regarding the responsible pain management and prevention of prescription drug abuse."
"As distributors, we understand the tragic impact the opioid epidemic has on communities across the country. We are deeply engaged in the issue and are taking our own steps to be part of the solution — but we aren’t willing to be scapegoats," said John Parker, senior vice president of Healthcare Distribution Alliance, which represents the three distribution companies named by the city. "We don’t make medicines, market medicines, prescribe medicines or dispense them to consumers. Given our role, the idea that distributors are solely responsible for the number of opioid prescriptions written defies common sense and lacks understanding of how the pharmaceutical supply chain actually works and how it is regulated."
Indianapolis is not the first city to pursue legal action against opioid companies.
Several Tennessee counties filed a suit in June against Purdoe Pharma, Endo and Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals.
Louisville, Ky., filed a suit against the three distributors in August, saying the companies failed to monitor suspicious activity and report it to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
This past week, Seattle filed a suit against several companies. Washington state filed a suit too, as has Ohio and Mississippi.
In June, Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill said he would join other attorneys general to investigate the role of opioid makers in the epidemic. On Thursday evening, Hill released a statement saying his office is still determining whether Indiana would pursue any legal action. His office has not been consulted by the city regarding Indianapolis' potential lawsuit, according to the statement.
More than 75 lawsuits have been filed nationwide, said Levin, the attorney representing Indianapolis.
The cities and states are likely following in the footsteps of those who pursued legal action against tobacco companies in the past, said Jon Caulkins, professor of Operations Research and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't very cognizant of that precedent and trying to do the same thing," Caulkins said.
After a flurry of lawsuits, tobbaco companies reached a settlement that changed their marketing, products and pricing, Caulkins said — several major changes that otherwise wouldn't have happened.
The companies took a massive financial hit, Caulkins said, but it was preferable to several decades of lawsuits with numerous plaintiffs, including states’ attorney generals.
Successful lawsuits could help Indianapolis financially, Caulkins said, but also could force opioid companies to confront the existing crisis.
"The ultimate goal is a belief that the country would be a better place if we could get another set of industry practices,” Caulkins said.
On Thursday, Hogsett said Indianapolis has been forced to come up with new ways of confronting the opioid crisis, including the creation of Mobile Crisis Assistance Teams.
The teams — staffed with one police officer, one paramedic and one licensed clinician — are responding to crisis calls on the east side. They try to help those struggling with addiction rather than throw them into a jail cell.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Sgt. Catherine Cummings, who helped launch the teams, noted the team is trying help people navigate a problem "that's bigger than they are."
"Indianapolis is being very innovative in that approach," Cummings said. "We're not using the traditional public safety response."
But even as Cummings and other city officials seek progress in new programs, Hogsett said it's not enough.
“We have fought back as best we can," Hogsett said, "only to find this epidemic untenable.”
Irwin Levin, a managing partner of Cohen & Malad, LLP, will represent the city. The law firm will be paid one-third of any winnings, Levin said, and the city won't pay hourly or assume any upfront costs.
A lawsuit has not been filed, but is expected in the "coming weeks," he said.
He did not specify how much damages the city is seeking.

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New Jersey and Newark Suits

N.J. sues opioid drugmaker Insys over its role in deadly epidemic

Oct 5, 2017 | North Jersey.com (NJ)

By Dustin Racioppi

New Jersey on Thursday filed a four-count lawsuit against drugmaker Insys Therapeutics over its involvement in the deadly opioid crisis that Gov. Chris Christie has committed his final year in office to fighting on the state and national levels.
New Jersey authorities claim the Arizona-based drugmaker unlawfully pushed its opioid-fentanyl prescription Subsys to a broader population, and at higher doses, than approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The drug was approved for the "narrow" purpose of treating cancer pain for opioid-tolerant patients, Attorney General Christopher Porrino said in announcing the suit, which was filed in Middlesex County.
But the "greed" of Insys put hundreds of lives in danger and is alleged to have led to the death of at least one person in New Jersey, a 32-year-old woman from Camden County who was prescribed the potent drug for fibromyalgia.
“The conduct alleged in our lawsuit is nothing short of evil,” Porrino said. “Knowing full well it was putting lives in peril by pushing for broad-based consumption of a highly specialized and incredibly powerful prescription drug — a form of fentanyl approved only for treatment of pain-racked and opioid-tolerant cancer patients — Insys allegedly forged ahead and did it anyway. We contend that the company used every trick in the book, including sham speaking and consulting fees and other illegal kickbacks, in a callous campaign to boost profits from the sale of its marquee drug Subsys.”
By filing the suit, New Jersey joins a growing number of states taking legal action against manufacturers of the drugs at the heart of a national epidemic. More than two dozen cities, counties and states have filed suits against drug companies alleging deceptive marketing practices and understating the addictive effects of drugs like OxyContin, Duragesic and Percocet.
Those drugs and other opioids have fueled a growing epidemic of unprecedented proportion. Drug overdose is now the leading cause of death in the U.S., with more than 64,000 in 2016, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. And the majority of drug deaths have been linked to opioids like prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The increase in deaths has coincided with a rapid rise in prescription drugs entering the market. The amount of prescription opioids sold to pharmacies, hospitals and doctors’ offices nearly quadrupled from 1999 to 2010, according to the centers, despite no overall change in the amount of pain that Americans reported. Since 1999, deaths from prescription opioids have more than quadrupled, according to the centers. But the high cost of painkillers on the black market has also prompted waves of users to move to heroin, a cheaper and more potent alternative.
Porrino acknowledged earlier this year that his office had joined a multistate investigation of drug companies over their role in the opioid epidemic. His office had also subpoenaed Johnson & Johnson, the New Brunswick-based pharmaceutical giant that is named in many of the lawsuits around the country over its sales and marketing of opioid painkillers Duragesic, Nucynta and Nucynta ER.
The suit filed Thursday focuses solely on Insys. It alleges that the drug manufacturer violated the state's Consumer Fraud Act and the New Jersey False Claims Act. Insys introduced Subsys to the market in 2012. The company has raised its price for the drug every year since, selling $74.2 million through the third quarter of 2016 and accounting for 98 percent of its net revenues, according to the Attorney General's Office.
New Jersey contributed to the company's bottom line. The Attorney General's Office said two state employee health benefits plans paid a total of about $10.3 million to reimburse Subsys prescriptions between 2012 and the third quarter of 2016, while the state Workers' Compensation Program paid another $300,000.
The lawsuit alleges that Insys devised a strategy to expand its market share for Subsys by "aggressively pushing" so-called off-label, or unapproved, uses of the drug, including to podiatrists and other specialty practitioners who would not typically have reason to prescribe the powerful painkiller.
Subsys is a single-dose oral spray. It is fentanyl-based and 50 times stronger than heroin.
Insys did not respond to a request seeking comment on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that Insys representatives used or developed false records to lock in pre-authorization approvals and ensure paid reimbursement claims. It also alleges that the company "routinely" misled consumers by falsely representing that doctors were prescribing Subsys based on their unbiased, independent clinical judgment. But that clinical judgment had been “co-opted based on Insys’s unlawful payment of kickbacks to prescribers," Porrino said.
“As we allege, the fact that Insys was unlawfully flooding the market with a fentanyl product 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine seems not to have troubled the company at all,” Porrino said. “Nor, it appears, was it bothered by the notion that such a strategy could contribute to, and exacerbate, the grave opiate crisis being confronted by New Jersey and every other state. Insys launched a business plan that we allege was propelled by titanic greed and corporate irresponsibility, and we’re committed to holding them accountable for it.”
The suit seeks maximum civil penalties on the three counts of consumer fraud and three times the state's actual damages for the alleged violation of the False Claims Act. The suit also seeks to have Insys held responsible for costs and fees incurred by the state.

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New Jersey Sues Drugmaker Insys Over Opioid Painkiller

Oct 5, 2017 | The Wall Street Journal

By Sara Randazzo

it was only intended to treat serious cancer painNew Jersey’s lawsuit alleges Insys unlawfully pushed Subsys on a broad population. PHOTO:HANDOUT ./REUTERSBy Sara RandazzoOct. 5, 2017 3:30 p.m. ET0 COMMENTS
New Jersey’s attorney general filed a lawsuit Thursday against drugmakerInsys Therapeutics Inc., INSY +0.55% claiming it fraudulently marketed a powerful painkiller for widespread use that was intended to treat serious cancer pain.
New Jersey’s lawsuit, filed in state court in Middlesex County, alleges Insys unlawfully pushed Subsys for use on a broad population of patients, despite only having Food and Drug Administration approval to use the drug for severe cancer pain in patients tolerant of other opioids.
The Chandler, Ariz., company and its former employees already face multiple state and federal investigations over the sales tactics used to promote the drug Subsys. Some of those former employees have pleaded guilty to misconduct, and the company has resolved some of the probes. In the latest, Massachusetts said Thursday it reached a $500,000 settlement with Insys in connection with a fraudulent marketing investigation it started in 2014.
The suit claims the company’s actions led to the death of a 32-year-old New Jersey woman who was prescribed Subsys for fibromyalgia. The suit says its state-employee benefit plans paid out around $10.3 million to reimburse Subys prescriptions between 2012 and September 2016. Over that same time, Insys sold $74.2 million worth of the drug into New Jersey, the state said. The lawsuit claims Insys representatives used false records to help win approvals and reimbursements of the drug from insurance companies.
Subsys is a prescription mouth-spray formulation of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times as powerful as heroin.
“The conduct alleged in our lawsuit is nothing short of evil,” New Jersey Attorney General Christopher Porrino said. “We contend that the company used every trick in the book, including sham speaking and consulting fees and other illegal kickbacks.”
Insys didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. The company said in September in response to a similar lawsuit brought by the state of Arizona that it is committed to being “part of the solution to the opioid crisis by focusing on assisting patients and developing alternative pain medications in our research and development programs” and that part of that involves “our continuing commitment to take responsibility for actions by our former employees and ensure high standards of integrity from our current employees.”
The suit brings claims under the state’s consumer fraud act and false claims act and seeks both penalties and reimbursement for the costs incurred by the state.
Several states have filed lawsuits in recent months against opioid makers, seeking to hold them accountable for widespread opioid addiction. Many of the suits target a broader range of defendants.
Endo International PLC and Johnson & Johnson both said in securities filings this year that they have received subpoenas from the New Jersey attorney general, as well as other states, seeking information related to the marketing of opioids.
The New Jersey attorney general’s office wouldn’t comment Thursday on the prospect of further litigation but said, “Attorney General Porrino has said publicly that he is deeply concerned about whether and to what extent the marketing and sales practices of certain pharmaceutical companies contributed to the opioid crisis we are suffering in New Jersey, and he has said publicly that our office is committed to taking a close look at that conduct.”

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Newark sues 11 opioid makers, citing their 'catastrophic' impact on the city

Oct 6, 2017 | NJ.com (NJ)

By Noah Cohen

NEWARK -- Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on Thursday announced the city has sued 11 opioid manufacturers -- including the maker of the painkiller OxyContin -- in a lawsuit that accuses the companies of deceptive advertising.
The city's suit, filed in Essex County, alleges the companies concealed the risk of addiction from opioids and overstated the benefits of using the drugs long term for widespread chronic conditions, including for back pains and migraines.
It comes on the heels of sources' comment that state Attorney General Christopher Porrino would likely file suit against two drug makers, also for deceptive marketing.
The defendants, the suit claims, wanted to market addictive opioids for long term use rather than short term, acute pains. Purdue, which developed OxyContin in the mid-90s, knew it needed to change perceptions of the drug in order to "expand its market and profits," city officials said in a statement, citing the lawsuit.
"The city seeks to hold the manufacturers financially accountable for the damage they have caused and to force them to stop their deceptive practices," the statement added.
Baraka said prescription opioids have had a "catastrophic" impact on the city.
"Every aspect of our city has felt the severe ramifications of the opioid epidemic, not just the substantial financial impact, including all the services we provide to residents, including public health, public assistance, law enforcement, emergency care and services for families and children," the mayor said.
For its part, the city accused Purdue of "deceptively and unfairly" failing to report to state authorities illicit or suspicious prescribing of its opioids.
The Connecticut-based pharmaceutical giant's owner, Beverly Sackler, previously defended the company's practices in a brief interview with NJ Advance Media this week.
"I don't know what I can say about the company except that they've been so careful always to keep from harming anybody," she said Tuesday.
A company spokesman issued a statement in response to Newark's lawsuit Thursday night.
"We are deeply troubled by the opioid crisis and we are dedicated to being part of the solution. As a company grounded in science, we must balance patient access to FDA-approved medicines, while working collaboratively to solve this public health challenge.
"Although our products account for approximately 2% of the total opioid prescriptions, as a company, we've distributed the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, developed the first FDA-approved opioid medication with abuse-deterrent properties and partner with law enforcement to ensure access to naloxone," spokesman Robert Josephson said.
"We vigorously deny these allegations and look forward to the opportunity to present our defense," he added.
The lawsuit names Purdue Pharma, L.P.; Purdue Pharma, Inc.; the Purdue Frederick Company; Teva Pharmaceuticals USA; Cephalon, Inc.; Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Janssen Pharmaceutical Inc.; Endo Health Solutions Inc.; and Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Newark's announcement came after New Jersey Attorney General Christopher Porrino's office accused Purdue and pharmaceutical company Insys of similar business practices that fueled the state's opioid crisis. Last year, the state's rate of opioid overdose deaths was 2.5 the national average.
Several other states, including Louisiana and Washington have filed similar suits against drug companies for their claims about opiods.
Michael Moore, whose law firm is currently advising the Ohio, Mississippi and Washington state attorneys general in their own suits filed against Purdue earlier this summer, said states will likely see some kind of monetary resolution with drug companies, which will fund drug addiction treatment and prevention efforts.

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Texas Counties

Upshur County Is First in Texas to File a Lawsuit Holding Drug Makers Responsible for Opioid Epidemic

Oct 6, 2017 | Dallas Observer (TX)

By Christian McPhate

At 54 years old, the unnamed subject of a Purdue Pharma ad, a writer, suffered from osteoarthritis of the hands, a degenerative joint disease that guitarists and other musicians dread. Purdue claimed in its 2012 ad, which it called a “pain vignette,” that OxyContin was the key to the writer's chronic pain relief and his return to the computer to write; it failed to mention the trail of dependence and destruction the opioid often left in its wake.
Before the 1990s, opioids were mostly prescribed for short-term acute pain related to surgery or cancer or for end-of-life care. Using the class of drugs for chronic pain was discouraged and, in some cases, prohibited. Evidence showed that patients often developed opioid tolerance over time, increasing the risk of addiction and other side effects.
In 2016, doctors wrote more than 289 million prescriptions for opioids, “enough for every adult in the United States to have more than one bottle of pills,” according to Sept. 29 lawsuit filed in the Eastern District Court of Texas against a host of drug manufacturers.
Dallas-based litigation firm Simon Greenstone Panatier & Bartlett filed the lawsuit on behalf of Upshur County, 125 miles east of Dallas. Cases in other counties may soon follow.The lawsuit lists six causes of action: public nuisance, common law fraud, negligence, gross negligence, and violations of the Texas Controlled Substances Act and federal racketeering law.
“The goal is to try to recoup the cost of the opioid epidemic,” Upshur County Judge Dean Fowler told the Longview News-Journal. “It costs our taxpayers to take care of people who are addicted to opioids, and the cost to the public is very high.”
Although drugmakers have been hit by a tide of lawsuits from states, cities and other agencies nationwide, Upshur County's suit is the first of its kind filed by a Texas county to hold pharmaceutical companies responsible for an epidemic that has led to an increase in opioid addictions, drug overdose deaths and economic burden estimated to total $78.5 billion nationally.
“This epidemic did not occur by chance,” Dallas attorney Jeffrey B. Simon claims in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit has more than 20 defendants, including drugmakers and their subsidiaries. Among them are Abbott Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Inc. and Purdue Pharma Inc.
Both sales and overdose deaths involving prescription opioids quadrupled between 1999 and 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In that period, more than 183,000 people have died in the U.S. from overdoses related to prescription opioids.
The defendants manufacture brand-name drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, Opana, Percocet, Percodan, Roxicodone and Avinza (which is no longer on the market), as well as generics like oxymorphone and hydrocodone. Some of the defendants also manufacture, market, distribute and sell prescription opioids, including fentanyl, Fentora, Duragesic, Ultram and Ultracet.
Each defendant listed in the lawsuit is accused of using direct marketing and unbranded advertising “disseminated by seemingly independent third parties to spread false and deceptive statements about the risks and benefits of long-term opioid use.” The attorneys call it “a well-funded deceptive marketing scheme.”
The lawsuit claims drug manufacturers began changing doctors’ views of opioids in the late 1990s and early 2000s “through a well-funded deceptive marketing scheme.” They used sales representatives and physicians whom they called “key opinion leaders” to support their message to promote, according to the lawsuit, “highly addictive opioids through souvenirs and toys, including but not limited to, opioid brand-bearing stuffed plush toys, dolls, coffee cups, fanny packs, water bottles, notepads, pens, refrigerator magnets, clocks, letter openers, rulers, daytime planners, bags, puzzles, posters, clipboards, highlighters, flashlights, key chains, clothing, reflex mallets and mock-ups of the United States Constitution.”
They also implemented what the lawsuit calls “front groups” to help the key opinion leaders taint the sources that doctors and patients relied on for what they thought was neutral guidance: treatment guidelines, continuing medical education programs, medical conferences and seminars, and scientific articles.
“After their individual and concerted efforts, defendants convinced doctors that instead of being addictive and unsafe for long-term use in most circumstances, opioids were required in the compassionate treatment of chronic pain,” Simon wrote.
The drug manufacturers increased their advertising costs, in some cases tripling what they spent the previous decade, the lawsuit claims. Where Purdue had used a 54-year-old writer with osteoarthritis in one of its ads, Endo Health Solutions created a pamphlet with photographs of patients with physically demanding jobs, like a construction worker or a chef, benefiting from opioid use for chronic pain.
In a statement reported by the Longview News-Journal, Purdue Pharma said: "We are deeply troubled by the opioid crisis and we are dedicated to being part of the solution. ... We vigorously deny these allegations and look forward to the opportunity to present our defense."
The companies claim that if taken properly, opioids can be beneficial in combating chronic pain, but the lawsuit points out that, contrary to what drug labels indicated, companies also “downplayed the serious risk of addiction, promoted the concept of ‘pseudoaddiction’ thereby advocating that the signs of addiction should be treated with more opioids, exaggerated the effectiveness of screening tools in preventing addiction, claimed that opioid dependence and withdrawal are easily managed, denied the risks of higher opioid dosages and exaggerated the effectiveness of ‘abuse-deterrent’ opioid formulations to prevent abuse and addiction.”
In 2007, Purdue pleaded guilty to a federal criminal count of misbranding the drug OxyContin with the intent of defrauding and misleading the public and paid $636 million in penalties, according to a November 2011 Fortune article. Purdue told Fortune that it was spending large sums of money on programs to fight abuse and lawbreaking.
But multiple news reports claim that the marketing of opioids for chronic pain relief by drug companies like Purdue led to America’s heroin problem. In 2014, opioids generated $11 billion in revenue for drug companies as overdose deaths increased and two million people reported abusing heroin.
“Essentially, each defendant ignored science and consumer health for profits,” according to the Sept. 29 lawsuit.
“There is no denying that we have an opioid crisis in America, and that the human misery and financial damage it causes is enormous,” Simon wrote in a press release. “Although accidental overdoses have become the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50, the pharmaceutical industry has not been fully held accountable for its role in creating this epidemic.”
Purdue alone spent $108 million in 2014 pitching branded opioids to doctors, twice as much as it spent in 2000 and far more than the $57 million spent by drug companies Janssen, Cephalon and Endo combined. It relied on what the lawsuit calls “key opinion personal” or “pro-opioid doctors” to persuade other doctors to start prescribing opioids for chronic pain and, in turn, increase demand for the drug.
The lawsuit points out that Dr. Russell Portenoy, former chairman of the Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, is one example of a key opinion leader who was instrumental in normalizing opioids as a treatment option for chronic pain.
Portenoy was a paid consultant for Cephalon and Purdue. He received research support, consulting fees and honoraria from Cephalon, Endo, Janssen and Purdue. He served on the American Pain Society and American Academy of Pain Medicine guidelines committees and endorsed opioid use for chronic pain in 1997 and 2009. He also sat on the board of the American Pain Foundation, an advocacy organization funded by the defendants from 2007 until it folded in 2012, according to the lawsuit.
“Addiction, when treating pain, is distinctly uncommon,” Portenoy told Good Morning America in 2010. “If a person does not have a history, a personal history, of substance abuse, and does not have a history in the family of substance abuse, and does not have a very major psychiatric disorder, most doctors can feel very assured that that person is not going to become addicted.”
Portenoy later admitted to giving “innumerable lectures in the late 1980s and ’90s about addiction that weren’t true,” according to the lawsuit. In those lectures, he claimed that less than 1 percent of patients would become opioid addicts.
“Did I teach about pain management, specifically about opioid therapy, in a way that reflects misinformation?” Portenoy is reported saying. “Well … I guess I did.”
Another key opinion leader — Dr. Lynn Webster, the co-founder and chief medical director of Lifetree Clinical Research — was a leading proponent of the pseudoaddiction concept that claims addictive behaviors should not be seen as warning signs but simply indications of undertreated pain. In Avoiding Opioid Abuse While Managing Pain, Webster says increasing the opioid dose “in most cases … should be the clinician’s first response.”
Purdue also sponsored a program called "Path of the Patient, Managing Chronic Pain in Younger Adults at Risk for Abuse" that, according to the lawsuit, furthered the idea of pseudoaddiction. In a role play, a narrator notes that a doctor should not assume a patient is addicted to opioids even if he is persistently asking for the drug, seems desperate and hoards medicine “or overindulges in unapproved escalating doses.”
In fact, several of the defendants named in the lawsuit produced or supported materials that reassured patients that escalating doses weren't such a bad thing.
Published in 2007 and sponsored by Cephalon and Purdue, American Pain Foundation’s "Treatment Options: A Guide for People Living with Pain," claims patients need larger opioid doses and states that because opioids have “no ceiling dose,” they’re appropriate treatment for severe pain. In 2009, Janssen sponsored a patient education guide called "Finding Relief: Pain Management for Older Adults" that listed other pain medicines' dosage limitations as “disadvantages” yet failed to mention the risks of increased opioid dosages.
The lawsuit cites a 2013 letter from Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of Center for Drug Evaluation & Research, to Dr. Andrew Kolodny, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, in which she claimed that the Food and Drug Administration was unaware of any studies showing the safety and efficacy of long-term opioid use.
A 2016 CDC guideline endorsed by the FDA declared that extensive evidence exists about the possible harm of opioids and pointed out that “opioid pain medication use presents serious risks, including opioid use disorder” and warned that “continuing opioid therapy for three months substantially increases risk for opioid use disorder.”
Upshur County's lawsuit notes this discrepancy.
“Defendants falsely claimed that doctors and patients could increase opioid dosages indefinitely without added risk and failed to disclose the greater risks to patients at higher dosages,” Simon wrote.
The lawsuit indicates that in late 2015 and 2016 Endo and Purdue agreed to quit advertising misleading representations of opioids in New York as part of a settlement agreement, but they continued to advertise opioid use for chronic pain relief in Texas.
At this point, some of the drug companies Upshur County is suing were busy engaging in what the lawsuit calls unlawful, unfair and fraudulent misconduct. For example, Cephalon was marketing its fentanyl-based drugs Actiq and Fentora for chronic pain although the FDA had limited their use to cancer treatment in people who were opioid tolerant. The drug company Insys had its employees pose as employees for prescribing physicians, who then contacted insurance companies to obtain prior authorization for Subsys, an expensive opioid intended for cancer pain.
“Insys intended to deceive prescribing physicians into believing Subsys was safe and effective for chronic pain and deliberately lied to insurance companies to ensure payment for its drug,” according to the lawsuit.
In Texas, the pharmaceutical companies often targeted susceptible prescribers and vulnerable patient populations like the elderly and veterans, including those in Upshur County. The lawsuit claims they would find primary care doctors who treated patients with chronic pain but were not as educated about the risks and benefits of opioids.
As opioid prescriptions increased in Upshur County, parental drug addiction led to an increase in the number of children in the county’s child protection agencies. Opioid addiction became one of the primary reasons county residents sought substance abuse treatment. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that every day, more than 90 people in the U.S. overdose on opioids.
The lawsuit claims the drugmakers' deceptive practices have created a lucrative, illicit marketplace in which doctor shopping, forged prescriptions and falsified pharmacy records occur more frequently. It also claims that the widespread use of opioids has led to an explosion in heroin use, which addicted users often turn to when prescription drugs aren't available. It has also led to higher health care costs for residents in places like Upshur County.
Upshur County Judge Dean Fowler wasn’t available when the Dallas Observerreached out, but he told the Longview News-Journal a couple of days before the lawsuit was filed that the goal was to try to recoup the cost of the opioid epidemic.
Some of those costs include treating people who abuse opioids while on the county’s indigent health program and jail inmates who are addicted to the drug.
“It costs our taxpayers to take care of people who are addicted to opioids, and the cost to the public is very high,” he said in the Sept. 26 article.
“I want to make very clear that we are not talking about suing any local doctors or health care providers,” he added. “We are merely targeting the manufacturers, marketers and distributors that mislead them.”
Jack Walker of the Martin Walker law firm, Simon's co-counsel, said they plan to file comparable lawsuits in each county they represent.

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1st Texas county files opioid lawsuit against drugmakers, distributors

Oct 5, 2017 | Becker's Hospital Review

By Brian Zimmerman

Attorneys representing Upshur County, Texas, filed a lawsuit Sept. 29 against more than a dozen drugmakers and drug distributors for their alleged role in the state's opioid epidemic.
Here are six things to know.
1. The lawsuit alleges opioids were tightly regulated until the drug industry made a concerted effort to expand use of the prescription medications in the late 1990s.
"There is no denying that we have an opioid crisis in America, and that the human misery and financial damage it causes is enormous," saidJeffrey Simon, co-founder and shareholder of Simon Greenstone Panatier Bartlett, the law firm representing Upshur County. "Although accidental overdoses have become the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50, the pharmaceutical industry has not been fully held accountable for its role in creating this epidemic."
2. The defendants listed in the suit include Abbott Laboratories, Allergan, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, Pfizer, Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceuticals.
3. Cardinal Health spokesman Geoffrey Basye commented on the lawsuit in a statement obtained by The Texas Tribune.
"The people of Cardinal Health care deeply about the devastation opioid abuse has caused American families and communities and are committed to helping solve this complex national public health crisis," Mr. Basye said. "We will defend ourselves vigorously in court and at the same time continue to work, alongside regulators, manufacturers, doctors, pharmacists and patients, to fight opioid abuse and addiction."
4. In a statement to The Texas Trbune, Purdue Phrama said, "We are deeply troubled by the opioid crisis and we are dedicated to being part of the solution … We vigorously deny these allegations and look forward to the opportunity to present our defense."
5. Simon Greenstone Panatier Bartlett also represents the East Texas counties of Bowie, Delta, Hopkins, Lamar, Red River and Smith. Similar lawsuits are expected to be filed on behalf of each of those counties in the future.
6. Nearly 1,200 Texans died of opioid-related overdoses in 2015.

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Other Coverage

Brick plans to sue drugmakers over opioid epidemic

Oct 6, 2017 | App.com (NJ)

By Amanda Oglesby

The township will likely be the latest Jersey Shore municipality to join a growing collection of government organizations suing opioid manufacturers, claiming the companies misrepresented the dangers of their products.
The move follows a rising number of drug overdoses in Brick, from 69 in 2014 to 212 in 2016, Mayor John G. Ducey said in a news release.
“While we will continue our efforts to attack the heroin problem through treatment and aggressive law enforcement, we also will hold the manufacturers accountable for telling doctors and patients that opioids are not addictive. They know that’s not true," Ducey said in the news release.
If approved next week by the Township Council, Motley Rice LLC of Washington, D.C. will represent Brick in the lawsuit at no cost to the town. Instead, the firm will take a percentage of any settlement money the township may receive.
Motley Rice is also representing Toms River in the lawsuit.
The Brick Township Council is expected to approve the agreement on Tuesday
"The council joins the mayor in this effort against the opioid manufacturers," Council President Arthur Halloran said in the news release. "These drugs have unfortunately destroyed many lives across our nation and right here in Brick.”
Motley Rice, according to its website, has participated in such high-profile cases and negotiations as the BP Deepwater Horizon settlement for property damages and medical benefits, a $500 million decision for asbestos victims against Travelers Insurance Company, and has represented more than 6,600 Sept. 11 survivors and their families in court.
Suing opioid manufacturers is part of a growing movement across the country.
New Jersey Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced Thursday that his office filed a four-count lawsuit against opioid manufacturer Insys Therapeutics Inc. The company makes the opioid-fentanyl drug Subsys, used to treat cancer pain.
Porrino's complaint said the company engaged in consumer fraud and false claims to increase its market share of the drug.
More than 25 state, municipal and county governments have filed similar lawsuits so far this year, according to the Washington Post.
In 2015, opioids killed more than 33,000 people in the United States, and nearly half of those deaths involved a prescription opioid, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The number of opioid-related overdose deaths has quadrupled since 1999, according to the CDC. Sales of prescription opioids also quadrupled between 1999 and 2010.
“We will continue this fight against heroin and opioid drugs for as long as it takes,” Ducey, Brick's mayor, said in the news release. “This lawsuit is an important step in the effort to end this scourge.”

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Manufacturers next to be targeted in opioid crisis

Oct 5, 2017 | Portsmouth Daily Times (OH)

By Chris Stone

The Scioto County Commissioners met in regular session Tuesday to adopt several resolutions before the Columbus Day weekend.
On the docket was a resolution to approve the filling of a civil complaint against the manufacturers of prescription opiates. The original lawsuit filed by Scioto County targets distributors.
“Our understanding is that the prosecutor’s office wants to expand the scope of the lawsuit from not just distributors, but to manufacturers,” Chairman of the Scioto County Commissioners Bryan Davis said.
Davis said the prosecutor’s office has used outside council to pursue the lawsuit.
“This is a request from that council to expand to the manufacturers,” Davis said.
Currently 44 states have filed lawsuits to battle the opiate crisis. Davis said that Scioto County is currently hopeful to get those lawsuits consolidated, with arguments being heard in the southern district in the State of Ohio.
” … That’s the motion that is being made,” Davis said. “It all started here. Our argument is that this is the epicenter, so let’s bring all those arguments and consolidate those to the southern distract in the State of Ohio, and let’s have our day in court.”
Another resolution the Commissioners adopted dealt with the personnel policy for County employees. The County Risk Sharing Authority (CORSA) has recommended the new personnel policy, which covers the Ohio Revised Code. The policy ensures that all applicable laws are being covered.
Davis used an example of an employee smoking marijuana on the job. Under the old system, the County would’ve had to create an addendum to the old policy to make sure they were covered in the personnel handbook. However, with the CORSA handbook, all policies are up to date.
Furthermore, the County wouldn’t have to spend a dime for the new handbook. As part of their membership with CORSA, it’s part of the County’s benefits.
“(CORSA’s) our insurance provider and they do this for us, and then we review it to make sure that it is applicable to Scioto County,” Davis said. ” … It’s a way to keep all of the counties consistent across the board. It’s probably something the prosecutor’s office really likes because it’s set in stone now.”
The Commissioners also spoke about a contract sheriff Marty Donini has entered into with Job and Family Services. The contract is to provide security for the Jobs and Family Services building, replacing the security guard who recently retired.
Instead of hiring another security guard to man the post, the contract calls for a deputy. The amount of the contract exceeds $104,000 and is renewable per year.
“It’s a one-year contract, probably just to see how it goes,” Davis said. “It allows him to respond and arrest. He can also give mutual aid, so if there’s an issue here, he can provide mutual aid. So, this is a good thing.”

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Christine Gregoire compares famous tobacco lawsuit to opioid cases

Oct 5, 2017 | KIRO Radio (WA)

By Staff

Before Christine Gregoire was Washington state’s Governor, she was the state attorney general who led the national fight against big tobacco.
In 1997, Gregoire and 38 other attorneys general celebrated a “historic” settlement that required tobacco companies to pay out more than $300 billion in reimbursements to the states for tax dollars spent to treat Medicaid patients for smoking-related health issues.
On Seattle’s Morning News, Gregoire compared the tobacco case with new opioid lawsuits, including the lawsuit targeting Purdue Pharma filed by current state Attorney General Bob Ferguson. The lawsuit accuses Purdue, the manufacturer of OxyContin, for fueling the opioid epidemic in Washington.
When it comes to similarities, Gregoire says, “this misrepresentation that appears to be obvious in the opioid addiction problem was very clear in tobacco. The use of doctors in tobacco to promote the product and say it was safe was true in tobacco as it is in the opioid addiction problem.”
The difference?
“One of the things we had going for us is we had an inside individual who came forward with evidence that was very compelling. Whether the public lawyers have access to anything like that or will get it in the course of discovery I don’t know. I can assure you the pharmaceuticals will defend, defend, defend, just like the tobacco companies.”
Like Big Tobacco, pharmaceutical companies have deep pockets.
“The only way we were to get over that was to share the cost of doing business with as many state attorneys general across the country as we could,” Gregoire said of the fight against big tobacco companies. “The fact that we have three or four suits in Washington state is good to potentially bring them to the table.”
Attorney General Ferguson and Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes said Thursday they were suing several drug makers, including Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceutical, and Endo Pharmaceutical.
More than two dozen states, cities, and counties have brought lawsuits against opioid manufacturers that many officials blame for a national addiction crisis.
Earlier this month the City of Tacoma, sued Purdue Pharma. On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that a lawsuit filed by Everett against Purdue could proceed.

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Across the North Country, counties consider suing opioid manufacturers

Oct 6, 2017 | North Carolina Public Radio (NC)

By Lauren Rosethal

The epidemic of drug abuse and opioid addiction that's sweeping the country is headed to court. Several states have filed lawsuits against the manufacturers of prescription painkillers. Those cases have reached the North Country.
There’s a reason why an attorney for one of the large, national firms that are suing the pharmaceutical industry decided to visit the St. Lawrence County legislature this summer.
"There are young people that are overdosing on heroin on a weekly basis here in St. Lawrence County," said Kevin Acres, who chairs the legislature.
He says almost everyone he knows has been touched by addiction.
"You see the names in the paper in the obituary columns, anywhere from 20 to 50 years of age, with the key words of 'died unexpectedly,'” Acres said.
St. Lawrence County is still deciding whether to join a lawsuit that’s free for counties in New York State. Warren and Washington counties have also gotten the pitch.
Attorney Donald Boyajian, Sr. says addiction has created a huge financial burden for local government. And he believes it all goes back to drug companies.
He said "It really has to do with the manner and methods in which they intentionally and knowingly marketed these drugs."
It’s a lot like the case against Big Tobacco back in the '90s. Boyajian says drug makers may have downplayed the risk of getting addicted to painkillers like Percocet or OxyContin — and the threat to people’s health.
"These sorts of opioids were really designed for acute, short-term pain management," he explained.
But that message didn’t always get through to doctors. Some prescribed painkillers for minor problems. Think muscle strains or getting a tooth pulled.
Right now, the U.S. Senate and several attorneys general are trying to investigate why. Their focus is whether drug companies withheld information or misrepresented their products. Lawsuits have already been filed in Ohio and West Virginia.
Kevin Acres, the St. Lawrence County legislative chairman, says he understands where these cases are coming from. But he’s not sure if drug companies and marketing are what’s driving addiction here in the North Country.
Acres said, "I’m really reluctant to hold the pharmaceutical companies negligent. I feel that it’s more an individual responsibility."
Acres says doctors and patients have to work together to treat pain safely.
St. Lawrence County lawmakers expect to make a final decision on the lawsuit this fall. Lawyers for Simmons Hanly Conroy - the firm that’s handling this case - have waived all their usual fees. But they would take a cut of any settlement.

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Kuster: White House must formally declare the opioid crisis a national emergency

Oct 5, 2017 | Concord Monitor (NH)

By Rep. ANN KUSTER, Rep. TOM MacARTHURRep. BRIAN FITZPATRICK and Rep. DONALD NORCROSS

A little over a month ago, President Trump announced his intention to declare the opioid epidemic a national emergency. He was right – it is an emergency. Drug overdoses killed almost 54,000 people in 2015, and the majority of those deaths involved an opioid. Last year, about 12 million Americans misused an opioid, and the overdose death toll rose to 65,000.
The opioid crisis is cutting deep scars in our communities, and in some states, is taking more of our loved ones than car accidents, suicides and firearms combined. It is absolutely an emergency and we urge the president to move quickly in formally declaring the opioid crisis a national health emergency.
The four of us serve as the chairs and vice-chairs of the Bipartisan Heroin Task Force in the House of Representatives, which is comprised of 90 members from both parties, and we welcomed the president’s announcement as appropriate to the urgency of the crisis. However, we now believe it’s time for the White House to put legal action to that intention, and formally declare the opioid crisis a national emergency. A declaration of emergency has the potential to make a real difference by making it easier to direct more funding where it is needed, and easing red tape for the agencies combating this crisis.
We also know that an emergency declaration alone cannot solve the crisis that confronts us. This crisis is a full-spectrum problem that requires a comprehensive response. Earlier this summer, we released a bipartisan legislative agenda that speaks to a wide range of concerns, and we look forward to expanding this agenda as our colleagues in Congress continue to introduce innovative solutions.

In this polarized political moment, we are grateful that the House of Representatives’ Heroin Task Force is one of the most rigorously bipartisan organizations in Congress. No bill made it to our agenda without bipartisan co-sponsors and the support of all four co-chairs.
As we consider the path forward in combating the opioid crisis, we believe our agenda reflects an emerging bipartisan consensus on specific shared policy objectives:
Effectively equipping and training our first responders in the use of lifesaving overdose reversal drugs.
Reforming pain management techniques.
Providing unique solutions for different groups of Americans like young people, veterans, new mothers and infants.
Immediately addressing the Medicaid Institutions for Mental Diseases exclusion, an outdated rule that prevents the most vulnerable people in our society from receiving substance abuse treatment just because of the size of the facility they access.
Providing medical professionals with more information about patients’ addiction histories.
Ensuring law enforcement professionals have the resources they need to stop the flow of heroin and synthetic opioids into our country and communities.
Finally, we need to make adequate resources available to meet these objectives.
The President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis reflects this same emerging consensus on next steps. When the commission released its own non-partisan report, we were delighted to see significant overlap between our agenda and its recommendations.
None of us can tackle this crisis alone. We all need to act together – federal and local governments, the medical professionals, treatment and recovery providers, the pharmaceutical industry, community organizations, law enforcement and border security, and all of our fellow citizens – all of us working together toward a shared goal of overcoming the epidemic.
Here in Congress, we will continue to work across the aisle and fight for our communities and loved ones.

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Calcasieu, four other parishes sue opioid manufacturers

Oct 5, 2017 | KATC.com (LA)

By Staff

Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso has joined four other sheriffs to sue opioid manufacturers.
Laborde Earles, a Louisiana law firm, filed the suits today on behalf of Mancuso and sheriffs in Washington, Ouachita, Sabine and Vernon parishes against pharmaceutical companies and physicians over the alleged fraudulent marketing of prescription opioid painkillers that has led to increased crime and delinquency across Louisiana.

In the complaint, the sheriffs are asking for compensatory and punitive damages, which they claim amount to millions of dollars spent annually to combat drug-related crimes and the societal economic burden of opioid abuse created by the drug companies’ deceptive marketing campaign that fabricates the safety and efficacy of long-term opioid use. Simmons Hanly Conroy, one of the nation’s leading law firms focused on consumer protection and mass tort actions, which is spearheading similar lawsuits in other states across the country, has joined Laborde Earles as co-counsel in the cases.

The defendants in the lawsuit are: Purdue Pharma L.P.; Purdue Pharma, Inc.; The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc.; Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.; Cephalon, Inc.; Johnson & Johnson; Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Janssen Pharmaceutica, Inc.; Endo Health Solutions Inc.; Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Dr. Randall Brewer; Dr. Perry Fine; Dr. Scott Fishman and Dr. Lynn Webster.

The Louisiana firm filed similar lawsuits on behalf of sheriffs in Avoyelles, Jefferson Davis, Rapides and Lafayette Parishes last month.

In a separate action, the Louisiana Department of Health has also sued the major pharmaceutical companies, alleging in their complaint, “Drug manufacturers undertook an orchestrated campaign to flood Louisiana with highly addictive and dangerous opioids in an effort to maximize profits above the health and well-being of their customers.”

“Opioid abuse and addiction has caused widespread tragedy and hardship across Calcasieu Parish and is straining the resources of our office,” said Tony Mancuso, Sheriff of Calcasieu Parish.

“The pharmaceutical companies named in this suit ignored the devastating impact that their drugs were having on individuals and families across the nation, including right here at home,” said Derrick “Digger” Earles, Partner at Laborde Earles. “It’s time they were held accountable and pay for the damage they caused.”

The lawsuits allege that state data shows opioid-related deaths in Louisiana have nearly doubled from 155 in 2012, to 305 in 2016. Louisiana is one of eight states that has more opioid prescriptions than it has residents. In 2013, Louisiana ranked first in opioid prescribing according to the Centers for Disease Control Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. The state was found to have the sixth highest prescription-per-capita rate at 1.03 pain killer prescriptions written per Louisiana resident in 2015.

According to the CDC, Washington Parish and Vernon Parish had rates of usage higher than the national average in 2015. Washington Parish’s usage rate was between 677 and 958 milligram equivalents (“MME”) per person in 2015, compared to 640 MME per person in 2015 nationally.

The lawsuits allege the defendants aggressively sought to create a false perception in the minds of physicians, patients, health care providers and clients that using opioids to treat chronic pain was safe for most patients and that the drugs’ benefits outweighed the risks. This was allegedly perpetrated through a coordinated, sophisticated and highly deceptive promotion and marketing campaign that began in the late 1990s, became more aggressive around 2006, and is ongoing. Specifically, the complaint alleges that the defendants poured significant financial resources into generating articles, continuing medical education courses and other “educational” materials, conducting sales visits to doctors, and supporting a network of professional societies and advocacy groups – all of which were successful in the intended purpose of creating a new and phony “consensus” supporting the long-term use of opioids. In the Louisiana Department of Health lawsuit officials wrote, “Drug manufacturers undertook an orchestrated campaign to flood Louisiana with highly addictive and dangerous opioids in an effort to maximize profits above the health and well-being of their customer.”

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Broadcast Media Coverage

Bloomberg Markets: Americas

Oct 5, 2017 | Bloomberg (BLOOM)

By National Programming

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930338?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
Rough Transcript: on the u.s. cover of bloomberg businessweek, a profile of mike moore. you may remember him as the lawyer who took on big tobacco. now, moore aims to tackle opioid makers. >> mike moore played himself in the insider as attorney general of mississippi. he held that position in the 1990's here are the reason why he was in the movie was because he was the architect of this new untested legal strategy, at the time, to sue big tobacco companies and try to hold them accountable for lying about the risks of neck a teen addiction. and also to help states and cities pay for the cost to care for sick smokers. he was the architect behind that legal strategy. that ended well. they ended 50 states, two 2:52 PMhundred $46 billion corporate settlement, the largest in u.s. history. what he is trying to do is take that legal strategy and apply it to the opioid epidemic we see ravaging the country. >> talked was about that. and specifically who he is going after and how he is pulling together. where is he in that process? >> this is really about a war. this story is about a war brewing between states and companies, primarily that manufacture opioids. 10 states and dozens of cities and counties have filed lawsuits against companies like perdue, tivo, johnson & johnson. they are trying to hold them liable for the opioid epidemic. the way the suits say is the only way that these companies could have created the market we see for opioids today the people are getting prescribed opioids is conditions like that, where they had to lie about the addiction risk that opioids posed. this crisis has been incredibly lethal. is killing over -- it is killing 2:53 PMover 90 people and local governments are paying literally billions of dollars each year on things like increased law enforcement. health care, treatment, incarceration, and what these suits say is it is not fair for taxpayers to foot the bill. who should be accountable is the companies that in essence, created this crisis. it is those companies that should pay to clean up the mess that we are seeing today. >> it is not just about the manufacturers. it is also about the distributors. he is trying to layer this up to get as many people that are involved in providing these drugs accountable. >> primarily, it is opioid many factors that are being targeted. he says by the time this is all done, every company related to the opioid epidemic will be sued. the more states he can get on board and the more companies that are being sued, the bigger 2:54 PMheadache becomes for these companies. it comes -- it becomes an economic problem. do we risk going to court and fighting each one, or do we just come to some kind of national settlement between the companies and the states? that is the goal. michael moore and his allies are prepared to go to trial. the idea is to get a national settlement the way they did during the tobacco era. that would go toward paying for treatment and prevention education. that is the main goal. to get a lot of money to clean up this mess, to stop the epidemic in its tracks by getting addicts treatment of preventing new addicts from being created. >> you say mike moore and others are going after a variety of pharmaceutical companies. you do also hone in on one company. i had no idea who they were. perdue, which really took a niche product and made into one of the most overprescribed drugs out there. tell us about purdue. 2:55 PM>> exactly. the lawsuits target multiple companies. perdue emerges as the rain -- main villain. what perdue did was create the modern opioid market. they had this blockbuster drug, oxycontin, and they used heavy sales tax -- tactics too great a bigger market. the important thing to understand is 30 years ago, if you had a chronic back pain or arthritis, you would not be prescribed and opioid. they were only used for people at the end of life, people who were dying, people going through painful cancer treatments. that was not much of a market for these companies. what the companies did it lead by perdue, is educate doctors and in some cases, like to doctors about the overdosed risks of opioids and say, it is ok to prescribe these for chronic back pain and arthritis. there were two big problems with that. 1, 1 more widespread use lead to more addiction. second of all, there was no meaningful scientific evidence and there still is none, to show that these opioids work to treat chronic pain. it is obviously resulting in what we see now. oxycontin and these opioid drugs are very similar and chemical composition to heroine. we are seeing a resurgence in heroine. julia: it is a personal battle. you can read this. in the latest bloomberg businessweek available on newsstands and online.

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News 12 New Jersey

Oct 6, 2017 | N12NJ (News 12)

By New York, NY

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930354?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12 \
Rough Transcript: just monents ago, the city of newark announced it's fililng suit against seven opioid manufacturers.. including the maker of oxycontin. the suit says the companies take part in deceptive and false advertising. mayor ras baraka says the city wants to hold the manufacturers financialy acountable for problems they've caused. in a statement, the mayor says -- as the largest city in new jersey and due to the duty we have to our citizens, we know it is our responsibility to act and protect our residents .. from this urgent public health crisis. every aspect of our city has felt the severe ramifactions of the opioid epidemic."

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FOX23 News This Morning

Oct 6, 2017 | KOKI (Fox)

By Tulsa, OK

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930364?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
Rough Transcript: one of the nation's largest health insurers--- has a it will stop covering the widely prescribed painkiller, oxycontin.ácignaá says that will go into effectnext year-- calling it part of its efforts to curb opioid abuse. oxy-contin is the rand name... for the narcotic, oxycodone.but------ how much this actually curbs the abuse remans to be seen--- since cigna still plans to cover ágeneicá oxycodone. and--- more details:with overdose rates risig in recent rprd trump declared the opioid crisis- a national emergency. oklahoma and other states are ásuingá opioid manufacturers -- claiming deceptive marketing--- has áfueledá the oioid epidemic.and--- just last month--- c-v-s announced... it's taking steps to limit opioid prescriptions.

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RTV 6: Good Morning Indiana

Oct 6, 2017 | WRTV (ABC)

By Indianapolis, IN

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930745?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
Rough Transcript: the city of indianapolis is set to sue some of the country's biggest drug manufacturers. city officials are blaming portion of indiana's opioid epidemic on them. saying they need to be held for responsible for some of the cost of tackling that cris. the city hopes to re-coup costs for things like narcan, that first responders use in many overdose situations.

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News 18 This Morning at 5:30a

Oct 6, 2017 | WLFI (CBS)

By Lafayette, IN

Video link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930747?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
Rough Transcript: during a news conference this morning...mayor joe hogsett and lead attorney irwin levin (leh-vin) placed blame on opioid manufacturers and distrubutors. these potential defendents spread the false message that opioids were safe 5:51 AMfor chronic pain and not addictive ))levin says the companies have legal obligations to report suspicous opioid orders. they saw unquestionably suspicious orders of opioids but turned a blind eye to their legal duties and obligations to stop and report those orders )) levin says the suit will seek damages...to cover things like extra officers, social services and narcan...this year nearly 1700 doses have been adminstered. when you drill down and you look at everything the city has paid-it's a lot of money. and there's a lot of need going forward. ))and that's why they're also looking for ...what they call forward relief...to cover the cost of extra resources. they accuse the companies of being motived by money...saying three of the distributors make up close to 90 percent of the opioidmarket..raking in more than 100 billion dollars last year. corporate executives were concerned with profits over people ))@#>> again, that was elizabeth choi reporting. this is not the first time a local government has filed a lawsuit like this.>> in the last year or so, several illinois counties have started cases.none have reached a resolution yet.

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ABC21 Morning News

Oct 6, 2017 | WPTA (ABC)

By Ft. Wayne, IN

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930754?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
Rough Transcript: the mayor of indianapolis is suing opioid manufacturers and distributors.. which he says are responsible for the city's addiction epidemic mayor joe hogsett says... the companies need to be held accountable....and left unchecked, opioid addiction will cintonue to incite criminality, tear apart families and take the lives of indianapolis residents. last year... marion county had the highest number of drug overdose deaths in it's history with 345. meanwhile... cigna - one of the nation's largest health insurers - has announced it will stop covering oxy- contin next year. oxy-contin is the branded version of the painkiller oxycodone. cigna described the move as part of its effort to curb opioid abuse. with overdose rates rising in recent years, president trump declared the opioid crisis a national emergency over the summer. the insurance giant will continue to cover oxycodone alternatives to oxycontin.

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RTV6: The News at 11:00

Oct 5, 2017 | WRTV (ABC)

By Indianapolis, IN

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930758?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
Rough Transcript: call 6 investigates is learning - the city of indianapolis is set to sue some of the country's biggest drug manufacturers. city officials are blaming a portion of indiana's opioid epidemic on the makers of pain medications -- saying they mis- advertised the drugs that were originally made for end-of-life care. the city is going after the manufacturers and distributors of those drugs -- saying they need to be held for responsible for some of the cost of the opioid cris. 3 3 "help us recoup ... enormous cost to the city." 3 3 3 the city hopes to re-coup costs for example for the narcan doses for first responders dispense. this lawsuit could take several years.

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24 Hour News 8 at 11

Oct 6, 2017 | WISH (CW)

By Indianapolis, IN

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930766?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
Rough Transcript: indianapolis mayor joe hogsett... hiring a law firm to sue drug makers and distributors in response to the opioid crisis. the lawsuit is looking to collect damages... to pay for things like increased police, social services, and the cost of narcan. according to hogsett, last year there were 345 overdose deaths in marion county. the lawsuit claims the companies spread the false message that pain killers, like oxycontin are safe and not addictive. (( 21:08-24 we see that the industry took a drug that was originally prescribed only for end of life palliative care cancer treatement-and they marketed it for chronic pain. )) we have a list of companies that will likely be included in the lawsuit... you can find it at wish-tv dot com.

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Fox 8 News at 9pm

Oct 5, 2017 | WVUE (FOX)

By New Orleans, LA

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/29930770?token=b381b11b-4cc6-465c-91ed-7082fd31ce12
Rough Transcript: sheriffs from five louisiana parishes file a lawsuit against drug manufacturers and doctors -- over at they call, the fraudulent marketing of prescription opioid painkillers. a law firm filed the lawsuit on behalf of the sheriffs of calcasieu, washington, ouachita, sabine and vernon parishes. the lawsuit is seeking punitive damages, for the millions of dollars they say, the parishes spend each year to combat opioid-related crimes and addiction.

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