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Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report - 11/14/17
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Salt Lake County to sue Big Pharma over the toll of opioid addiction
Nov 13, 2017 | The Salt Lake Tribune
By Jennifer Dobner
Bowing under the weight of Utah opioid deaths, Salt Lake County officials on Monday announced plans to sue the pharmaceutical industry over the havoc the drugs have wreaked on people and public services. -
Salt Lake County Will Sue Pharma Companies Over Opioid Epidemic
Nov 13, 2017 | Utah Public Radio (UT)
By Lee Hale & Julia Ritchey
Utah’s opioid crisis is prompting Salt Lake County officials to pursue legal action against pharmaceutical companies. -
Salt Lake County plans to sue prescription pain pill makers
Nov 13, 2017 | Good4Utah (UT)
By Rich Aaron
Salt Lake County leaders are expanding the fight against the opioid crisis from the streets to the courtrooms. They're preparing to file a lawsuit against the big pharmaceutical companies that manufacture, distribute and market prescription pain pills. -
Salt Lake County to bring lawsuit against Big Pharma for opioid crisis
Nov 13, 2017 | Fox 13 Salt Lake City (UT)
By Danica Lawrence
Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, Utah State Speaker of the House Greg Hughes and Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill have teamed together to file a civil lawsuit against Big Pharma. They plan to take the opioid epidemic to court. -
Salt Lake County to sue 'Big Pharma' for 'irresponsible' distribution of opioids
Nov 13, 2017 | Deseret News (UT)
By Katie McKellar
Fed up with the tragedy and economic losses associated with the national opioid epidemic and its impact on Utahns, Salt Lake County leaders plan to join other counties and states across the nation that are suing opioid drug manufacturers. -
County Lawsuit Would Target Opioid Makers To Recover Social Costs
Nov 13, 2017 | Mesabi Daily News (MN)
By John Myers
A northeastern Minnesota county commission on Tuesday, Nov. 14, is expected to approve a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical companies that make synthetic opioids in an effort to recover some of the social and public costs from the drug addiction crisis that is rocking the nation. -
Local attorney proposes that Decatur join opioid lawsuit
Nov 14, 2017 | Decatur Daily (GA)
By Bayne Hughes
A local lawyer proposed that the city of Decatur join a federal lawsuit against drug distributors for their role in the opioid crisis. -
Terre Haute to sue opioid distributors, makers
Nov 13, 2017 | Tribune Star (IN)
By Dave Taylor
Terre Haute is joining a growing list of cities and other governments in taking distributors and manufacturers to court over the opioid epidemic. -
Chippewa County joins drug lawsuit
Nov 13, 2017 | WEAU 13 News (WI)
By Tajima Hall
As prescription drug abuse remains a growing issue nationwide and in Wisconsin, Chippewa County is joining a class action lawsuit against prescription drug manufacturers. -
Buncombe County takes on Big Pharma, will sue opioid manufacturers, distributors
Nov 14, 2017 | Asheville Citizen Times (NC)
By Jennifer Bowman
Buncombe County will announce Tuesday that it's filed a lawsuit against opioid distributors and manufacturers. -
NJ Doctor Accused Of Recklessly Pushing Addictive Opioids
Nov 13, 2017 | Law360,
By Nicole Narea
A family physician has been temporarily suspended after he was accused of indiscriminately prescribing medically unnecessary, highly addictive opioids to patients, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General announced Monday. -
Pharma Family That Pushed Opioids Is Behind Charter Schools, Too
Nov 13, 2017 | Alternet
By Sarah Darer Littman
The notoriously secretive Sackler family, also known as the OxyContin Clan, has been the subject of much scrutiny of late, including lengthy exposés in the New Yorker and Esquire shining a harsh light on the connection between the drug that made the Sacklers wealthy and their philanthropic giving. But there is another troubling beneficiary of Sackler largesse that has escaped public scrutiny: charter schools. OxyContin heir and Purdue Pharma director Jonathan Sackler is a major funder of charters and an extensive network of pro-charter advocacy groups. -
Governor candidate Schwartz backs Reno opioid lawsuit, criticizes Laxalt for opposing it
Nov 13, 2017 | The Nevada Independent (NV)
By Riley Snyder & Michelle Rindels
State Treasurer Dan Schwartz has lobbed a new attack at his Republican gubernatorial primary opponent, saying Attorney General Adam Laxalt is discouraging a City of Reno lawsuit against opioid manufacturers while taking thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from those companies. -
AmerisourceBergen Urges Policymakers to Support Regulator and Industry Data Transparency to More Effectively Combat Opioid Abuse AmerisourceBergen (PRESS RELEASE)
Nov 13, 2017 | AmerisourceBergen
AmerisourceBergen, a global healthcare solutions leader, has called on policymakers and regulators to implement new comprehensive guidelines for increased data transparency between the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), drug distributors, and pharmacies. The Company is committed to working collaboratively to help mitigate controlled substance abuse, a complex national crisis, and has urged Congress to take action to enable stronger oversight of opioid ordering and distribution practices. -
Taking A Page From Pharma’s Playbook To Fight The Opioid Crisis
Nov 14, 2017 | Kaiser health News
By Pauline Bartolone
Dr. Mary Meengs remembers the days, a couple of decades ago, when pharmaceutical salespeople would drop into her family practice in Chicago, eager to catch a moment between patients so they could pitch her a new drug. -
KVRR Local News at 7
Nov 14, 2017 | KVRR (FOX)
By Fargo, ND
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30670790?token=9648a755-a305-4f23-b7d9-8ffdf6c55e70 -
Good Morning Utah
Nov 14, 2017 | KTVX (ABC)
By Salt Lake City, UT
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30670799?token=9648a755-a305-4f23-b7d9-8ffdf6c55e70
Salt Lake County, UT Suit
Other Litigation Coverage
Commentary and FYIs
Broadcast Media Coverage
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Salt Lake County to sue Big Pharma over the toll of opioid addiction
Nov 13, 2017 | The Salt Lake Tribune
By Jennifer Dobner
Bowing under the weight of Utah opioid deaths, Salt Lake County officials on Monday announced plans to sue the pharmaceutical industry over the havoc the drugs have wreaked on people and public services.
The lawsuit would seek financial damages — possibly tens of millions of dollars — sufficient to repay the county for criminal justice, drug treatment and social service costs incurred by addressing the widespread damage that comes with opioid addiction.
The systems are overwhelmed, Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams said, and the toll on families is heartbreaking.
“The death toll is rising,” McAdams said. “We cannot afford to stand by any longer.”
On average, 24 Utahns died from prescription opioid overdose in each month of 2015, data from the Utah Department of Health show. Such death tallies have risen since 2002, the agency says, and opioids are responsible for more drug deaths than from drugs in all other categories.
From 2013 to 2015 — according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — those numbers left Utah ranked seventh nationally for overdose deaths.
CDC data show that 91 Americans die every day from opioid overdoses.
Salt Lake County residents Dennis and Celeste Cecchini stood alongside McAdams and cheered the effort to go after pharmaceutical companies, who knew about the risks of their drugs, the mayor said, but failed to protect the public.
That includes the couple’s son Tennyson Cecchini, who died at age 33 from a drug overdose on the floor of a bathroom in his parents’ home four days after leaving rehab.
Tennyson Cecchini, his father said, began taking painkillers for an injury to his shoulder while playing hockey and could never break free from the drugs.
“He was in a death spiral for 10 years,” Dennis Cecchini said. “It’s time for Big Pharma to start paying for the treatment that is necessary to save our children.”
With its decision to sue, Salt Lake County will join communities across the country that have brought more than 100 civil lawsuits against drug companies since 2015.
In most cases, the lawsuits seek monetary damages for their costs, according to a story published Monday on governing.com. Some seek to force drug companies to change what are described as deceptive marketing practices that do not inform medical practitioners and consumers about the likelihood of addiction associated with opioid use. Others say drug companies committed Medicaid fraud by forcing taxpayers to cover the costs of unnecessary drug prescription.
The county is considering those approaches, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said.
No decision has yet been made about whether the county will sue a specific company, such as Endo or Johnson & Johnson, he said.
A private law firm will be hired to handle the lawsuit within the next few weeks, Gill said.
“There will no longer be a free ride for Big Pharma,” Gill said. “It’s long overdue.”
Gill also compared the actions of drug companies to those of illegal-drug traffickers.
“There is no difference,” he said. “They are exploiting the same misery, the same suffering and the same purpose to increase profits.”
Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes was at Monday’s news conference, expressing his support for the county’s planned lawsuit.
Hughes said the county’s effort adds another prong to the state’s multilayered approach to addressing chronic homeless, crime and drug abuse through Operation Rio Grande in downtown Salt Lake City.
State lawmakers have marched bills through the Legislatures in recent years, Hughes said, but Utah still struggles to make progress and save lives.
“There has to be a sobering moment, and I don’t know that that’s happened yet,” Hughes said, before offering his hope for similar efforts statewide. “I’d like to see this with other counties and the state.
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Salt Lake County Will Sue Pharma Companies Over Opioid Epidemic
Nov 13, 2017 | Utah Public Radio (UT)
By Lee Hale & Julia Ritchey
Utah’s opioid crisis is prompting Salt Lake County officials to pursue legal action against pharmaceutical companies.
District Attorney Sim Gill joined by Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams announced Monday plans to sue several drug manufacturers. They say those companies bear some responsibility for the opioid crisis by downplaying the risks of addiction and overstating their benefits.
Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes was also at Monday's news conference. He said eventually the state should follow suit.
“This is a great place to start, but we have other counties that are going through the same consequences… lives and families and communities are being impacted across the state of Utah," he said. "And so this is something I would like to see [all] counties consider, and then ultimately the state needs to step forward in a strong way in this as well.”
An increasing number of states, counties and cities across the U.S. have started pursuing these lawsuits. President Trump declared opioid crisis a national health emergency last month.
Gill did not specify which companies would be singled out. A private law firm is expected to handle the lawsuit in the coming weeks.
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Salt Lake County plans to sue prescription pain pill makers
Nov 13, 2017 | Good4Utah (UT)
By Rich Aaron
Salt Lake County leaders are expanding the fight against the opioid crisis from the streets to the courtrooms. They're preparing to file a lawsuit against the big pharmaceutical companies that manufacture, distribute and market prescription pain pills.
At a news conference Monday they said they've attacked this problem from the demand side and now they're going after the suppliers as well, even comparing pharmaceutical makers to illegal drug cartels.
"We've got to go after the supply side," Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams said. "We have to target those companies. If 90 percent of people arrested in Operation Rio Grande are heroin users and 80 percent of those people came to it through a prescription drug, we have to go after the distribution and those who are pushing those drugs on our communities."
Statistics show almost one Utahn a day dies from a opioid overdose and 80 percent of heroin users started their path to addiction with prescription pills.
Mayor McAdams, District Attorney Sim Gill and state Representative Greg Hughes said they plan to hold Big Pharma accountable for their contributions to this so called opidemic, which claimed Dennis Checchini's son in 2015.
That's when 33 year old Tennyson Cecchini died from an overdose, just days after being released from 60 days of drug rehab.
"He came home. 4 days later he died on our bathroom floor with my wife and I watching the life leave his body," Dennis told reporters. "I'm not an expert at this opioid epidemic but I am an expert at losing my son and...this disease did not have to reach these proportions that it reached. That Big Pharma had a lot to play in it and it's time for Big Pharma for the treatment to help pay for the treatment that is necessary to help our children stay alive."
County Attorney Sim Gill did not release any details of the civil lawsuit but said specifics of who the County will sue - and for how much - will be finalized in the next few weeks. -
Salt Lake County to bring lawsuit against Big Pharma for opioid crisis
Nov 13, 2017 | Fox 13 Salt Lake City (UT)
By Danica Lawrence
Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, Utah State Speaker of the House Greg Hughes and Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill have teamed together to file a civil lawsuit against Big Pharma. They plan to take the opioid epidemic to court.
“We will no longer be silent and let this happen and go on without accountability,” said DA Sim Gill. “As a public prosecutor, I see people in the drug cartel who profit over people suffering, and they exploit that suffering with one common purpose in mind, which is to increase their profit. There is no difference with Big Pharma doing the same thing. They are exploiting that same misery, that same suffering.”
“Our legislative body and our State of Utah have been well engaged in this issue and I am afraid that we are not making the progress and we are not saving the lives necessary,” said Speaker Greg Hughes.
Hughes read aloud some of Big Pharma’s ads or marketing campaign phrases.
“Opioids are rarely addictive if taken long term,” said Hughes as he was reading a direct line from Big Pharma. “That doesn’t even pass the laugh test. These statements are fraudulent. These statement are not true, and lives have been lost because of it. ”
The county said they have heard countless stories of people becoming addicted to opioids in less than the prescribed time of taking them for an injury. They said doctors can prescribe it for seven to ten days, and people can become addicted in less than seven days- sometimes three days. They said it is different for every person.
According to the Utah Department of Health, 24 to 30 people die every month in Utah due to opioid or heroin overdose. Utah is the seventh highest in the nation for drug overdose. 80 percent of heroin users started with opioid prescriptions.
According to the CDC, there are pain relief medications and treatments that are not opioids.
The county and the State want the lawsuit to change the behavior of Big Pharma. They want them to start advertising the truth about what opioids can do to your body, and their highly addictive nature. They also want the damages from the lawsuit to finance treatment facilities for all the people who have become addicted to Big Pharma’s opioids.
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Salt Lake County to sue 'Big Pharma' for 'irresponsible' distribution of opioids
Nov 13, 2017 | Deseret News (UT)
By Katie McKellar
Fed up with the tragedy and economic losses associated with the national opioid epidemic and its impact on Utahns, Salt Lake County leaders plan to join other counties and states across the nation that are suing opioid drug manufacturers.
"I expect to see damages for the harm that has been caused to our community," Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams said at a news conference Monday. "But more importantly, we want to change the outrageous behavior that is harming families and harming the safety of our community."
It's not yet clear how much in damages Salt Lake County officials will be seeking or which companies they will be suing, but District Attorney Sim Gill said his legal team will be working through the specifics over the next two weeks while the suit is prepared for filing.
The announcement comes amid Operation Rio Grande, the $67 million city, county and state effort to root out lawlessness in Salt Lake City's most troubled neighborhood, which up until the operation's Aug. 14 launch was known for its criminal activity and open-air drug market.
"We are heartbroken and outraged by the stories of families of our residents and the death and destruction they see in their lives," McAdams said. "We cannot afford to stand by any longer."
Utah impact
McAdams said the opioid epidemic is playing out in "horrifying ways" in Salt Lake County and areas like Rio Grande, surrounding Salt Lake City's downtown homeless shelter. He said before Operation Rio Grande, open drug use in the neighborhood was "chaotic" and "frightening."
McAdams said 90 percent of people who were arrested in Operation Rio Grande and assessed for drug court in jail were heroin users.
Eighty percent of heroin users start with legal painkillers, according to the Utah Department of Health.
"Meanwhile as we've struggled to find ways to pay for these needs, the death toll is rising and families are seeing their loved ones struggle against an insidious illness," McAdams said. "Here in Salt Lake County, we are tired of seeing our treatment facilities overwhelmed by this crisis."
Two families with victims of opioid addiction attended Monday's announcement.
Dennis and Celeste Cecchini said they lost their son Tennyson to an overdose in 2015 when he was 33. They said Tennyson had been prescribed pain pills for a shoulder injury from playing hockey.
Dennis Cecchini said that prescription started his son's 10-year "death spiral" of addiction, which ended when "he died on our bathroom floor, with my wife and I watching the life leave his body."
"He had a son. He had a fiancee. And all of that was lost in the 10 years that he suffered from this disease," Dennis Checchini said.
Jan Lovett said her daughter Erin and stepdaughter Jennifer both struggled with addiction to pain pills — but they're "the lucky ones" because they survived.
"What I have to argue is it takes a lot less than 30 to 60 days to become addicted," Lovett said. "Try seven to 10 days."
Dennis Cecchini and Lovett thanked Salt Lake County leaders for stepping forward.
"I gotta tell you that the amount of money that is necessary to solve this issue is way beyond what any one state or any one county can put toward it," Cecchini said.
'Big Pharma'
Numerous counties and states across the U.S. are pursuing legal action against opioid makers, including Georgia, Michigan and Texas. McAdams said Salt Lake County, too, will be stepping forward to "challenge the irresponsible actions of drug companies and drugmakers that trivialize the risk of opioids while overstating the benefits for using them for chronic pain."
"The medical, social and economic and criminal costs are estimated to be in excess of $500 billion," Gill said. "And Utah was not spared this national tragedy."
Between 1999 and 2007, deaths in Utah attributed to poisoning by prescription pain medication increased by nearly 600 percent, he said.
"We have a responsibility to advocate for the citizens of Salt Lake County, taxpayers and victims driven by the profiteering of Big Pharma," Gill said. "Drug dealers exploit the vulnerable and Big Pharma did the same, leaving local communities to pick up the pieces."
Gill said the national opioid epidemic has been driven by "drug companies who are simply motivated by increased profits and increased sales."
He said drug companies set out between 1990 and 2000 to "persuade providers and regulators and patients that opioids are safe and effective to treat chronic non-cancer pain because the acute pain market is limited and the chronic pain market is huge.
"Drug companies knew of the seriousness and adverse outcomes to the use of opioids and knew of the highly addictive nature of their products and knew that control studies showed the safety of opioids was limited to only short-term use," Gill said, but they marketed them anyway.
Gill said some of his "favorite" claims were that opioids are "rarely addictive if taken long term" and that there was "no maximum dosage for opioid use."
House Speaker Greg Hughes — who has called for the state of Utah to file a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies — also attended Monday's announcement. He said those claims from manufacturing companies don't "even pass the laugh test."
"These statements were fraudulent," the Draper Republican said. "These statements weren't true, and lives have been lost because of it."
Although Salt Lake County leaders haven’t yet named the company or companies they intend to sue, one company — Purdue Pharma — in response to a similar suit South Carolina filed in August in which the state accused the opioid drugmaker of using deceptive marketing, said in a statement: “We vigorously deny the allegations” but share “concerns about the opioid crisis and we are committed to working collaboratively to find solutions,” according to the Associated Press.
A state suit?
When asked why Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes hasn't filed its own lawsuit on Utah's behalf, Hughes said: "You'll have to ask the attorney general's office," though he added that he's had conversations with Reyes and lawmakers.
Daniel Burton, a spokesman for the Utah Attorney General's Office, declined to confirm whether the office plans to file litigation, but he did say Reyes joined 40 other attorneys general from around the U.S. to investigate whether unlawful business practices contributed to the nation’s escalating opioid abuse.
He also said Utah's involvement in lawsuits against tobacco companies and Volkswagen, for example — which were multistate efforts — result in larger settlements than when counties file separate lawsuits.
"There's good reason not to go alone in something like this," Burton said, adding that multistate efforts can be "a little bit more deliberate and slow to get to the punchline."
"But also be aware," Burton added, "we don't in any way dismiss (Salt Lake County's) efforts. We are all working on this together; we're just going at it in different ways."
But Hughes said, "We have no time to investigate any longer" because lives are at stake.
"We have to get serious," the speaker said. "We have no time to circle this issue."
Hughes said he looks to "the leadership of Salt Lake County, but also other counties" to step forward. "We hope to see a much, much larger effort at the end of the day."
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County Lawsuit Would Target Opioid Makers To Recover Social Costs
Nov 13, 2017 | Mesabi Daily News (MN)
By John Myers
A northeastern Minnesota county commission on Tuesday, Nov. 14, is expected to approve a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical companies that make synthetic opioids in an effort to recover some of the social and public costs from the drug addiction crisis that is rocking the nation.
The St. Louis County commissioners will consider a resolution authorizing its county attorney Mark Rubin to start litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors for being complicit and complacent in the opioid addiction epidemic.
County officials say there were 167 overdose deaths in St. Louis County between 2011 and 2016, including heroin, opioids and other prescription pain medications.
The board resolution also would allow Rubin to hire outside counsel to pursue the lawsuit, likely at no cost to the county, with the law firm making money only if the county is successful with other local governments nationwide in collecting any award or settlement form the companies.
“I know other Minnesota counties are looking at this right now as well,” Rubin said. “The impact, the devastation this (epidemic) has not just on the young people who are using the drugs, but on their children ... it’s time to do this.”
Opioids and related drugs killed more than 52,000 people across the U.S. in 2015, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of the deaths involved common prescription opioids such as OxyContin or Vicodin, or related drugs such as heroin and fentanyl. People with addictions often take whichever of the drugs they can get cheapest and easiest.
In recent months news reports have surfaced that appear to show pharmaceutical manufacturers knew of the addiction potential and still relentlessly marketed their products despite the dangers.
In St. Louis County, the epidemic has caused not just overdose deaths but also huge taxpayer costs to arrest, prosecute and jail more addicts and dealers to pay for the overdose-blocking drug Narcan and to cover the cost of increased foster care and social workers for the families destroyed by addicted parents.
There’s also increased medical costs for children born addicted to the drugs abused by their mothers, Rubin said.
“Across the country, counties and municipalities are commencing litigation against the manufacturers and distributors and other involved parties seeking accountability in both the form of injunctive relief and monetary compensation for damages incurred relative to the opioid epidemic,” the St. Louis County resolution states. “The goal if the litigation is to provide the county with additional resources to combat opioid addiction, overdose and death through both equitable and monetary relief.”
Rubin said hundreds of lawsuits nationally could eventually be merged into a massive suit and settlement that could play out much like the settlements with tobacco companies over their prolonged coverup of the addictive and cancer-causing qualities of their products.
“The heroin epidemic isn't going to go away anytime soon. We have one of the highest per-capita death rates in the state from opioids and heroin and we’ve been using mostly our own resources to pay for it,” said Patrick Boyle, county commissioner representing eastern Duluth. “Now it’s time to go after the people who made money off this epidemic.”
Douglas County, Wis., moved to join a larger opioid suit two weeks ago.
Seven counties in New York started the trend in September, filing suit against the largest opioid manufacturers. Also in September attorneys general from 41 states, including Minnesota's Lori Swanson, said they had served subpoenas requesting information from five opioid companies that make powerful prescription painkillers and demanded information from three drug distributors. The states are looking at marketing and sales practices, seeking to find out whether the industry's actions worsened the epidemic.
In October, Cuyahoga County, Ohio (Cleveland) filed a state lawsuit against Purdue Pharma LP, the original maker of OxyContin, as well as Teva Pharmaceuticals, Cephalon, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen Corp. The suit also accused four named doctors of downplaying the risk of prescription opioids in papers and lectures funded by the drug companies. That suit goes further, accusing the companies of racketeering, and conspiring with each other to keep prices up and to hide the addiction dangers.
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Local attorney proposes that Decatur join opioid lawsuit
Nov 14, 2017 | Decatur Daily (GA)
By Bayne Hughes
A local lawyer proposed that the city of Decatur join a federal lawsuit against drug distributors for their role in the opioid crisis.
Greg Reeves, a former council member, told the Decatur City Council at its work session Monday he would like to represent the city as local counsel in a federal lawsuit that says, “You created this nuisance, so now you need to clean it up."
Birmingham and Gadsden recently filed suit, he said.
“Part of the concern is the cities’ police and fire departments and the jail are dealing with an opioid crisis that can be dangerous. They’re using a lot of resources to deal with this problem,” he said.
Reeves said the opioid crisis is as big a problem in north Alabama as it is in the rest of the country.
“Morgan County is prescribing 135 opioid drugs per 100 people,” Reeves said. “That’s top of the charts. Other cities are in the 40s and 60s (per 100).”
Reeves said eight litigation teams, including five law firms from outside of Alabama and three from within the state, filed lawsuits against the drug distributors on behalf of 100 cities and counties.
Reeves said the Birmingham case accused the distributors of “misleading the doctors on how addictive the opioid drugs are and not telling the government how much they’re putting on the street.”
City Attorney Herman Marks wanted to know how much manpower will be required of the city’s legal team and safety departments to provide research in the case.
Reeves said he doesn’t think “it will be too time-intensive” because the case focuses mainly on the public nuisance that the highly addictive opioids have created.
Reeves said this would be a contingency fee lawsuit so the city would not have to pay any fees unless it won the case.
Reeves said it’s too early to tell how much Decatur could receive if it were to win. The legal team’s fee would be 30 percent of the award if the city wins, and Reeves would receive a small percentage of that fee.
Councilman Charles Kirby said he wants to talk to the police and fire chiefs and discuss the case again before joining it.
Council President Paige Bibbee said she needs to investigate the idea, but she thinks “it behooves us to get in as quick as possible. I am also concerned about the time we spend getting the information for them.”
Reeves said Decatur should join as soon as possible because the last cities and counties who join the case could end up not benefiting from any final payouts if there is a successful outcome to the case.
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Terre Haute to sue opioid distributors, makers
Nov 13, 2017 | Tribune Star (IN)
By Dave Taylor
Terre Haute is joining a growing list of cities and other governments in taking distributors and manufacturers to court over the opioid epidemic.
The Board of Public Works and Safety Monday agreed to retain the Taft Stettinius and Hollister law firm to file suit on behalf of the city to recover costs incurred by the fire and police departments in responding to opioid overdoses.
Dozens of other cities in Indiana and elsewhere, including Chicago, Indianapolis, Muncie and Kokomo, and states such as Kentucky and Ohio have already gone to court and, in some cases, won settlements.
Because opioid medications are highly addictive, distributors are required to keep track of “where the drugs are going and why they're going there” to guard against a black market, said Tracy Betz, an attorney with the Taft firm's office in Indianapolis.
She compared the approach that used in the past against tobacco manufacturers, but class action lawsuits are not pursued.
“You are the plaintiff; you choose the claims that you want us to bring, the defendants you want us to sue,” she said.
The city will not incur any upfront costs and agreed to pay the law firm a contingency fee of 30 percent from any settlements or judgments.
The first cases on the city's behalf could be filed in U.S. District Court within the next two weeks, Betz said. Physicians are not being targeted, she added, saying that requires “a very different process. … One doctor couldn't cause it to explode like the distributors.”
A number of law firms are involved in opioid litigation, but the Taft firm was the first to reach out to the city and “demonstrate a good grasp and understanding of the issue,” City Attorney Eddie Felling said. He expressed hope Vigo County would also retain the firm because “there is somewhat of an overlay” of costs associated with the epidemic.
In other business
The Board of Public Works and Safety also:
- Endorsed an application for a $300,000 federal grant to study former industrial sites that are contaminated, including some along the Wabash River on the city's southwest side and the former Terre Haute Coke and Carbon site at 13th and Hulman streets.
- Approved specifications and requested bids for three new fire department ambulances to replace current units purchased in 2012
- Agreed to seek lease agreements with local banks to finance nine new police department patrol cars
- Approved an agreement with the Indiana Department of Transportation for reconstruction of Lafayette Avenue between Fort Harrison Road and Haythorne Avenue, with the first phase of the project to begin next year
- Agreed to reconstruct the intersection of First Street, Hulman Street and Prairieton Road as a local project after learning pursuing it as a federal project would have costs deemed unnecessary because of the small amount of train traffic on the rail line there
- Agreed to seek quotes for reconstruction of First Street between Ohio and Cherry streets to widen turn lanes, improve pedestrian safety and extend the National Road Heritage Trail. Indiana State University will upgrade First Street between Cherry and Sycamore streets.
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Chippewa County joins drug lawsuit
Nov 13, 2017 | WEAU 13 News (WI)
By Tajima Hall
As prescription drug abuse remains a growing issue nationwide and in Wisconsin, Chippewa County is joining a class action lawsuit against prescription drug manufacturers.
"It was kind of ironic because the night that the county board entertained this lawsuit, I got a text from dispatch, indicating that we were responding to a possible overdose," said Chippewa County Sheriff James Kowalczyk.
The lawsuit is asking prescription drug companies to reimburse money the county has spent fighting the growing opioid epidemic. Sheriff Kowalczyk says he supports the county’s decision to join the lawsuit.
“Any revenue, whether it be the result of a class action lawsuit to fight opioid addiction and what it costs law enforcement would greatly be appreciated,” he says.
The sheriff’s department says prescription drug abuse has become a huge issue in Chippewa County, with a large majority of arrests made being drug related.
"Our burglaries, our thefts, our domestics, it seems like a large amount of those cases, the use and abuse of meth is greatly associated with those cases," says Sheriff Kowalczyk
Some oppose the county’s decision to join the suit, including a County Board member who voted against the decision. He says it’s unclear who to blame.
"You need a prescription to obtain an opioid so is it the drug manufactures fault? Is it the doctor who prescribed the opioids? No one gave us information to support joining a lawsuit and I don’t believe we should just freely join class action lawsuits," said Thomas Thornton, Chippewa County Board Representative.
Chippewa County isn’t the only county involved. 28 other Wisconsin counties are joining the lawsuit, including Eau Claire.
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Buncombe County takes on Big Pharma, will sue opioid manufacturers, distributors
Nov 14, 2017 | Asheville Citizen Times (NC)
By Jennifer Bowman
Buncombe County will announce Tuesday that it's filed a lawsuit against opioid distributors and manufacturers.
Officials are expected to hold a press conference that will reveal the county has filed a public nuisance lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and wholesale distributors "that made the opioid epidemic possible," according to a news release. The event comes after county commissioners last month unanimously voted to hire Baron and Budd, a national law firm well-known for pursuing legal action against distributors.
Attorney Mike Fuller said last month that the firm represented more than 80 units of government, from states to municipalities. Its clients include Cincinnati, Birmingham, Alabama, and Louisville, and all lawsuits against distributors have been filed in federal court.
Under the agreement, Buncombe would not pay legal fees unless it won a settlement. If successful, Baron and Budd would receive 30 percent.
State statistics show more than 12,000 people in North Carolina have died from opioid-related overdoses over the last 17 years.
Meanwhile, Fuller said, annual revenue for top wholesale distributors exceeds $450 billion.
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NJ Doctor Accused Of Recklessly Pushing Addictive Opioids
Nov 13, 2017 | Law360,
By Nicole Narea
A family physician has been temporarily suspended after he was accused of indiscriminately prescribing medically unnecessary, highly addictive opioids to patients, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General announced Monday.
Moishe Starkman prescribed up to 720 pills of fentanyl and oxycodone among other controlled dangerous substances monthly to five patients, including one who later died of an overdose, over the course of the last five years, according to the government’s Aug. 30 administrative complaint before the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners. The board temporarily suspended Starkman’s medical license Oct. 11 pending the resolution of the proceedings.
“[Starkman] continues to prescribe dangerous medications with habit-forming potential to [patients] without documenting a treatment plan with objectives and goals for pain management or opioid use, making reasonable efforts to prescribe alternative medications or alternative treatments to alleviate pain, or decreasing the dosage of controlled substances,” the complaint states.
Oxycodone and fentanyl are meant to treat serious, continuous pain, particularly in patients who have recently had surgery, critical back or orthopedic injuries or terminal illnesses.
Working at Bordentown Family Practice, Starkman allegedly neglected to properly examine and diagnose patients before continuously prescribing opioids, despite their apparent addiction to the drugs or potential to divert and sell their prescriptions illegally. He did not enter treatment plans for their conditions or opioid reliance in their medical files, try to find alternatives to the highly addictive drugs or reduce the dosages of the drugs in the long-term, according to the complaint.
One patient described in the complaint first consulted Starkman when he was 19, complaining of lower back pain and describing other medications that he was taking at the time. Without physically examining him, Starkman immediately prescribed a muscle relaxer followed by opioids.
Years later, after the patient had developed a clear addiction to the opioids and had been checked into a treatment facility, Starkman still issued him a one last 120-pill prescription of oxycodone. The patient died two months later.
In another case, Starkman had diagnosed a patient with a grave autoimmune disease without documenting any observations to back it up, even ordering blood tests unrelated to autoimmune diseases.
“We allege that instead of providing legitimate medical care to his patients, Dr. Starkman simply wrote them prescription after prescription for highly addictive drugs without so much as taking their temperature,” New Jersey Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino said in a statement Monday. “The scant patient records this physician kept provide no valid reason for his patients to be on powerful painkillers, let alone in such high quantities and for such long periods of time, we allege. This kind of reckless prescribing flies in the face of our efforts to combat the opioid epidemic and we will not stand for it.”
The complaint alleges that Starkman committed gross negligence and poses an “imminent danger” to public safety meriting the temporary suspension of his license while the administrative proceedings are underway. Moreover, it asserted that his license should be suspended or revoked permanently after a plenary hearing and that he should be liable for civil penalties relating to each of the five patients and attorneys’ fees.
The board agreed last month, barring Starkman from entering the premises of his former medical practice during business hours and from practicing medicine in any context, including testifying as an expert witness in New Jersey courts.
Counsel for Starkman did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday evening.
The government is represented by Delia A. DeLisi of the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General.
Starkman is represented by Jay J. Blumberg of Blumberg & Wolk LLC.
The case is In the Matter of the Suspension or Revocation of the License of Moishe Starkman, case number not available, before the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners. -
Pharma Family That Pushed Opioids Is Behind Charter Schools, Too
Nov 13, 2017 | Alternet
By Sarah Darer Littman
The notoriously secretive Sackler family, also known as the OxyContin Clan, has been the subject of much scrutiny of late, including lengthy exposés in the New Yorker and Esquireshining a harsh light on the connection between the drug that made the Sacklers wealthy and their philanthropic giving. But there is another troubling beneficiary of Sackler largesse that has escaped public scrutiny: charter schools. OxyContin heir and Purdue Pharma director Jonathan Sackler is a major funder of charters and an extensive network of pro-charter advocacy groups.
Figuring out who is funding the latest charter school-promoting front group often feels like a game of whack-a-mole. That's why reading Patrick Radden Keefe’s recent New Yorker piece, “The Family That Built an Empire of Pain,” made so much fall into place. Keefe writes, “Purdue and other pharmaceutical companies have long funded ostensibly neutral nonprofit groups that advocate for pain patients.”
The same influence techniques Purdue used to promote painkillers are now being used by Jonathan Sackler to expand charter schools.
Promotional power
The late Arthur Sackler, the eldest of three brothers who bought the company in 1952, was posthumously inducted into the Medical Advertising Hall of Fame, and cited for his achievement in “bringing the full power of advertising and promotion to pharmaceutical marketing.” Yet Allen Frances, former chair of psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine, quoted in the New Yorkerpiece, highlighted the darker side of that power: “Most of the questionable practices that propelled the pharmaceutical industry into the scourge it is today can be attributed to Arthur Sackler.” As a copywriter at a medical advertising agency, Arthur Sackler devised strategies to promote drugs like Librium and Valium. Now, some of those same strategies are now being used with the aim of promoting charter schools.
Jonathan Sackler, Arthur’s nephew, is a well-known name in the education reform movement. He founded the charter school advocacy group ConnCan, progenitor of the nationwide group 50CAN, of which he is a director. He is on the Board of Directors of the Achievement First charter school network. Until recently, Sackler served on the board of the New Schools Venture Fund, which invests in charter schools and advocates for their expansion. He was also on the board of the pro-charter advocacy group Students for Education Reform.
Through his personal charity, the Bouncer Foundation, Sackler donates to the abovementioned organizations, and an ecosystem of other charter school promoting entities, such as Families for Excellent Schools ($1,083,333 in 2014, $300,000 in 2015 according to the Foundation’s Form 990s) Northeast Charter School Network ($150,000 per year in 2013, 2014 and 2015) and $275,000 to Education Reform Now (2015) and $200,000 (2015) to the Partnership for Educational Justice, the group founded by Campbell Brown which uses “impact litigation” to go after teacher tenure laws. Earlier this year, the Partnership for Educational Justice joined 50CAN, which Sackler also funds ($300,000 in 2014 and 2015), giving him a leadership role in the controversial—and so far failing cause—of weakening worker protections for teachers via the courts.
Just as Arthur Sackler founded the weekly Medical Tribune, to promote Purdue products to the medical professional who would prescribe them, Jon Sackler helps to fund the74million.org, the “nonpartisan” education news website founded by Campbell Brown. The site, which received startup funding from Betsy DeVos, decries the fact that “the education debate is dominated by misinformation and political spin,” yet is uniformly upbeat about charter schools while remarkably devoid of anything positive to say about district schools or teachers unions.
Vertical integration
The Sackler “special sauce” is vertical integration. As far back as the early 1960’s, staffers for Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver prepared a memo for a subcommittee he chaired that was looking into the rapidly growing pharmaceutical industry.
“The Sackler empire is a completely integrated operation in that it can devise a new drug in its drug development enterprise, have the drug clinically tested and secure favorable reports on the drug from various hospitals with which they have connections, conceive the advertising approach and prepare the actual advertising copy with which to promote the drug, have the clinical articles as well as advertising copy published in their own medical journals, [and] prepare and plant articles in newspapers and magazines.”
This was used to great effect in promoting OxyContin. Art Van Zee MD looked at the Marketing and Promotion of OxyContin and found that in 2001 alone, the company spent over $200 million to market and promote the drug through a variety of methods. In the settlement in the US District Court of Western Virginia, the company admitted to misbranding the drug with the intent to defraud and mislead the public.
The company was lavish with branded swag for health care practitioners. According to a GAO report, these included, “OxyContin fishing hats, stuffed plush toys, coffee mugs with heat-activated messages, music compact discs, luggage tags, and pens containing a pullout conversion chart showing physicians how to calculate the dosage to convert a patient to OxyContin from other opioid pain relievers.”
The GAO report went on to quote the DEA as saying the Purdue’s use of branded promotional items in the marketing of OxyContin was “was unprecedented among schedule II opioids, and was an indicator of Purdue's aggressive and inappropriate marketing of OxyContin.”
The description of “lavish swag” will sound familiar to anyone who has witnessed one of the no-expenses-spared charter school rallies that are a specialty of Sackler-funded organizations like Families for Excellent schools. Then there is the dizzying array of astroturf front groups all created for the purpose of demanding more charter schools. Just in Connecticut, we’ve had the Coalition for Every Child, A Better Connecticut, Fight for Fairness CT, Excel Bridgeport, and the Real Reform Now Network. All of these groups ostensibly claim to be fighting for better public schools for all children. In reality, they have been lobbying to promote charter schools, often running afoul of ethics laws in the process.
Take Families for Excellent Schools, a “grassroots” group that claims to be about parent engagement, yet was founded by major Wall Street players. In Connecticut, the group failed to register its Coalition for Every Child as a lobbying entity and report a multimillion-dollar ad buy expenditure and the costs of a rally in New Haven.
In Massachusetts, Families for Excellent Schools-Advocacy (FESA) recently had to cough up more than $425,000 to the Massachusetts general fund as part of a legal settlement with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, the largest civil forfeiture in the agency’s 44-year history. Massachusetts officials concluded that FESA violated the campaign finance law by receiving contributions from individuals and then contributing those funds to the Great Schools Massachusetts Ballot Question Committee, which sought to lift the cap on the number of charter schools in the state, in a manner intended to disguise the true source of the money. As part of the settlement, the group was ordered to reveal the names of its secret donors. Jonathan Sackler was one of them.
Patrick Riccards, a former CEO of ConnCan, the pro-charter group that Sackler founded in 2005, told me, “Jon went to Berkeley and in many ways fits into that idealistic mold. But at the same time it was he who made it clear to me that one of the reasons ConnCan existed was to leverage the investment in the charter community, in Achievement First, which is still the dominant charter school network in the state. [CT] The venture capital community ... has put tons of money into seeing Achievement First grow, first in Connecticut, then in New York, then in Rhode Island.”
It’s all part of the model, concluded Riccards. “While you have a public vision of great public schools for all, ConnCan’s focus was: how does the charter industry continue to grow? Every year, ConnCan’s fight was how do we increase the number of seats, and how do we increase the per pupil expenditure?”
Staggering toll
OxyContin was approved for use in treating moderate to severe pain in 1995. Purdue was determined to make the drug a hit, and funded doctors like Russell Portenoy, who said in a 1993 interview with the New York Times: "There is a growing literature showing that these drugs can be used for a long time, with few side effects and that addiction and abuse are not a problem.”
Except that the literature was based on short-term usage, not on long-acting opioids taken over extended periods of time. By 2003, Portenoy admitted to the Times that he had misgivings about how he and other pain specialists had used the research. Although he had not intended to mischaracterize it or to mislead fellow doctors, he had tried to counter claims that overplayed the risk of addiction. But if not for such mischaracterizations, the Sacklers wouldn’t be as wealthy, and America might not be suffering from a public health crisis that is costing the country an estimated $78.5 billion a year.
Even as the scope and scale of the opioid epidemic unfolds, the fortune OxyContin built continues to grow. In the case of OxyContin heir Jonathan Sackler, part of that fortune is being devoted to expanding charter schools and weakening protections for teachers in traditional public schools. Patrick Keefe’s New Yorker feature ends with a stunning statistic: “An addicted baby is now born every half hour.” He asks whether such devastation should give pause to organizations that benefit from the Sacklers' extensive philanthropy. In the case of the charter schools and education reform advocacy groups that Jonathan Sackler funds, the answer to that question should be obvious.
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Governor candidate Schwartz backs Reno opioid lawsuit, criticizes Laxalt for opposing it
Nov 13, 2017 | The Nevada Independent (NV)
By Riley Snyder & Michelle Rindels
State Treasurer Dan Schwartz has lobbed a new attack at his Republican gubernatorial primary opponent, saying Attorney General Adam Laxalt is discouraging a City of Reno lawsuit against opioid manufacturers while taking thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from those companies.
Schwartz’s campaign cited $7,500 in donations to Laxalt from Pfizer, maker of the extended-release opioid Embeda, from 2014 through 2016. Laxalt also received $2,750 from Purdue Pharma, maker of the powerful painkiller Oxycontin that has taken the brunt of criticism in the fight against opioid abuse.
“Nevada has the fourth highest rate of drug overdose deaths in the United States,” Schwartz said in a statement provided to The Nevada Independent. “Our community needs to come together to fight this epidemic. Adam is being driven by campaign donations from the pharmaceutical industry and that’s just plain wrong.”
Laxalt’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
The donations from the two companies are less than 1 percent of the total contributions Laxalt has received during his four-year political career in Nevada. It’s also small relative to what pharmaceutical companies gave to state legislators overall — nearly $128,000 during the 2016 campaign cycle, primarily to Democratic lawmakers who were in the majority last session.
But the volley is part of a key Schwartz campaign theme that appears on a new anti-Laxalt website paid for by Schwartz’s campaign — that Laxalt is beholden to casino owners, lobbyists and other donors.
Schwartz, who is independently wealthy from a career in finance, put more than $644,000 of his own money into his successful treasurer bid, which accounted for 89 percent of his contributions that cycle. Laxalt’s only donation to his campaign was for $20 in January 2014, according to campaign finance records.
Schwartz has told the Independent that he is willing to put about $500,000 of his own money into the primary.
Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve and Laxalt have engaged in a steady back and forth over the past week on whether the City of Reno should individually file a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers.
The attorney general privately contacted Schieve last week and asked her to drop the proposed lawsuit, saying it would interfere with the state’s involvement and possible settlement from a 41-state investigation into several pharmaceutical opioid manufacturers.
Schieve, undeterred, sent a letter to Laxalt asking for additional context and reasons as to why the city shouldn’t file the suit, and asked a Las Vegas trial attorney — Peter Wetherall— to present to the Reno City Council last week on options the city could take in hiring a private law firm to file a suit against various opioid manufacturers.
Laxalt, in return, sent a 4-page letter to Schieve along with state Consumer Advocate Ernest Figueroa asking her to drop the suit, stating that only Nevada’s attorney general has the right to bring a suit under state deceptive trading practice law and that the presence of two lawsuits could interfere with either the larger case or the application of settlement funds.
In a response sent Monday, Schieve blamed Laxalt for pitting “Nevadans against Nevadans,” and said the city’s suit would be complementary to whatever efforts the state undertakes and that the city could be able to create more leverage through the use of private counsel compared to the attorney general’s office.
Schwartz, who is considered the underdog in the race, said he supports the city’s efforts in the lawsuit.
“In the midst of this epidemic I support anything thing we can do to stop it,” he said in a statement.
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Nov 13, 2017 | AmerisourceBergen
AmerisourceBergen, a global healthcare solutions leader, has called on policymakers and regulators to implement new comprehensive guidelines for increased data transparency between the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), drug distributors, and pharmacies. The Company is committed to working collaboratively to help mitigate controlled substance abuse, a complex national crisis, and has urged Congress to take action to enable stronger oversight of opioid ordering and distribution practices.
While opioid prescribing has decreased since its peak in 2012, the number of opioid prescriptions remains high with a national average of 66.5 prescriptions per 100 people in 2016. To make progress in the fight against opioid abuse and address over prescribing, better coordination and cooperation between the DEA, its registrants, and distributors is critical.
“Given the current silos within the supply chain, presently only DEA has access to comprehensive, critically needed data on the total quantities of opioids sold to pharmacies across the U.S.,” said Steven H. Collis, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of AmerisourceBergen. “While distributors are individually required to report controlled substance data to DEA, we currently are not privy to if our peers in the industry are supplying opioid-based medicines to the same pharmacies we are. AmerisourceBergen is committed to working collaboratively to gain access to this data so that all distributors would be better able to detect suspicious orders, and ultimately help stop bad actors in their tracks.”
As a result, AmerisourceBergen urges policymakers and regulators to implement a multi-pronged approach to create stronger ordering and distribution standards:Allow Distributors Access to DEA ARCOS Data:Access to “scrubbed” and de-identified data would enable distributors to evaluate the full context of a particular pharmacy opioid order, and when that pharmacy is purchasing opioids from multiple distributors.Establish additional Opioid Ordering Protocols:It should be required that all opioid orders be placed through the DEA electronic Controlled Substance Ordering System (CSOS). By eliminating manual order forms and mandating that all orders be placed digitally, DEA will be able to immediately confirm that the pharmacy DEA registration information is accurate and in good standing.Explore the possibility of modifying the existing CSOS system and process to potentially detectwhether a pharmacy is purchasing opioids from other distributors, and the quantities of those opioid orders, before the order is forwarded to the distributor for processing.These additional checkpoints would provide the servicing distributor with the necessary contextual data to determine whether it will fill, or cancel and report the order as suspicious.Create New DEA Registrant Classification and Increase DEA Registrant Fees to Provide Funding to Support Enhanced Data Capabilities:Increased DEA registrant fees on the 1.7 million registrants to help fund IT enhancement and future enforcement.Create new DEA Registration classifications, such as “Pain Specialty Pharmacy,” that would require a more in depth investigation by DEA and Boards of Pharmacy before issuing a registration/license, require a higher registration fee, and would allow distributors and regulators to easily identify pharmacies that will be ordering a higher volume of opioids in order to implement additional scrutiny and focus on this classification of business.
“AmerisourceBergen is eager to collaborate with policymakers and stakeholders throughout the pharmaceutical supply chain to identify avenues through which we can more accurately assess and act on possibly suspicious orders of prescription opioids. We hopefully can work with regulators and policymakers to support these ideas to enhance ARCOS data transparency, and take an important step against opioid abuse in America,” said Collis.
About AmerisourceBergen
AmerisourceBergen provides pharmaceutical products, value-driving services and business solutions that improve access to care. Tens of thousands of healthcare providers, veterinary practices and livestock producers trust us as their partner in the pharmaceutical supply chain. Global manufacturers depend on us for services that drive commercial success for their products. Through our daily work—and powered by our 20,000 associates—we are united in our responsibility to create healthier futures. AmerisourceBergen is ranked #11 on the Fortune 500, with more than $150 billion in annual revenue. The company is headquartered in Valley Forge, Pa. and has a presence in 50+ countries. Learn more at amerisourcebergen.com.
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Taking A Page From Pharma’s Playbook To Fight The Opioid Crisis
Nov 14, 2017 | Kaiser health News
By Pauline Bartolone
Dr. Mary Meengs remembers the days, a couple of decades ago, when pharmaceutical salespeople would drop into her family practice in Chicago, eager to catch a moment between patients so they could pitch her a new drug.
Now living in Humboldt County, Calif., Meengs is taking a page from the pharmaceutical industry’s playbook with an opposite goal in mind: to reduce the use of prescription painkillers.
Meengs, medical director at the Humboldt Independent Practice Association, is one of 10 California doctors and pharmacists funded by Obama-era federal grants to persuade medical colleagues in Northern California to help curb opioid addiction by altering their prescribing habits.
She committed this past summer to a two-year project consisting of occasional visits to medical providers in California’s most rural areas, where opioid deaths and prescribing rates are high.
“I view it as peer education,” Meengs said. “They don’t have to attend a lecture half an hour away. I’m doing it at [their] convenience.”
This one-on-one, personalized medical education is called “academic detailing” — lifted from the term “pharmaceutical detailing” used by industry salespeople.
Detailing is “like fighting fire with fire,” said Dr. Jerry Avorn, a Harvard Medical School professor who helped develop the concept 38 years ago. “There is some poetic justice in the fact that these programs are using the same kind of marketing approach to disseminate helpful evidence-based information as some [drug] companies were using … to disseminate less helpful and occasionally distorted information.”
Recent lawsuits have alleged that drug companies pushed painkillers too aggressively, laying the groundwork for widespread opioid addiction.
Avorn noted that detailing has also been used to persuade doctors to cut back on unnecessary antibiotics and to discourage the use of expensive Alzheimer’s disease medications that have side effects.
Kaiser Permanente, a large medical system that operates in California, as well as seven other states and Washington, D.C., has used the approach to change the opioid-prescribing methods of its doctors since at least 2013. (Kaiser Health News is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.)
In California, detailing is just one of the ways in which state health officials are attempting to curtail opioid addiction. The state is also expanding access to medication-assisted addiction treatment under a different, $90 million grant through the federal 21st Century Cures Act.
The total budget for the detailing project in California is less than $2 million. The state’s Department of Public Health oversees it, but the money comes from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through a program called “Prevention for States,” which provides funding for 29 states to help combat prescription drug overdoses.
The California doctors and pharmacists who conduct the detailing conversations are focusing on their peers in the three counties hardest hit by opioid addiction: Lake, Shasta and Humboldt.
They arrive armed with binders full of facts and figures from the CDC to help inform their fellow providers about easing patients off prescription painkillers, treating addiction with medication and writing more prescriptions for naloxone, a drug that reverses the toxic effects of an overdose.
“Academic detailing is a sales pitch, an evidence-based … sales pitch,” said Dr. Phillip Coffin, director of substance-use research at San Francisco’s Department of Public Health — the agency hired by the state to train the detailers.
In an earlier effort, Coffin said, his department conducted detailing sessions with 40 San Francisco doctors, who have since increased their prescriptions of naloxone elevenfold.
“One-on-one time with the providers, even if it was just three or four minutes, was hugely beneficial,” Coffin said. He noted that the discussions usually focused on specific patients, which is “way more helpful” than talking generally about prescription practices.
Meengs and her fellow detailers hope to make a dent in the magnitude of addiction in sparsely populated Humboldt County, where the opioid death rate was the second-highest in California last year — almost five times the statewide average. Thirty-three people died of opioid overdoses in Humboldt last year.
One recent afternoon, Meengs paid a visit during the lunch hour to Fortuna Family Medical Group in Fortuna, a town of about 12,000 people in Humboldt County.
“Anybody here ever known somebody, a patient, who passed away from an overdose?” Meengs asked the group — a physician, two nurses and a physician assistant — who gathered around her in the waiting room, which they had temporarily closed to patients.
“I think we all do,” replied the physician, Dr. Ruben Brinckhaus.
Brinckhaus said about half the patients at the practice have a prescription for an opioid, anti-anxiety drug or other controlled substance. Some of them had been introduced to the drugs years ago by other prescribers.
Meengs’ main goal was to discuss ways in which the Fortuna group could wean its patients off opioids. But she was not there to scold or lecture them. She asked the providers what their challenges were, so she could help them overcome them.
Meengs will keep making office calls until August 2019 in the hope that changes in the prescribing behavior of doctors will eventually help tame the addiction crisis.
“It’s a big ship to turn around,” said Meengs. “It takes time.”
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Nov 14, 2017 | KVRR (FOX)
By Fargo, ND
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30670790?token=9648a755-a305-4f23-b7d9-8ffdf6c55e70
Rough Transcript: more than two dozen states, cities and counties have filed civil lawsuits against manufacturers, distributors and drugstore chains seeking damages to cover the cost of the ongoing opioid crisis, alleging a variety of bad practices 8:25 AMcontributed to the epidemic. quincy, massachusetts, expects to file suit within weeks. koch says "it's affecte everybody at every level and because it's been so easy to get pills. there's a million stories. i've been to way too many wakes." for the last six years, the city has seen overdose deaths climb. in 2016, forty-two lives were lost. twenty-seven have died so far this year. thomas koch quincy mayor>> koch says "whether it's th manufacturers, the distributors, to some degree into the medical profession. it was awful "loose goosey" for an awful long time even after we continued to see and learn of the crisis. they knew what they were doing and they're going to be held accountable for it." molly line reporting>> quincy city leaders are working right now to determine just how much the opioid crisis has cost the city.in the fight against the opioid crisis, is moving from the streets of the courthouse. salt lake county leaders are nothing they will file a lawsuit against companies that create manufacturer and distribute opioids. this person got addicted after a hockey injury and died from an overdose. the mayor is fighting the demand side of the problem and big pharmaceutical companies need to be held accountable he says for the cost and the lives of taxpayers. >> we had to target the companies, if 90 percent of the people arrested are heroin users, 80 percent of those people came to it through a prescription drug. we have to go after them in the distribution and those that are pushing the drugs in our communities. county district attorney did not give specifics of the civil lawsuit. says they will be finalizing plans in the next two weeks of what he will sue and for how much.
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Nov 14, 2017 | KTVX (ABC)
By Salt Lake City, UT
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30670799?token=9648a755-a305-4f23-b7d9-8ffdf6c55e70
Rough Transcript: in the fight against the opioid crisis, is moving from the streets of the courthouse. salt lake county leaders are nothing they will file a lawsuit against companies that create manufacturer and distribute opioids. this person got addicted after a hockey injury and died from an overdose. the mayor is fighting the demand side of the problem and big pharmaceutical companies need to be held accountable he says for the cost and the lives of taxpayers. >> we had to target the companies, if 90 percent of the people arrested are heroin users, 80 percent of those people came to it through a prescription drug. we have to go after them in the distribution and those that are pushing the drugs in our communities. county district attorney did not give specifics of the civil lawsuit. says they will be finalizing plans in the next two weeks of what he will sue and for how much.
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