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Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report - 12/4/17

Hospital Suits

Alabama hospitals join Mississippi class-action suit over opioids
Dec 1, 2017 | Alabama.com (AL)
By Lawrence Specker

Two south Alabama hospitals are party to a Mississippi class-action suit targeting drug makers and distributors for costs of the opioid epidemic, spearheaded by an attorney involved in the 1998 tobacco industry settlement.
Mississippi, Alabama hospitals file opioid lawsuit against drugmakers
Dec 1, 2017 | Becker's Hospital Review
By Brian Zimmerman

Attorneys representing one Mississippi hospital and two Alabama hospitals filed a lawsuit Thursday against several drugmakers, alleging the companies engaged in deceptive marketing campaigns to promote the use of opioids to treat chronic pain, according to a report from the Clarion Ledger.
Mississippi, Alabama Hospitals Sue Opioid Manufacturers
Dec 2, 2017 | Associated Press
By Staff

Hospitals in Mississippi and Alabama are suing more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies, claiming the companies deceptively marked and sold opioids.
Hospitals Join Lawsuit Against Opioid Makers They Claim ‘Aggressively Pushed’ Fatal Drugs
Dec 2, 2017 | The Daily Caller
By Steve Birr

Two hospitals in Alabama are joining a class-action lawsuit with Mississippi against opioid manufactures for allegedly knowingly spreading addiction “for their own corporate profit.”
Hospitals Sue Drug Companies Over Opioids
Dec 4, 2017 | Alabama Public Radio (AL)
By lLex Aubunchon & Associated Press

Hospitals in Alabama as well as Mississippi are suing more than a dozen drug manufacturers, claiming they deceptively marketed and sold dangerous opioids.

Other Litigation Coverage

Yadkin County sues drug manufacturers and distributors, blaming them for opioid crisis in the county
Dec 1, 2017 | Winston-Salem Journal
By John Hinton

Yadkin County is suing drug manufacturers and distributors, accusing them of causing the county’s opioid crisis by deceptive marketing of painkillers and failing to report suspicious orders to federal authorities.
Minnesota counties to sue opioid manufacturers
Dec 1, 2017 | The Daily Journal
By Forum News Service (MN)

Minnesota county attorneys from across the state plan to sue opioid manufacturers and distributors for allegedly using marketing tactics akin to the tobacco industry to flood communities with addictive and deadly narcotics.
Putnam Votes to Sue Drug Companies
Dec 1, 2017 | The Highlands Current
By Chip Rowe

Putnam County is joining more than 100 other counties and states in suing drug companies that it claims contributed to the opioid addiction crisis through “fraudulent and negligent” marketing and careless distribution of pain pills.
Weber County to join fight against opioid manufacturers
Dec 1, 2017 | Good4Utah (UT)
By Simone Francis

Weber County could be the next in a growing number of Utah counties to file suit against manufacturers and distributors of opioid pain killers.
ITASCA COUNTY JOINS NATIONAL MOVEMENT AGAINST OPIOID MANUFACTURERS AND DISTRIBUTORS
Dec 2, 2017 | Herald Review (MN)
By Kassandra Tuten

Itasca County has joined a national wave of legal actions by local governments announcing lawsuits against drug manufacturers and distributors for the public cost of the opioid crisis sweeping the nation.
Weber County votes to sue prescription drug companies
Dec 2, 2017 | Associated Press
By Staff

Weber County officials voted to sue prescription drug companies, joining two other Utah counties and more than two dozen states, cities and counties taking similar action in the midst of a national opioid-drug epidemic.
Clark County may sue to recover opioid epidemic expenses
Dec 1, 2017 | Las Vegas Review Journal (NV)
By Michael Scott Davidson

Clark County commissioners on Tuesday will consider suing pharmaceutical companies to recover money spent fighting opioid addiction and paying for its consequences.
Mower County joins opioid lawsuit
Dec 1, 2017 | Post Bulletin (MN)
By Hannah Yang

Frustrated by the effects of the opioid epidemic, Mower County seeks to hold accountable those who profited from the crisis.
Monroe County joins lawsuit against opioid medication manufacturers
Dec 1, 2017 | The Tomah Journal (WI)
By Meghan Flynn

While supervisors voiced concerns, the Monroe County Board of Supervisors voted to join a multi-county lawsuit against manufacturers of opioid medications at the county’s Nov. 21 regular monthly meeting.
Kenosha County files opioid lawsuit
Dec 3, 2017 | Kenosha News (WI)
By Staff

To Kenosha County for filing a federal lawsuit seeking to hold makers and distributors of prescription painkillers responsible for its role in the nation’s opioid epidemic.

Commentary and FYIs

United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation: November Meeting Overview
Dec 1, 2017 | Searcy Denney
By Brenda Fulmer

The next hearing session of the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is scheduled for November 30, 2017 in St. Louis, Missouri. Eight matters are set for oral argument to consider motions to transfer each to one centralized district for coordinated pretrial proceedings. The matters include trending issues such as Equifax’s massive 2017 data breach and the national opioid litigation against Big Pharma manufacturers and distributors. Ten matters will be considered for centralization without the parties making oral arguments.
MDL Hearing Signals A New Phase For Opioid Suits
Dec 1, 2017 | Law360
By Adam Fleischer and Kevin Harris

On Nov. 30, 2017, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, through the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, heard argument from the parties in over 100 lawsuits filed by county and local governments seeking damages from pharmaceutical companies for the opioid epidemic. The plaintiffs who favor consolidation argued that the cases belong in Ohio, whereas the manufacturers argued for consolidation in Chicago or New York, and various distributors supported consolidation in West Virginia. Whether these cases get consolidated and, if so, in which court, may have far reaching implications toward the management and ultimate resolution of the onslaught of opioid claims.
Opioid Litigation Threatens Industry’s Survival
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Insurers Seek Reimbursement for the High Cost of Opioid Addictions
Dec 1, 2017 | WorkCompCentral
By Gary L. Wickert

Big Pharma is having a Big Tobacco moment. Since 1999, the number of prescription opioids sold in America has almost quadrupled. Over the same period, prescription opioid deaths have more than quadrupled and millions have become addicted to legally-prescribed painkillers that are 50 times more powerful than heroin. Nearly two million Americans met criteria for prescription opioid abuse and dependence in 2013. In the same year, there were more than 16,000 deaths from prescription opioid overdose. Dozens of lawsuits and class actions have been filed against physicians, pharmacies, and the pharmaceutical companies manufacturing and distributing painkillers such as Fentanyl, Hydrocodone, and Oxycodone (under the brand names OxyContin, Roxicodone, and Oxecta). U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has endorsed the lawsuits and claims that prescription painkillers are handed out in his home state “like M & M’s.” Even President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump spoke out publicly last month about fighting opioid addiction.
Heidi Shafer Sees Unresolved Issues in Opioid Litigation
Dec 4, 2017 | The Daily News (TN)
By Bill Dries

A task force on opioid addiction and its impact on county government services is not the same as a working group. And a motion by county mayor Mark Luttrell to intervene in the opioid lawsuit filed last month by the Shelby County Commission isn’t a done deal until the county commission agrees to the terms for that intervention.
In opioid lawsuits, state aim is 1 voice
Dec 3, 2017 | Arkansas Online
By Chelsea Boozer

Even though Arkansas had the second-highest opioid prescription rate in the nation last year, cities and counties in the state are late to the game in suing manufacturers and distributors of the highly addictive drugs as dozens of other communities have.
Big pharma’s role in the opioid crisis
Dec 2, 2017 | Stamford Advocate (CT)
By Paul Schott

Stamford’s largest biotech company is mostly known by government officials and the general public because of one drug.
Drugs firms join fight against opioid deaths epidemic
Dec 2, 2017 | The Guardian
By Julia Kollewe

The numbers in the US alone are astonishing: more than 53,000 people over 12 months; an average of 146 a day. This is the death toll from opioid overdoses last year, many of them from widely prescribed painkillers, such as tramadol, codeine and oxycodone.

Broadcast Media Coverage

FOX 10 News at 5PM
Dec 4, 2017 | WALA (Fox)
By Mobile, AL

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31198078?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
WKRG News 5 This Morning
Dec 4, 2017 | WRKG (CBS)
By Mobile, AL

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31198354?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
WDSU News Early This Morning
Dec 4, 2017 | WDSU (NBC)
By New Orleans, LA

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31198358?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
NewsChannel 2 at Sunrise
Dec 4, 2017 | WKTV (ABC)
By Utica, NY

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31198362?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
Good Morning Meridian: Early Edition
Dec 4, 2017 | WTOK (ABC)
By Meridian, MS

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31198370?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
Inside Utah Politics
Dec 4, 2017 | KTVX (ABC)
By Salt Lake City, UT

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31198985?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
Spectrum News All Evening
Dec 2, 2017 | Spectrum News
By Raleigh Durham, NC

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31198985?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
WCCO 4 News at Noon
Dec 1, 2017 | WCCO (CBS)
By Minneapolis - St. Paul, MN

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31199626?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
News 8 This Morning
Dec 1, 2017 | WKBTDT@ (MyNetworkTVO
By La Crosse, WI

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31199642?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb

Hospital Suits

Alabama hospitals join Mississippi class-action suit over opioids

Dec 1, 2017 | Alabama.com (AL)

By Lawrence Specker

Two south Alabama hospitals are party to a Mississippi class-action suit targeting drug makers and distributors for costs of the opioid epidemic, spearheaded by an attorney involved in the 1998 tobacco industry settlement.
The federal suit was filed Thursday in the Southern District of Mississippi. About 20 companies are named as defendants, including OxyContin creator Purdue Pharma (maker of OxyContin), Johnson & Johnson, generic drug manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals and drug wholesaler AmerisourceBergen.
The suit alleges that drug makers "aggressively pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction ... [and] turned patients into drug addicts for their own corporate profit." It charges that wholesale distributors, along with manufacturers, "unlawfully breached their legal duties under federal law to monitor, investigate, refuse and report suspicious orders of prescription opiates."
The companies have not yet filed a response, and no dates for court proceedings have been set. According to the Clarion-Ledger, several have made statements denying any wrongdoing and stressing their own interest in combating illicit prescription drug use. These include Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Endo Health Solutions.
"We are deeply troubled by the opioid crisis and we are dedicated to being part of the solution," said a Purdue statement quoted by the Clarion-Ledger. "We vigorously deny these allegations and look forward to the opportunity to present our defense."
"We believe the allegations in lawsuits against our company are both legally and factually unfounded," said a statement from Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a division of Johnson & Johnson. "Janssen has acted in the best interests of patients and physicians ... Addressing opioid abuse will require collaboration among many stakeholders and we will continue to work with federal, state and local officials to support solutions."
Plaintiffs named in the complaint are the Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center in McComb, Miss., about 75 miles south of Jackson; Mobile-based Infirmary Health Hospitals Inc.; and Alabama's Monroe County Healthcare Authority.
The hospitals are represented by John W. "Don" Barrett, best known for his involvement in suits against the tobacco industry in the late 1980s and throughout the '90s. While Barrett is listed as the lead attorney, a number of firms are involved, including Mobile-based Taylor Martino.
Efforts to reach Taylor Martino and Infirmary Health for comment were not immediately successful.
Barrett's tobacco-related work began with suits on behalf of some individual smokers, but he also joined with attorney Dickie Scruggs and Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore in a strategy by which the state sued cigarette makers for the Medicaid costs related to treatment of smokers. It was the first such suit, though more than 40 other states followed, and it led to the Master Settlement Agreement with four tobacco companies in 1998.
The new suit is somewhat analogous in that it attempts to recoup costs from companies that the hospitals occurred treating people adversely affected by their products. Costs cited include handling overdoses, treating babies born addicted, providing psychiatric care for opioid users who require mental health care, wasting time dealing with "pill seekers," and performing surgeries "that are more complex and expensive than would otherwise be the case if the patients were not opioid addicts." The suit argues that the hospitals "incur partial monetary losses for patients with health insurance, and total monetary losses for uninsured patients, in the treatment of patients with opioid conditions."
The suit also includes a claim that drug manufacturers and distributors are guilty of racketeering as defined by the government's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Mississippi's suit might be the first of its kind, but it's part of a surge of suits fueled by the opioid epidemic. Multiple states, for example, have sued Purdue Pharma, which has denied wrongdoing.
Fortune reported in late September that "cases against distributors like Cardinal and opioid manufacturers like Purdue and Teva, which are accused of negligence and aggressive sales tactics, have proliferated across the country in recent months. All levels of government, hurting from the toll the public health crisis has had on budgets, are taking action, from municipalities (Kermit, WV; Chicago, Il, Everett, WA) to counties (Mingo in WV; Nassau in NY; Orange in California) to states (Mississippi, Ohio, New Mexico). And that's just a sampling. There's also the multi-state investigation into various opioid manufacturers that a bipartisan coalition of 35 state attorney generals launched in June, and Congressional and Senate investigations into the matter underway."

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Mississippi, Alabama hospitals file opioid lawsuit against drugmakers

Dec 1, 2017 | Becker's Hospital Review

By Brian Zimmerman

Attorneys representing one Mississippi hospital and two Alabama hospitals filed a lawsuit Thursday against several drugmakers, alleging the companies engaged in deceptive marketing campaigns to promote the use of opioids to treat chronic pain, according to a report from the Clarion Ledger.
Lawyers filed the suit in a federal court in Jacksonville, Miss., on behalf of Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center in McComb, Infirmary Health in Mobile, Ala., and Monroe County Hospital in Monroeville, Ala. The opioid lawsuit marks the first time hospitals have launched a class action lawsuit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Endo Pharmaceuticals are named as defendants.
"Each manufacturer defendant has conducted, and has continued to conduct, a marketing scheme designed to persuade doctors and patients that opioids can and should be used for chronic pain, resulting in opioid treatment for a far broader group of patients who are much more likely to become addicted and suffer other adverse effects from the long-term use of opioids," the lawsuit states, according to the Clarion Ledger.
The lawsuit states the hospitals have expended a large amount of resources to treat overdoses, patients with opioid addiction and infants with opioid withdrawal syndrome due to rising rates of opioid addiction and misuse.
"Hospitals are the frontline troops in the opioid battle," Don Barrett, an attorney representing Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, told the Clarion Ledger. "Hospitals have lost billions treating opioid-related medical problems. Yet they have been thus far ignored. America's hospitals will be ignored no longer."
In statements made to the Clarion Ledger, each drugmaker expressed concern regarding the nation's opioid epidemic, but denied the charges detailed in the lawsuit.

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Mississippi, Alabama Hospitals Sue Opioid Manufacturers

Dec 2, 2017 | Associated Press

By Staff

Hospitals in Mississippi and Alabama are suing more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies, claiming the companies deceptively marked and sold opioids.
The Clarion Ledger reports the class-action federal lawsuit was filed Thursday in Mississippi by Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center in McComb, Mississippi; Infirmary Health Hospitals, Inc., based in Mobile, Alabama; and Monroe County Healthcare Authority, based in Monroeville, Alabama.
The lawsuit says hospitals have faced expenses for treating opioid addicts because companies "pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction."
The hospitals claim monetary losses as damages, saying they never would have had contact with these patients, and the patients would not have opioid conditions, "but for the opioid epidemic created and engineered by Defendants."
Purdue Pharma makes OxyContin, the pill receiving the most claims of deceptive marketing. Purdue said in a statement that it denies the lawsuit's allegations and the company is working to solve the opioid public health crisis.
Another defendant, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., said in a statement it provides resources to doctors, pharmacists and patients about responsible pain management and is working to develop non-opioid chronic pain treatment.
A representative from another defendant, Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, said the lawsuits are "legally and factually unfounded" and that the company has acted in the best interest of patients, including warning labels on each product.
Another defendant — Endo Health Solutions Inc. and Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. — also denied the allegations and said it has ceased opioid promotion.
Don Barrett, an attorney from Lexington, Mississippi, is representing Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center. In the 1990s, Barrett worked on the tobacco lawsuits that yielded billions of dollars in damages for the state.
"Hospitals are the front-line troops in the opioid battle," Barrett told the newspaper. "Hospitals have lost billions treating opioid-related medical problems. Yet they have been thus far ignored. America's hospitals will be ignored no longer."
Barrett said the class-action lawsuit represents all U.S. hospitals that have treated patients with health issues related to the use of opioids.

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Hospitals Join Lawsuit Against Opioid Makers They Claim ‘Aggressively Pushed’ Fatal Drugs

Dec 2, 2017 | The Daily Caller

By Steve Birr

Two hospitals in Alabama are joining a class-action lawsuit with Mississippi against opioid manufactures for allegedly knowingly spreading addiction “for their own corporate profit.”
Alabama’s Monroe County Healthcare Authority and Infirmary Health Hospitals Inc. filed the lawsuit Thursday along with hospitals in Mississippi, targeting 20 companies, including Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Endo Pharmaceuticals and Teva Pharmaceuticals. The lawsuit claims the pharmaceutical powerhouses “aggressively pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids,” through fraudulent marketing campaigns that downplayed risks of abuse and addiction to both doctors and patients, reports AL.com.
Attorney John Barrett is spearheading the litigation for the hospitals, a lawyer known for his successful efforts against tobacco companies in the 1990s. The filing alleges that opioid makers, “turned patients into drug addicts for their own corporate profit.”
“Hospitals are the front-line troops in the opioid battle,” Barrett said in an email Thursday to Clarion Ledger. “Hospitals have lost billions treating opioid-related medical problems. Yet they have been thus far ignored. America’s hospitals will be ignored no longer.”
Pharmaceutical companies have previously vehemently denied any claims of wrongdoing and say they are committed to working with the government to solve the opioid epidemic.
“We are deeply troubled by the opioid crisis and we are dedicated to being part of the solution,” a spokesman for Purdue Pharma previously told The Daily Caller News Foundation in response to a lawsuit filed by the attorney general of New Jersey. “We vigorously deny these allegations and look forward to the opportunity to present our defense.”
In statements to the Clarion Ledger Johnson & Johnson, Endo Pharmaceuticals and Teva Pharmaceuticals also disputed the charges and reiterated their commitment to helping mitigate the opioid abuse crisis.
Lawsuits are mounting against the largest drug makers in the country for their alleged complicity in sparking the opioid crisis through dishonest advertising. There are currently more than 75 cities and states suing pharmaceutical companies over the destructive addiction crisis.
President Donald Trump declared the opioid epidemic a “public health emergency” Oct. 26, giving states hit hard by opioid addiction flexibility on how they direct federal resources to combat rising drug deaths.
Data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse released Sept. 7 predicts the addiction epidemic in America will continue to deteriorate, pushing drug deaths to an estimated 71,600 in 2017. If the estimates prove accurate, 2017 will be the second year in a row that drug deaths surpass U.S. casualties from the Vietnam War.

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Hospitals Sue Drug Companies Over Opioids

Dec 4, 2017 | Alabama Public Radio (AL)

By lLex Aubunchon & Associated Press

Hospitals in Alabama as well as Mississippi are suing more than a dozen drug manufacturers, claiming they deceptively marketed and sold dangerous opioids.
Jackson, Mississippi’s Clarion Ledger reports the class-action lawsuit was filed late last week in federal court in Mississippi. The plaintiffs are Infirmary Health Hospitals, based in Mobile, Monroe County Healthcare Authority, based in Monroeville, and Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center based in McComb, Mississippi.
The lawsuit states hospitals have faced additional expenses for treating opioid-addicted patients because the drug companies “pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction.”
Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, is receiving the most claims of deceptive marketing. The company released a statement saying they deny the lawsuit’s allegations and are working diligently to solve the opioid public health crisis.

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Other Litigation Coverage

Yadkin County sues drug manufacturers and distributors, blaming them for opioid crisis in the county

Dec 1, 2017 | Winston-Salem Journal

By John Hinton

Yadkin County is suing drug manufacturers and distributors, accusing them of causing the county’s opioid crisis by deceptive marketing of painkillers and failing to report suspicious orders to federal authorities.
Attorneys for Yadkin County filed a 161-page lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, joining other local and state governments across the country who have filed similar litigation against the drug industry amid the national opioid crisis.
Yadkin officials are requesting a jury trial and an unspecified amount of monetary damages that would cover the cost of medical care of patients in Yadkin who are suffering opioid-related addiction, the lawsuit says.
Kevin Austin, the chairman of the Yadkin County Board of Commissioners, said in a statement that the lawsuit “sends a clear message that the citizens of Yadkin County are taking strong action against the root cause of the opioid crisis — the actions and failures of the manufacturers and distributors of these powerful narcotic drugs.”
On Nov. 20, the commissioners unanimously passed a resolution declaring the opioid crisis a public-health nuisance that must be stopped to benefit county residents. In the resolution, the commissioners also blamed drugmakers and distributors for causing Yadkin’s opioid crisis.
Garry Whitaker of Winston-Salem, one of Yadkin’s attorneys, said that his clients believe that drug manufacturers have to fulfill their legal requirements to report suspicious orders for painkillers to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
“That failure leads to an inability of the DEA to investigate for illicit diversion of lawfully prescribed opioids,” Whitaker said.
The lawsuit lists as defendants 24 drug manufacturers, distributors and their subsidiary companies.
Among the defendants are Cardinal Health Inc. of Dublin, Ohio, which operates a distribution center in Greensboro; McKesson Corp. of San Francisco, whose registered agent is Corporation Service Co. of Raleigh and Amerisourcebergen Drug Corp. of Chesterbrook, Pa. Those companies distribute prescription opioids in North Carolina, according to the lawsuit.
A Winston-Salem Journal reporter on Friday couldn’t reach any representative of the companies, who are defendants in the lawsuit, for comment. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of Washington, a lobbying organization for the drug industry, also couldn’t be reached for comment.
Paul Coates of Greensboro, another attorney for Yadkin County, said it was likely that none of the defendants had been served with the lawsuit Friday.
Earlier this month, Steven H. Collis, the president and chief executive of Americasourcebergen, addressed the opioid epidemic in a statement.
“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,” Collis said. “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.”
The lawsuit outlines the opioid crisis in Yadkin County, the state of North Carolina and the United States, and blames the drug industry for causing it.
“The opioid epidemic did not happen by accident,” the lawsuit says.
From 1999 to 2007, Yadkin County experienced 26 opiate-related deaths for an average of 2.9 deaths per year, according to the lawsuit. From 2008 to 2016, opiate-related deaths nearly tripled to 65 for an average of 7.2 deaths per year.
In North Carolina, more than 12,000 residents died from opioid-related overdoes from 1999 to 2016, according to the lawsuit. In 2014, the state experienced 913 deaths, 2,698 hospitalizations and 3,515 emergency-room visits related to opioids.
Every day, more than 90 Americans die after overdosing on opioids, according to the lawsuit.
“The manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioids extract billions of dollars of revenue from the addicted American public, while public entities experience tens of millions of dollars of injury caused by the reasonably foreseeable consequences of the prescription opioid addiction epidemic,” the lawsuit says.

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Minnesota counties to sue opioid manufacturers

Dec 1, 2017 | The Daily Journal

By Forum News Service (MN)

Minnesota county attorneys from across the state plan to sue opioid manufacturers and distributors for allegedly using marketing tactics akin to the tobacco industry to flood communities with addictive and deadly narcotics.
At a news conference Thursday, Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said he feared late-night phone calls because so often it’s law enforcement contacting him about “another dead kid” who overdosed.
“We’ve had enough of the fraudulent marketing and negligent distribution of opioids,” Orput said. “All of us have been struggling with the devastating affect they’ve had on our communities. All of this has been done in the name of outrageous profits.”
Last year,  395 Minnesotans died from opioid overdoses, according to the most recent data from the state Department of Health. Roughly half of those deaths were from prescription drugs sold under brand names such as Oxycontin and Percocet and Vicodin.
In 2016, Minnesota health care providers  wrote 3.5 million prescriptions for opioids, enough for 62 percent of the state’s population to have access to the powerful drugs, state data shows.
The county attorneys’ lawsuits will allege that flood of pills is due to a dishonest campaign stretching back to the late 1990s to convince doctors and patients that opioids were not addictive and were a safe way to treat chronic pain.
Easy access to pills led to widespread opioid dependence with addicts often turning to illicit drugs when their prescriptions ran out, the county attorneys claim.
Pharmaceutical companies had a duty to tell doctors and patients the truth about the possible dangers of their products and should never put profits over safety, Orput said.
“That hasn’t happened. The defendants broke those simple rules,” he said.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said county leaders decided to pursue individual lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors because the drugs have had different impacts in each community. Counties also have the option of filing lawsuits in state or federal courts.
Lawsuits are expected to be filed across the state in the coming weeks.
“Every county is going to have a different story to tell with respect to their claims against distributors and the manufacturers,” Choi said, noting that county leaders were sharing information. “We are very much together and we want to find solutions that are going to work for our communities.”
Officials from Ramsey, Washington, Dakota, Hennepin and St. Louis counties all attended Thursday’s news conference to announce the lawsuits.
Minnesota is not the only state to file lawsuits against opioid manufacturers. There are scores of lawsuits that have been filed nationwide, and in at least one case they have led pharmaceutical companies to change their marketing practices, Minnesota officials said.
Minnesota’s lawsuits seek financial damages and better oversight of opioids to address what is described as a public health epidemic. Defendants include the Purdue Frederick Company; Cephalon, Inc.; Janssen Pharmaceuticals; Watson Laboratories; the McKesson Corporation and others.
In other cases opioid manufacturers and distributors have denied wrongdoing. Earlier this year, McKesson agreed to  a record $150 million civil settlement with the Justice Department for failing to report suspicious sales of opioids.
“We must hold these corporate schlockmeisters accountable,” Orput said, using a slang term for a junk dealer.

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Putnam Votes to Sue Drug Companies

Dec 1, 2017 | The Highlands Current

By Chip Rowe

Putnam County is joining more than 100 other counties and states in suing drug companies that it claims contributed to the opioid addiction crisis through “fraudulent and negligent” marketing and careless distribution of pain pills.
During the county’s Nov. 15 Rules Committee meeting, Neal Sullivan (R-Mahopac) cited a 60 Minutes–Washington Post investigation in October that detailed how the drug industry lobbied a handful of members of Congress to weaken regulations designed to prevent large shipments of opioids to corrupt doctors and pharmacists.
The report also noted the pharmaceutical industry has spent $102 million lobbying Congress between 2014 and 2016.
“It is a clear indication [the pharmaceutical companies] are in it for the money,” Sullivan said. “They’re killing 91 people a day who overdose. We’re going to join this lawsuit to put some pressure on these companies.”
Barbara Scuccimarra (R-Philipstown) said she was pleased the county is moving ahead. “It’s not just to get monetary payback for what we’ve expended,” she said. “It’s to send a message to these companies that it’s time to change the way you do business.”
There is precedent for holding large corporations responsible for downplaying the health effects of their products. In 1998, 46 states settled with the tobacco industry for $200 billion after arguing manufacturers had covered up the risks of smoking.
“As president of the New York Association of Counties, I think it is imperative that we learn from the tobacco lawsuits of the 1990s and collectively go after the source of the prescription opioid epidemic,” said County Executive Mary Ellen Odell in a statement.
Putnam County Attorney Jennifer Bumgarner noted the lawsuit was not part of a class action but rather one of many individual suits filed by counties and states. In June, Dutchess County sued 11 pharmaceutical companies, and Orange, Rockland, Westchester and at least eight other New York counties also have sued as part of a coordinated effort called the New York Opioid Cost Recovery litigation.
In addition manufacturers and distributors, looking for evidence they knew of the risks of addiction to pain pills. Most recently, officials in four towns in West Virginia sued a nonprofit that sets standards for hospitals, arguing it had spread “misinformation” beginning in 2001 in its directives on using opioids for pain management.
The challenge for plaintiffs is that opioids are not tobacco. People who abuse prescription opioids, which are approved by the FDA for pain relief, are not using them as directed and taking more than prescribed (unlike cigarettes, which people do use as designed). In addition, most marketing is aimed at doctors, not the user. Like gunmakers, the drug companies and distributors likely will argue that people, not its products, are responsible.
Bumgarner said the lawsuit will not cost the county anything, because the firm that many neighboring counties have hired, and which advised Putnam officials — Napoli Shkolnik, based in New York City — is working on a contingency basis, meaning it will be paid from any settlement.
“They have absolutely agreed to provide us the resources, and that they will do the legwork and look through the documents themselves,” said Bumgarner.
The Legislature met Nov. 21 to approve the lawsuit, which seeks damages for “deceptive acts and practices, false advertising, public nuisance, fraud and unjust enrichment” from the “largest manufacturers and marketers of opioid pain medications,” such as Purdue Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Johnson & Johnson and Endo Pharmaceuticals; as well as the largest distributors, which are McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen.
According to the resolution, the goal of the litigation is to compensate the county for costs incurred from prescription opioid abuse, including loss of productivity in the workplace, health care costs such as treatment, and criminal justice costs.
But Legislature Chairwoman Ginny Nacerino (R-Patterson) said the chief objective of the litigation isn’t financial. “We don’t anticipate receiving a lot of money,” she said. “But it is important to send a message. It is important to stop what has been going on for so many years.”
Paul Jonke (R-Brewster) called the litigation a good first step, saying the lawsuit and others like it send a message to drug companies “that we’re going to hold them responsible for the crisis they’ve created in our little community. Hopefully they’ll see some financial obligation down the road, or we’ll be able to recoup some funds for education, and get some folks help.”

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Weber County to join fight against opioid manufacturers

Dec 1, 2017 | Good4Utah (UT)

By Simone Francis

Weber County could be the next in a growing number of Utah counties to file suit against manufacturers and distributors of opioid pain killers.
The county commission unanimously passed a resolution to begin the process of a lawsuit which could come as soon next month.
Commissioners say it’s to recover both the monetary and human cost that the opioid crisis has had on residents. Salt Lake County announced its plan to take on the big pharmaceutical companies in November.

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ITASCA COUNTY JOINS NATIONAL MOVEMENT AGAINST OPIOID MANUFACTURERS AND DISTRIBUTORS

Dec 2, 2017 | Herald Review (MN)

By Kassandra Tuten

Itasca County has joined a national wave of legal actions by local governments announcing lawsuits against drug manufacturers and distributors for the public cost of the opioid crisis sweeping the nation.
During a meeting of the Itasca County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, Nov. 28, the board unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the county attorney, Jack Muhar, to commence litigation against pharmaceutical opioid manufacturers and distributors and other parties involved in the opioid epidemic.
The remainder of the article is under paywall: http://www.grandrapidsmn.com/news/itasca-county-joins-national-movement-against-opioid-manufacturers-and-distributors/article_a4b1554e-d6d7-11e7-97b4-eb3c6a9a6518.html

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Weber County votes to sue prescription drug companies

Dec 2, 2017 | Associated Press

By Staff

Weber County officials voted to sue prescription drug companies, joining two other Utah counties and more than two dozen states, cities and counties taking similar action in the midst of a national opioid-drug epidemic.
Weber County Commissioner Kerry Gibson said the litigation that will result from Tuesday night’s action has yet to be determined, but the resolution allows the county to sue on behalf of the public for false advertising, abating a public nuisance and violations of the federal RICO Act and the Utah Pattern of Unlawful Activity Act.
“There is a tremendous amount of momentum here and by counties all across the country in response to the overwhelming costs that counties bear because of the crisis,” Gibson said. “Weber has significant impacts and a unique story to tell. We struggle with those from both a budgetary and human perspective. I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t have a personal connection to someone who has struggled with this type of addiction. It touches all of us.”
Weber, Salt Lake and Utah counties now all have passed resolutions to sue prescription drug companies, the Standard-Examiner reported.
Prescription opioids include morphine, methadone, buprenorphine, hydrocodone and oxycodone. Brand names include Demerol, OxyContin, Percocet, Percodan, Tylox, Vicodin and others. Heroin is an illegal opioid that many pursue after no longer being able to access the more costly prescription opiates.
Eighty percent of heroin users in Utah started off taking prescription opioids, according to opidemic.org.
“About 5 percent of the world’s population lives in the U.S. and yet we prescribe about 95 percent of all opioids. This is a marketing problem,” Gibson said.
Almost 215 million opioid prescriptions were filled in the U.S. in 2016, and nearly 91 people die nationwide from opioid overdoses each day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

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Clark County may sue to recover opioid epidemic expenses

Dec 1, 2017 | Las Vegas Review Journal (NV)

By Michael Scott Davidson

Clark County commissioners on Tuesday will consider suing pharmaceutical companies to recover money spent fighting opioid addiction and paying for its consequences.
If commissioners authorize the district attorney’s office to pursue litigation, Clark County would join states, cities and counties across the U.S. suing manufacturers and distributors of painkillers.
Addiction and overdoses linked to opioids — which run the gamut from prescription pills to heroin — have become an epidemic nationwide and close to home.
“Since 2008 more people have died in Clark County from an opioid overdose than motor vehicle accidents or firearms,” said Kathryn Barker, an epidemiologist with the Southern Nevada Health District. “In Clark County about 85 percent of the fatal overdoses are from prescription painkillers.”
Nationally, 91 people die a day from an opioid overdose, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
From 2000 through 2015, more than 4,000 people died in Clark County from opioid overdoses, according to the health district. And major hospitals in Clark County have charged patients close to $110 million for treatment related to opioid abuse.
“The overprescribing (of opioids) … impacts our homeless population. They impact our jail. They impact our court system. They impact our social services,” Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said. “Those are all costs linked to addiction.”
President Donald Trump declared opioid addiction a public health emergency in October. Gov. Last year Brian Sandoval hosted a State Summit on Prescription Drug Abuse, a group that has since evolved into the Opioid State Action Accountability Taskforce.
In Southern Nevada, the epidemic’s costs have fallen heavily on the county, which funds the Metropolitan Police Department and University Medical Center of Southern Nevada and provides social services in a region that’s home to more than 2 million Nevadans.
Giunchigliani and Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak, both seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, requested the discussion about a potential lawsuit.
“The citizens of Clark County have suffered greatly as a result of this opioid epidemic, and I think we need to hold these drug manufacturers accountable,” Sisolak said. “I think they have misled not only the doctors and pharmacists but also the patients in terms of the addictive nature of these narcotics, and we’ve got a lifetime of suffering as a result of that.”
AG’s office uncertain
Clark County is not the first jurisdiction in Nevada to consider suing the drug makers.
Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve this year announced she wants to sue opioid manufacturers and distributors. State Attorney General Adam Laxalt has urged the city not to do so, arguing that such a lawsuit could undermine an ongoing multi-state investigation into how those companies contributed to the opioid epidemic. Nevada and the other participating states hope to reach a financial settlement with drug manufacturers.
A document prepared for the Clark County Commission meeting on Tuesday says the county’s “prospective lawsuit will not conflict with or interfere with any efforts of the attorney general.”
Still, AG spokeswoman Monica Moazez said in a statement Thursday that her office believes “Nevada is best positioned in the bipartisan multi-state effort of 40 attorneys general.”
“We hope that any lawsuits by local jurisdictions do not unintentionally undermine our ongoing bipartisan investigation,” Moazez wrote.
At least one manufacturer may be pursuing a settlement with the attorneys general. Bloomberg reported Thursday that Purdue Pharma LP, the maker of OxyContin, announced this week that it is in “negotiations” with the states.
Moazez said the attorney general’s office could not discuss any settlement negotiations.
County staff declined an interview about their potential lawsuit, but the meeting document states that the district attorney’s office has requested the commission’s permission to file a lawsuit with the help of Las Vegas personal injury law firm Eglet Prince.
The firm last month filed a class-action lawsuit in Clark County District Court against a manufacturer of bump stocks — a device that speeds the rate of fire of semi-automatic weapons — following the Route 91 Harvest festival mass shooting.
Eglet Prince has agreed to represent the county at no upfront cost, county spokesman Erik Pappa said. The firm is requesting up to 25 percent of any damages won. Eglet Prince did not respond to a request for an interview.

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Mower County joins opioid lawsuit

Dec 1, 2017 | Post Bulletin (MN)

By Hannah Yang

Frustrated by the effects of the opioid epidemic, Mower County seeks to hold accountable those who profited from the crisis.
On a 4-0 vote during a recent county board session — Chairman Tim Gabrielson was not present — Mower County authorized legal action against opioid manufacturers and distributors. This lawsuit would not be considered a financial risk to taxpayers, according to Mower County Attorney Kristen Nelsen.
The planned legal action seeks to address the rising expense of treatment and additional services provided to those battling addiction to opioids such as morphine, oxycodone and fentanyl, which are primarily prescribed for pain relief.
"We are seeing injunctive relief, and stop them (opioid manufacturers, sellers and distributors) from violating various laws," Nelsen said. "We are seeking equitable relief for those who have suffered. ... There's a lot of various remedies that are going to be sought."
Recently, Olmsted County, on a 5-2 vote, added its name to a growing list of counties preparing to sue pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioids.
At least six Minnesota counties are joining the litigation, which now includes Mower and Olmsted counties. Freeborn and Steele counties also are considering joining the lawsuit.
Mower County hired Lockridge, Grindal, Nauen PLLP to handle the lawsuit. Olmsted County also is using this same law firm.
Staggering numbers
Since 2000, opioid overdoses in Minnesota have increased by 430 percent. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, there were 395 opioid-involved deaths in 2016, up 12 percent from 2015.
Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the majority of drug overdose deaths — more than six out of 10 — involved an opioid. The amount of prescription opioids sold to pharmacies, hospitals and doctors' offices about quadrupled from 1999 to 2010.
More than half a million people died from drug overdoses between 2000 and 2015, and the CDC stated that 91 Americans die daily from an opioid overdose.
Opioids (including prescription opioids, heroin and fentanyl) killed more than 33,000 people in 2015, more than any year on record. About half of all opioid overdose deaths involve a prescription drug.
Mower County — from 2000 to 2015 — recorded 11 deaths from prescription opioids and four heroin-related deaths, according to the Minnesota Department of Health report.
'We owe it to our citizens'
"The epidemic is impacting all of us in many ways, including financial," Mower County Coordinator Craig Oscarson said. "We know that we are seeing more clients we serve in terms of treatment and jail. … It is obvious this epidemic needs attention and caused strains on budgets as well as county staff."
From a law enforcement perspective, Mower County Sheriff Terese Amazi said authorities have seen an increase in deaths from heroin use, and responses to heroin overdoses that have been transported to area hospitals. The exact effect on the office has yet to be addressed.
"I wouldn't say that it is taxing our resources quite yet, but it has increased from zero in years past to several in the last two to three years," Amazi said. "In talking to my counterparts that are members in our violent crime task force, we all are seeing an increase in opioid use, abuse and overdoses."
Nelsen said the county didn't have specific financial figures for addressing the epidemic, but the legal action is in its early stages.
"I think this lawsuit is an attempt to tackle this problem from every angle," she said. "We owe it to our citizens to fight it at every level, be it the manufacturers, sellers, distributors. ... We have to do what we can. I mean, we owe it to our citizens."

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Monroe County joins lawsuit against opioid medication manufacturers

Dec 1, 2017 | The Tomah Journal (WI)

By Meghan Flynn

While supervisors voiced concerns, the Monroe County Board of Supervisors voted to join a multi-county lawsuit against manufacturers of opioid medications at the county’s Nov. 21 regular monthly meeting.
The board voted 13-2, with supervisors Doug Path and Paul Steele dissenting and supervisor Dan Olson absent.
The lawsuit seeks to pressure persons and entities responsible for the opioid abuse epidemic to accept responsibility for the costs the epidemic has imposed on local governments.
Supervisor Mary Von Ruden favors the lawsuit. She said 37 counties in Wisconsin have already joined.
“When I went to the (Wisconsin) Counties Association conference ... one of the workshops was explaining how ... all counties are having issues with human services going over their budgets because they can’t afford all the issues the opioids are bringing,” she said.
Von Ruden said the lawsuit “is a big part of opening up everybody’s eyes, and if we don’t stop this, doing whatever we can to stop this, the price is going to keep rising.”
Supervisor Doug Path said he’s not against joining the lawsuit but believes more information was needed before the board could make a decision.
“I think it’s too early to jump in and vote on something we are very uninformed about,” he said. “It’s a good thing. I’m not against the lawsuit, but if I’m going to put my name on the dotted line, I want to know all of the information and move forward with that.”
Path was specifically concerned about compensation for the involved law firms. which have agreed to bear the upfront costs associated with the claims and would not be compensated unless the county receives a financial benefit.
“That’s when it’s going to cost us something,” he said. “I ask what the breakdown would be. Is it a 50/50 deal − the attorneys would get 50 percent ... and the counties would get 50 percent? ... We’re already incurring costs, and we will continue to incur them until this is resolved, so why shouldn’t we know how much we’re going to get?”
Corporate council Andy Kaftan said the breakdown is still unknown.
“There’s no clear answer on how any recovery will be split among the counties,” he said. “It’s not clear how they’re intending to look at what the costs are for the counties. We don’t really know; we don’t have the data yet. Part of this will be gathering the data.”
Kaftan said it might not be known until the end of the lawsuit.
“Part of the reason they sent out this type of lawsuit where they recover percentage and their out-of-pocket cost is because they don’t know what the settlement is going to be,” he said. “If they knew they were going to be getting money, they would have switched to an hourly fee and expect you to pay up front. But this is so open-ended, they don’t know if they’ll be successful, and if they’re not successful, they lose − they’re out of pocket all the cost they put in. ... well we may never know until the final bell is rung on this.”
Supervisor James Schroeder was concerned about the possibility of failure.
“My biggest concern over the whole thing is, yes, the pharmaceutical companies did make this drug, but who allowed them to put it on the market?” he said. “That’s the part that bothers me, how far will this go, and will they jump behind that and say, ‘Look, we didn’t put it out there. We made it, but the Food and Drug Administration is the one that let it be put on the market and your pharmacies are the ones that sold it.’”
Kaftan said that will be part of the opposition’s argument.
“To win, you’ll have to be more like the tobacco industry where you’re fighting studies and other information that they knew just how dangerous this was,” he said. “The only way we’re going to know is as this lawsuit moves forward and we see what the evidence is and we know how much they knew by the end of this.”

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Kenosha County files opioid lawsuit

Dec 3, 2017 | Kenosha News (WI)

By Staff

To Kenosha County for filing a federal lawsuit seeking to hold makers and distributors of prescription painkillers responsible for its role in the nation’s opioid epidemic.
Kenosha County, which announced its participation on Tuesday, is one of 48 Wisconsin counties to file suit. The lawsuits allege drug manufacturers and distributors used deceptive marketing campaigns that misrepresented the safety of long-term opioid use and seek unspecified monetary damages for the financial strain caused by counties’ response to the epidemic.
Lawyers for the law firms filing on the county’s behalf, claim “millions in unexpected and unbudgeted time and resources” have been spent in responding to the opioid epidemic.
We recognize that the country can’t sue its way out of the epidemic. Building awareness, breaking stigmas, funding detox centers and developing other effective plans to break the addiction cycle are going to be key to turning the tide against this epidemic.
But big pharma and early pain management proponents of long-term opioid use are at the epicenter of the problem. It does not hurt to try and recoup some of the cost that opioids have taken out of the county. That money could then be reinvested in the county’s efforts to combat the epidemic.

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Commentary and FYIs

United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation: November Meeting Overview

Dec 1, 2017 | Searcy Denney

By Brenda Fulmer

The next hearing session of the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is scheduled for November 30, 2017 in St. Louis, Missouri. Eight matters are set for oral argument to consider motions to transfer each to one centralized district for coordinated pretrial proceedings. The matters include trending issues such as Equifax’s massive 2017 data breach and the national opioid litigation against Big Pharma manufacturers and distributors. Ten matters will be considered for centralization without the parties making oral arguments.What is the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation?
Multidistrict litigation is a mechanism for increasing efficiency in the federal court system. Created through an Act of Congress in 1968, 28 U.S.C. 1407, the law allows for the transfer of civil actions involving common questions of fact to one federal district court for coordinated or consolidated pretrial proceedings. To transfer a case, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation must determine that the transfer will (1) be for the convenience of parties and witnesses; and (2) promote the just and efficient conduct of the related lawsuits. The efficiency in transferring cases to on federal court, or “centralization,” is accomplished through avoidance of discovery duplication, prevention of inconsistent pretrial rulings, and conserving resources of the parties, their attorneys, and the judiciary. If the Judicial Panel determines a case should be centralized, they will also determine at the hearing which Judge will handle the centralized proceedings.
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consists of seven sitting federal judges appointed to serve on the panel by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Appointment is reflective of a judge being held in high esteem on the bench. The current Chair of the panel is Judge Sarah S. Vance from the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Currently, there are Multidistrict Litigation matters pending in disaster cases involving the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill; intellectual property; employment cases; securities litigation; and several others. Multidistrict Litigation is most frequent in cases involving products liability, antitrust, or marketing and sales practices. To date in 2017, Multidistrict Litigation has been formed in 9 products liability matters; 4 marketing and sales practice matters; and 2 antitrust matters.Matters Set for Oral Argument
The following matters are scheduled for oral argument during the hearing session:MDL No. 2777 – In re: Michael Stapleton Associates, Ltd., Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Wage Hour LitigationMDL No. 2800 – In re: Equifax, Inc., Customer Data Security Breach LitigationMDL No. 2801 – In re: Capacitors Antitrust Litigation (No. III)MDL No. 2802 – In re: Epipen (Epinephrine Injection, USP) Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) LitigationMDL No. 2804 – In re: National Prescription Opiate LitigationMDL No. 2806 – In re: McGregor-Mayweather Boxing Match Pay-Per-View LitigationMDL No. 2807 – In re: Sonic Corp. Customer Data Security Breach LitigationMDL No. 2808 – In re: Anthony Spencer Green, Sr. LitigationNotable Motions to Transfer
MDL No. 2800 – In re: Equifax, Inc., Customer Data Security Breach Litigation. This matter involves over 300 cases filed against the consumer credit agency, alleging violations of state and federal laws for the company’s purported failure to use adequate safeguards to protect consumers. The alleged failures resulted in unauthorized individuals gaining access to Equifax, Inc.’s data network storing the private information of 143 million consumers. The Plaintiffs suing Equifax, Inc. moved for consolidation when only 22 cases were pending and noted numbers were likely to rise quickly given the amount of victims; by the morning of the hearing, over 300 cases had been filed. Equifax, Inc. acknowledged the data breach in September 2017; records accessed included names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and, in some cases, driver’s license numbers. Plaintiffs have alleged violations of
MDL No. 2804 – In re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation. Counsel representing several Plaintiffs filed for consolidation of the actions of state, county, and municipal governments and other agencies against opiate manufacturers Purdue Pharma, Teva/Cephalon, Janssen, Endo, Actavis, and Mallinckrodt and distributors McKesson Corporation, AmerisourceBergen Corporation, and Cardinal Health, Inc. The lawsuits allege negligence as well as violations of public nuisance laws, state consumer protection statutes, and the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Practices Act, 18 U.S.C. §§1961, et seq. Plaintiffs allege opioid manufacturers and distributors misrepresented the risk of addiction associated with opioid use to regulators, doctors, and patients and failed to report suspiciously large orders of their drugs, actions which allegedly contributed to the current nationwide opioid epidemic.

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MDL Hearing Signals A New Phase For Opioid Suits

Dec 1, 2017 | Law360

By Adam Fleischer and Kevin Harris

On Nov. 30, 2017, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, through the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, heard argument from the parties in over 100 lawsuits filed by county and local governments seeking damages from pharmaceutical companies for the opioid epidemic. The plaintiffs who favor consolidation argued that the cases belong in Ohio, whereas the manufacturers argued for consolidation in Chicago or New York, and various distributors supported consolidation in West Virginia. Whether these cases get consolidated and, if so, in which court, may have far reaching implications toward the management and ultimate resolution of the onslaught of opioid claims.
The Parties’ Arguments for MDL and Their Preferred Venue

On Sept. 25, 2017, 46 government plaintiffs filed a motion with the panel seeking coordination or consolidation of their claims and 20 “substantially similar” lawsuits pending in 11 federal districts. Among the common questions of fact that would justify MDL, plaintiffs cited:

Whether, and to what extent, defendants promoted or allowed the use of prescription opioids for purposes other than those approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.Defendants’ knowledge of the actual or potential diversion of prescription opioids into illicit channels.The nature and adequacy of defendants’ internal controls and procedures for identifying suspicious orders for prescription opioids and reporting them to the authorities.

Pro-MDL Plaintiffs: The above referenced government plaintiffs argued that “the potential for conflicting, disorderly, [and] chaotic” pretrial rulings is great, and recommended that Chief Judge Edmond A. Sargus, Jr. of the Southern District of Ohio, currently presiding over more than a dozen opioid claims, preside over the MDL in light of his experience with dispositive motions, “bellwether trials,” and settlements in the MDL context. According to counsel, a court in Appalachia, which has been hit hardest by the opioid epidemic, deserves the opportunity to preside over any MDL the panel might establish.

Anti-MDL Plaintiffs: Several plaintiffs, including the city of Chicago and eight plaintiffs from West Virginia, opposed centralization. Those plaintiffs argued that their claims named distributors or manufacturers, but not both, such that MDL would hinder their individual case interests, and they would not have sufficient issues of commonality to justify consolidation.

The panel rejected these arguments because, as Judge Charles Breyer of the Northern District of California noted repeatedly, the central factual issue for these claims is "what did [the manufacturers and distributors] know and what did they do [with that knowledge]?" Plaintiff-specific questions, such as how many pills were shipped into a given community, could be answered in the context of MDL without hindering any individual plaintiff's case.

Distributors: According to the “big three” distributor defendants, McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health Inc., and AmerisourceBergen Corporation, the panel should establish MDL before Judge David A. Faber in the Southern District of West Virginia, where claims against distributors were first filed, and where Judge Faber has already heard motions to remand and motions to dismiss in those cases (Judge Faber has not ruled on the latter).

Manufacturers: The manufacturers sought transfer to the federal district in which they were first sued. For them, that is the Northern District of Illinois, where Judge Jorge Alonso is presiding over the lawsuit filed by the city of Chicago in June 2014. The manufacturers noted that more than half of the Northern District’s judges have MDL experience, and touted the central location of the court and its proximity to airports as additional support. Judge Alonso’s rulings on three rounds of motions to dismiss in Chicago’s suit were also discussed.

As an alternative to the Northern District of Illinois, the manufacturers, many of which are based in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, also expressed support for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, even though there is no opioid litigation pending against them there.

Criteria for Establishing MDL and Selecting a Transferee Court

The panel considers a number of common sense factors when selecting a transferee court to administer MDL, including: (1) case load; (2) geographic convenience for parties, witnesses and evidence; and (3) forums with large numbers of pending or anticipated cases subject to the MDL. In addition, the panel has previously focused on the availability of an experienced and capable judge familiar with the issues presented by the litigation. At the hearing, the Panel noted that although defendants were partial to the jurisdictions in which they were first sued, that consideration “will not be the determining factor” in the selection of a venue for MDL.

Significance of MDL to the Opioid Epidemic

Transferee courts often make crucial pretrial decisions regarding case management, the scope of discovery and class action certification. Moreover, while those cases the panel consolidates into MDL “shall be remanded,” to its original district following pretrial proceedings, remand is unnecessary if a case “shall have been previously terminated.” According to statistics produced by the panel, in 2016, transferee courts only remanded 12.1 percent of cases (399 of 3,289) that were consolidated into MDL. Instead, the transferee court commonly rules on dispositive motions before remand or presides over settlement.

For example, Judge Jorge Alonso, in the Northern District of Illinois, has used his role in presiding over an MDL for the NCAA college football concussion claims to help navigate and create coordination between disparate groups of plaintiffs’ counsel, and to test the limits of the proper valuation of a settlement of these claims, as well as the parameters of what groups of plaintiffs will and will not be included in the settlement, and how the settlement may be paid out. The opioid claims have this far suffered from the lack of such coordination and guidance, and establishing an MDL is an important step in this direction.

The opioid claims in particular, as contrasted with concussion or other MDLs, present a few unique challenges. First and foremost, the opioid claims are not brought by the injured individuals themselves. Instead, these claims are brought by government entities that allege they are out money for having treated or responded to the epidemic.

As Judge Vance noted throughout the hearing, “there are serious threshold issues” with the government entities’ standing to bring their claims that do not apply to other categories of plaintiff, such as individuals claiming wrongful death, which could lead to an inefficient MDL for nongovernment plaintiffs. Therefore, the manner in which government entities can prove their damages will be a challenging topic for any MDL court, as will the consideration of how a settlement may be structured such that it does not impinge on the rights of recovery for the actual individuals who may later claim personal harm from opioids.

An additional consideration for any MDL court is how to address the differing exposure and roles of the defendants who may be part of the MDL and any proposed settlement. Pharmaceutical manufacturers have been the primary target of opioid litigation, as these entities are alleged to have been involved in stoking the fires of the epidemic from the earliest days. Many of these companies have very large self-insured retentions, which could give them increased autonomy to craft settlements through an MDL.

By contrast, the distributor defendants in the MDL may face very different exposure, a resolution of which may involve insurance interests. The defendants in these claims are also beginning to include pharmacies, doctors and pain management clinics, all of which have settlement interests and exposures that differ from the others, and which would have to be reconciled through MDL management.

As opioid claims mount, reports have surfaced indicating that Purdue Pharma and other pharmaceutical defendants are eyeing settlement, at least at the state level. Therefore, the existence of an MDL in the immediate future, while having its work cut out for it, may be the key development toward moving these cases toward resolution in a coordinated fashion on the federal level.

Indications from the Court

The panel clearly believed that what the pharmaceutical defendants knew about their drugs and sales practices, and what they did with that knowledge, were factual issues shared across claims. The panel’s concern was about efficiency, and about how to structure an MDL to elucidate common facts without impinging on the claims of various plaintiffs. Nearly every attorney who spoke was asked to opine on the ideal scope for the MDL: Should the MDL include government entities only, or should it include hospitals, labor unions and individual plaintiffs as well? Quite understandably, no counsel had a comprehensive answer.

One way to solve this problem, which was first posited by Judge Breyer, is to assign all of the claims to MDL and allow the transferee court to create different “tracks” based on plaintiff category, spin off new MDLs as appropriate, or remand cases that have ceased to benefit from MDL.

Some variation of this procedure received support from prominent parties, including the manufacturer defendants and the “big three” distributors. This approach would also assuage various parties who expressed concern about being lumped into a “one-size-fits-all” MDL, such as smaller, localized wholesale distributors who are only sued in a handful of the roughly 150 opioid lawsuits currently pending nationally.

Conclusion

The most prominent parties agree that the opioid litigation proliferating across the country would benefit from MDL coordination or consolidation. The panel seems convinced that common questions of fact exist in the opioid litigation at issue.

Assuming an MDL is established, the pace of opioid litigation should accelerate and new, “tag along” claims will likely be filed as plaintiffs seek to share costs within the MDL and share in any potential global settlement. Evidentiary and dispositive rulings may also influence how many additional plaintiffs file new claims and push the parties towards settlement. With the prospect of an MDL looming, prescription opioid litigation is entering a new phase that will have a significant impact on those interested in these claims.

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Opioid Litigation Threatens Industry’s Survival

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Insurers Seek Reimbursement for the High Cost of Opioid Addictions

Dec 1, 2017 | WorkCompCentral

By Gary L. Wickert

Big Pharma is having a Big Tobacco moment. Since 1999, the number of prescription opioids sold in America has almost quadrupled. Over the same period, prescription opioid deaths have more than quadrupled and millions have become addicted to legally-prescribed painkillers that are 50 times more powerful than heroin. Nearly two million Americans met criteria for prescription opioid abuse and dependence in 2013. In the same year, there were more than 16,000 deaths from prescription opioid overdose. Dozens of lawsuits and class actions have been filed against physicians, pharmacies, and the pharmaceutical companies manufacturing and distributing painkillers such as Fentanyl, Hydrocodone, and Oxycodone (under the brand names OxyContin, Roxicodone, and Oxecta). U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has endorsed the lawsuits and claims that prescription painkillers are handed out in his home state “like M & M’s.” Even President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump spoke out publicly last month about fighting opioid addiction.
Much like the tobacco litigation over the past 50 years, there is no precedent for these opioid lawsuits. The complaints allege that by prescribing and supplying these powerfully addictive drugs, despite knowing their highly addictive characteristics, the physicians and pharmacies in question caused the plaintiffs to abuse the opioids and even engage in criminal activity to obtain them. The plaintiffs in these lawsuits aren’t just the families of those who died from overdose, incurred the cost of rehabilitation treatment, or suffered lost wages and jobs. Like the tobacco litigation, suits are now being filed by municipalities, counties, and states, claiming that the dangerous products have cost the government substantial sums of public funds to deal with the consequences of an opioid epidemic that was fueled by the defendants’ acts of placing these highly addictive prescription medications into the stream of commerce and “fraudulent” marketing regarding the safety of these analgesics. Even insurance companies are waking up to the fact that they have had to pay billions in claim dollars as a direct result of this preventable epidemic. They too are lining up to seek compensation and reimbursement for increased workers’ compensation and health insurance claims costs that could amount to more than $25 billion.
Opioid addiction starts with a legitimate doctor’s short-term pain relief prescription and a trip to the pharmacy, rather than a dark alley rendezvous with a drug dealer. Opioids are narcotic painkillers that work by preventing pain signals from reaching the brain. They are synthetic drugs that resemble the effects of natural opium, derived from the opium poppy. A 2016 survey reveals that 99% of doctors are prescribing opioids for longer than the three-day period recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Studies show that prescribing opioids isn’t the best treatment for chronic pain, and can actually increase a patient’s sensitivity to pain, requiring higher doses, and leading to addiction. Employees taking opioids (even if not addicted) pose a safety risk to themselves and others. In that way, opioid pain treatment in one employee can lead to the injury of a second employee, and so on. The behavior of someone on opioids can be similar to that of someone who has been drinking. Jobs that involve working from heights, being on construction sites, and driving are among those that cannot be safely performed while on opioids.
Last months’ issue of the Medical Care magazine estimated that the societal cost of the U.S. prescription opioid epidemic tops $80 billion and is growing. Health insurers and workers’ compensation carriers shoulder about one-third of this cost, while only one-fourth of it is borne by the public sector. For employers and workers’ compensation carriers, this means that even employees who don’t fit the stereotype of drug users will struggle with this potentially deadly addiction.
The crisis has led directly to increased workers’ compensation costs. A 2012 report by Lockton Companies concluded that ”prescription opioids are presently the number one workers’ compensation problem in terms of controlling the ultimate cost of indemnity losses.” The report says that there has never been a more damaging impact on the cost of workers’ compensation claims from a single issue than the abuse of opioid prescriptions for the management of chronic pain. It says that an estimated 55% to 86% of all claimants are receiving opioids for chronic pain relief. The Lockton report can be read HERE.
The perceived insurance cost of the opioid prescription crisis can easily be under-estimated. Ask most claims professionals, CFO’s, or corporate risk managers how much influence prescription drugs have on their cost of claims and the answer will typically be “a small percentage.” They reference discount pricing, as communicated by their third-party administrator, but are missing the bigger and more expensive picture not revealed in pharmacy stewardship reports. Not only is there a crisis in opioid prescription proliferation and the subsequent misuse of these prescription drugs, but the total effect is unseen and unknown. Half of prescription drugs are dispensed and billed by the physicians, unseen in most reports and costing up to 300% more than when run through a pharmacy benefits manager.
A 2012 Hopkins-Accident Research Fund Study determined that employees prescribed even one opioid had average total claims costs four to eight times greater than employees with similar claims who didn’t take opioids. The reasons include increased emergency room visits from overdose, death, addiction treatment, related illness, and abuse and misuse of prescribed drugs. It is estimated that 35% of employees receiving long-term opioid pain treatment are addicted. In Illinois, physicians are engaging in a process called “physician dispensing”, in which they not only prescribe opioids, but also sell them to injured workers. Research shows that when physician dispensing takes place, doctors prescribe 3.2 times the quantity they should, at a 60% to 300% markup. This partially explains why a recent study found that workers in Illinois spend twice as long away from work after an injury as workers in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Indiana.
Many work-related injuries occur to the back, for which doctors are increasingly prescribing opioids both short-term and long-term to address pain, despite broad medical recommendations against long-term use of such painkillers in back cases. Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries has revealed that 42% of employees with back injuries received an opioid prescription in the first year after an injury. However, after one year, 16% of those employees were still taking opioids. According to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) and the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute, while all 50 states are experiencing a similar problem, long-term use of opioids was most prevalent in New York and Louisiana, with significant long-term opioid usage found in Texas, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, California, and North Carolina. This translates to billions in additional costs for workers’ compensation carriers, since the medical benefits portion of a claim may be open for years or even for the lifetime of an injured worker.
The increased claims costs of prescription opioids are astronomical. An annual workers’ compensation report from pharmacy benefit managing giant Express Scripts recently noted: “The issue of opioid prescribing becomes even more important in workers’ compensation settings as prolonged opioid use has been shown to be associated with poorer outcomes, longer disability, and higher medical costs for injured workers.” In 2002, less than 1% of injured California employees were prescribed opioids. By 2011, it was 5% and payments for these prescriptions rose from 4% to 18% – an astonishing 321% increase in payments.
The politics of pain management is about to get very ugly. Many states have either put parameters on opioid prescribing in place or are in the process of doing so. For example, both New Jersey and Pennsylvania now limit first-fill prescriptions for opioids. As of April, Delaware and Ohio were well on their way to doing the same. California is proposing that its closed drug formulary, which will go into effect July 1, keep opioids off the preferred list for pain medications. New York’s budget for 2018 includes the creation of a formulary. Other states such as Florida and Louisiana were considering similar moves as of April.
The full scope of the opioid crises includes an investigation by Congress, lawsuits by individual states, counties and cities around the country (and in Canada), collaboration among attorneys general, and class action lawsuits. Workers’ compensation carriers and governmental agencies on whose shoulders these huge additional payments have fallen want their money back – and they are taking action to make that happen.
The growing opioid litigation is following in the footsteps of the infamous tobacco litigation. In the 1950s, individual plaintiffs sued tobacco companies alleging negligence in the manufacture of and advertising for cigarettes. Tobacco fought back and prevailed in all of those early lawsuits. A second wave of lawsuits emerged in the 1980s, and plaintiffs found their first victory in the landmark case of Cipollone v. Liggett, although the $400,000 verdict was reversed on appeal. Tobacco successfully argued that smokers knew and knowingly assumed the risks and that federal law governing advertising preempted state laws.
A third wave of litigation occurred in the 1990s, and the first big win for plaintiffs occurred in 2000, when a California jury ordered Philip Morris to pay $51.5 million to a California smoker with inoperable lung cancer. At the same time, much like the current opioid litigation, more than 40 states sued the tobacco companies under state consumer protection and antitrust laws. These states argued that cigarettes contributed to health problems that triggered significant costs for public health systems. In 1998, the attorneys general of 46 states and four of the largest tobacco companies agreed to settle the state cases for $368 billion. In 2014, a wrongful death lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds in Florida resulted in a verdict of $23 billion in punitive damages.
Opioid class action suits being filed against doctors, pharmacies, and the opioid manufacturers are eerily similar to the tobacco litigation – and could be just as successful. More than two dozen states, cities, and counties have filed similar lawsuits accusing pharmaceutical companies of making false claims about the dangers of their drugs to make a profit. West Virginia has been the loss leader on these class action suits. However, recent lawsuits have been filed by Illinois, California, Ohio, Mississippi, New York, Kentucky, the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, and Washington State. With the hindsight of the tobacco litigation behind them, some of these cases are already settling. In December 2015, a suit in Kentucky against the manufacturer Purdue Pharma settled for $24 million. More recently, suits against opioid distributors in West Virginia have reaped over $40 million in settlements.
On November 7, 2017, nearly two dozen Wisconsin counties filed a federal lawsuit alleging that “nefarious and deceptive” marketing campaigns from pharmaceutical companies are responsible for the nation’s opioid overdose epidemic. The lawsuit claims that local governments’ health and law enforcement services “have been strained to the breaking point” because of widespread opioid abuse, and seeks unspecified monetary damages from Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Endo Health Solutions Inc., and subsidiaries of the companies. In Wisconsin, 1,824 people died from opioid overdoses from 2013 to 2015, according to the lawsuit. MWL’s home county of Washington County, Wisconsin, is aggressively seeking to recover costs associated with the opioid epidemic. With a population of about 131,900, the county had 542 hospitalizations involving opioids last year, according to the lawsuit, and 70 opioid overdose deaths from 2013 to 2016.
Lawyers working the opioid litigation against those responsible for the prescription opioid crisis recognize that billions have been spent unnecessarily by the insurance industry and are looking for insurance companies to join the litigation. MWL is part of a nationwide litigation team who is putting together a coalition of insurers to join in litigation to recoup these costs. If you are a workers’ compensation carrier, health insurer, labor union, self-insured company, or government entity interested in discussing this litigation, contact Gary Wickert at gwickert@mwl-law.com or Ryan Woody at rwoody@mwl-law.com to discuss becoming part of the nationwide opioid litigation.

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Heidi Shafer Sees Unresolved Issues in Opioid Litigation

Dec 4, 2017 | The Daily News (TN)

By Bill Dries

A task force on opioid addiction and its impact on county government services is not the same as a working group. And a motion by county mayor Mark Luttrell to intervene in the opioid lawsuit filed last month by the Shelby County Commission isn’t a done deal until the county commission agrees to the terms for that intervention.
Tap into millions of public records, notices and articles on The Daily News with our ever-growing line of services.
Mark Luttrell to intervene in the opioid lawsuit filed last month by the Shelby County Commission isn’t a done deal until the county commission agrees to the terms for that intervention.
The two positions by Shelby County Commission chairwoman Learn more about Heidi Shafer
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Heidi Shafer last week indicate she and a majority of the commission believe the controversy over who can go to court on behalf of county government still has some life in it.
And she is seeking legal mediation to resolve those differences.
The commission, meeting in special session last week, summoned a two-thirds majority to override two vetoes by Luttrell of commission resolutions on the opioid litigation that preceded a Chancery Court ruling that seemed to settle the issue.
Chancellor Learn more about Jim Kyle
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Jim Kyle ruled that the commission overstepped its role in the county charter by hiring a law firm and then having its attorney, Learn more about Julian Bolton
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Watch Service" style="color: rgb(125, 2, 0); text-decoration-line: underline;">Julian Bolton, file a lawsuit in Circuit Court against two dozen opioid manufacturers and distributors on behalf of county government.
Kyle left the lawsuit in place and gave Luttrell and his administration until the end of the year to decide whether the administration would intervene in the lawsuit. Luttrell quickly said the administration would intervene and would examine all of the commission’s decisions to date on the opioid lawsuit, including its choice of a law firm. And the administration has since filed the motion to intervene.
Shafer says there are still issues to work out on that between Luttrell’s administration and the commission.
“What we’re trying to make sure is that what they don’t do is ‘no suit’ the thing,” she said, a reference to a move to dismiss or withdraw the lawsuit. “We’re trying to seek assurances.”
But Luttrell has said his administration intends to call the shots on the lawsuit in line with Kyle’s ruling. And he said the administration’s legal game plan on opioid litigation was still forming when the commission hired its own law firm and had a lawsuit filed.
Shafer is unapologetic about the action.
“He’s not doing anything and hasn’t for three-and-a-half years,” she said, describing Luttrell as “a mayor who seems to want to lead by procrastinating.”
Luttrell has said litigation takes time and that the escalation in deaths from opioid overdoses in Shelby County is alarming and an urgent problem. But he adds the move to litigation does not constitute an emergency and requires careful planning and coordination in a legal system that doesn’t move quickly on any issue.
Luttrell has also not ruled out a change in law firms handling the Circuit Court case.
“We just need to see who it is and what their strategy is,” Shafer said of the use of different law firm.
Shafer followed Kyle’s ruling on control of the opioid litigation by announcing she was appointing a task force and Luttrell responded by saying his administration has had such a task force in place for months that the commission can join.
“None of us knew about it. … It’s not a task force. It’s a work group,” Shafer said last week, adding that the work group is Luttrell’s staff.
“The definition of a task force by anyone’s estimation is not that,” she said. “A task force is where you go outside and you get experts from every field.”
Meanwhile, Shelby County commissioners take a final vote Monday, Dec. 1, on an increase in air emission fees that businesses pay.
The third and final reading of the ordinance would hike the fee per ton of annual air emissions from $48 to $53. And the annual major source permit fee for non automobile emissions would go from $1,000 to $1,500.
The commission meets at 3:30 p.m. at the Vasco Smith Administration Building. Follow the meeting @tdnpols, www.twitter.com/tdnpols, for live coverage.

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In opioid lawsuits, state aim is 1 voice

Dec 3, 2017 | Arkansas Online

By Chelsea Boozer

Even though Arkansas had the second-highest opioid prescription rate in the nation last year, cities and counties in the state are late to the game in suing manufacturers and distributors of the highly addictive drugs as dozens of other communities have.
A litigation team representing the Association of Arkansas Counties and the Arkansas Municipal League hopes to soon change that. It said its approach is so unique it's never been done before.
Opioids are a class of drug that includes the illegal drug heroin, synthetic versions such as fentanyl, as well as prescription pain relievers like hydrocodone, oxycodone and morphine.
There have been roughly 100 lawsuits filed against top-tier opioid companies by cities, counties or states across the U.S. so far. The suits are expected to soon be grouped together as multidistrict litigation in federal courts.
Lawyers in Arkansas thought that if any individual town in the state were to file a lawsuit, it would get lost among all the other lawsuits from big cities like Chicago, Seattle and Cincinnati.
So, they came up with a different tactic. They plan to file group litigation that will include as many Arkansas cities and counties as will agree to sign on as plaintiffs, in a bid to make the lawsuit stand out from the rest.
"This is brilliant -- positioning Arkansas in a unique way by getting cities and counties to work together, instead of 15 different law firms split off with competitive claims. The fact that each are working together truly positions us uniquely on the national level," said Ernie Cory, an attorney with expertise in multidistrict litigation.
Cory, of the Cory Watson law firm in Birmingham, Ala., was retained by the Arkansas attorney team, led by Mike Rainwater with Little Rock-based Rainwater Holt and Sexton.
Jerome Tapley, another attorney at Cory Watson, said the approach the team is taking is unprecedented and "impressive."
Mark Hayes, head counsel for the Arkansas Municipal League, which represents more than 400 of the 503 cities and towns in the state, said joining local governments together is the only way to get recognized in the flood of lawsuits being filed against pharmaceutical companies.
"Here's the dilemma that all cities and any county would face: We are just not big enough alone," he said. "Collectively to have a lawyer be able to literally sit at the table, the steering committee that makes all this happen at the multidistrict litigation level, for our lawyer to be able to say, 'I represent virtually all of the counties, cities and towns, virtually the entire set of local governments in the entire state of Arkansas on this action,' that is unique. It makes you stand out in front of the rest of the group."
Cory said it was important for each individual city or county to file claims rather than having the attorney general file suit for the state, because the damage caused by opioid abuse has taken a toll on local governments, more so than at the state level.
Police departments and sheriff's offices have had to train their personnel to deal with overdose patients rather than wait for emergency medical teams to arrive. Many law enforcement officers in the state now carry Naloxone -- a medication often distributed under the brand name Narcan -- which is used to block the effects of opioids during an overdose.
North Little Rock's Police Department outfits all of its officers with the medication. The drug and the training to use it cost the city money, Mayor Joe Smith said.
"It's not going to do anything but get worse," Smith, who serves as president-elect of the Arkansas Municipal League, said of the opioid problem in Arkansas. "I feel we need to get on top of this epidemic as quickly as you possibly can.
"Being a part of this lawsuit with the Municipal League and the Association of Arkansas Counties makes a tremendous amount of sense. ... The amount of money [being spent to address opioid abuse] in the state of Arkansas is very large, and it's not going to do anything but get bigger, and we've got to stop it," Smith said.
North Little Rock is one of 20 cities that have agreed to become plaintiffs in the group litigation the attorneys plan to file in the coming weeks. Others include Springdale, Rogers and Batesville. Hayes said he thinks more cities will sign on quickly.
The Association of Arkansas Counties is just starting to recruit counties to join the lawsuit, but it has been working on the strategy for months.
"We are at a crisis level," Hayes said. "Our society has suffered dramatically. I think we have a unique chance in this litigation to make something really good happen.
"I do not think normally that litigation is a great solution to things. It's sort of the last resort," he said. "But in this regard, I think it's probably the only alternative that local governments have. I'm looking forward to getting the right equity and justice for local governments."
Counties, jails and court systems are overwhelmed with problems resulting from drug abuse.
Rainwater said his team's strategy of joining together as many plaintiffs as possible shows how Arkansas resolves problems and will help position the lawsuit as a leader in the joint suits against "Big Pharma."
"The City of Springdale decided to join this lawsuit because we understand the devastating toll that opioid addiction takes on communities and families," a statement from the Springdale mayor's office said. "No community is immune from the ravages of addiction, and we want to do our part to hold these responsible accountable for their role in this national crisis."
Little Rock also is considering joining. Mayor Mark Stodola sent an informational memorandum to the city's Board of Directors that said, "there is the strong possibility of substantial financial recovery for the city."
He listed examples in California where pharmaceutical company Teva agreed to pay $1.6 million to settle claims filed by two counties.
The team of Arkansas-based lawyers is working on building claims for damages for each town and county in the state. The Cory Watson law firm brings to the case the expertise of handling multidistrict litigation. Cory has served as lead counsel in five such cases.
"At the end of the day, we want to make sure that Arkansas gets enough money to rectify this problem and not just pennies on the dollar. That's what this is about. We do not want to be at the end of the food chain getting pennies on the dollar," Cory said.
There were 235.9 million opioid pills sold in Arkansas in 2016, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. Data show that the state had the highest rate of teen prescription drug abuse in 2013, and 1,067 people have died from drug overdoses in the state since that year.
The CDC said 78 people die every day from opioid overdoses in America.
According to 2016 CDC data, Arkansas had the second-highest opioid prescription rate in the nation. Alabama and Tennessee were ranked No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, according to the data.
"For every man, woman or child in this state -- that's newborns all the way to age 100 and up -- the prescriptions that have been let out for opioids would put a bottle with 38 pills in every person's hands. It's disseminating an entire generation," Hayes said.
"The volume of damages being suffered by local governments is extreme," he said. "No police department eight or nine years ago had to worry about doing some sort of lifesaving technique for an overdose person, because the numbers were so low we could just do it through ambulance services. Now we have Narcan in the hands of cops."
Nationally, many experts and government officials are calling it the worst drug epidemic ever.
"The current opioid epidemic is one of the deadliest drug epidemics in American history, affecting every sex, race, class and age," Gov. Asa Hutchinson said at a recent news conference on the crisis.
The allegations in lawsuits that have already been filed against opioid manufacturers or distributors include fraudulent marketing and failing to report suspiciously large orders of prescription pain pills. The suits started in 2014. Some allege that the companies concealed or misrepresented the harmful, addictive properties of opioid medications.
Some of the bigger brands being sued are Purdue Pharma, Teva, McKesson, Johnson & Johnson and CVS, but the number of opioid manufacturers and distributors listed as defendants so far is upward of 70.
Several companies have released statements saying they aren't to blame for how pills are abused once they sell them, according to several national news articles.
With the group lawsuit, Rainwater said, "Our whole state is getting ready to focus on the opioid pandemic.
"Arkansas has taken the brunt of it," he said. "Arkansas, unfortunately, has a real serious opioid problem. It's going to take a lot of money and a lot of time to fix this nuisance."

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Big pharma’s role in the opioid crisis

Dec 2, 2017 | Stamford Advocate (CT)

By Paul Schott

Stamford’s largest biotech company is mostly known by government officials and the general public because of one drug.
As the maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma has been pummeled by controversy since the opioid hit the market in 1996. The company has poured many millions of dollars into promoting Oxy, and made billions in return. But an increasing number of public officials and medical professionals see the revenues as tainted because they say Purdue has knowingly stoked the escalating epidemic of opioid abuse by consistently making false claims about a drug linked to thousands of deaths.
“This was the perfect storm — a push to ask for painkillers, higher dosing, more powerful medications and erroneous studies that said that these drugs were not addicting,” said Dr. Arun Nandi, chairman of emergency medicine at Stamford Hospital.
As deaths from opioid abuse continue to soar, the “perfect storm” has brought a deluge of lawsuits from individuals, cities and states — including Connecticut. Purdue has paid millions of dollars in settlements. Still, the lawsuits keep coming.
Changing view of pain
The perception and treatment of pain in the U.S. underwent fundamental changes in the 1990s, as a number of medical groups responded to what they saw as an epidemic of ignored and untreated pain.
In 1996, the American Pain Society introduced the phrase “pain as the fifth vital sign,” which aimed to elevate pain assessment to the same level of importance as the standard four vital signs.
Amid the rising focus on pain management, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved OxyContin in 1995. The new drug would consist of a controlled-release, semi-synthetic opioid painkiller to treat moderate to severe pain lasting more than a few days.
Purdue’s annual spending for OxyContin advertising jumped from about $700,000 in 1996 to approximately $4.6 million in 2001, according to a 2003 federal Government Accountability Office report. Powered by its marketing, OxyContin’s annual sales surpassed $1 billion by 2001, making it the most-prescribed brand-name narcotic of its kind in the U.S., according to the GAO.
Long litigation
Purdue has been dogged for years by opioid-related litigation. By some counts, more than a dozen states and approximately 100 counties and cities have already sued Purdue and other opioid makers and drug distributors.
The filing of lawsuits has accelerated this year as officials from states around the country, including Connecticut, have laid much of the blame on Purdue for the opioid abuse ravaging their constituencies. U.S. Department of Justice officials also are investigating.
“I filed the lawsuit simply because I felt something needed to be done to address the opioid crisis in Sullivan County,” Barry Staubus, the Sullivan County, Tenn., district attorney general, said of a lawsuit he filed in June. “I saw babies who are born addicted to drugs. Many of those drugs are OxyContin.”
Purdue officials have issued statements in response to the lawsuits, in which they deny the allegations but say they share concerns about the opioid crisis and express a commitment to “working collaboratively to find solutions.”
The company’s CEO, Craig Landau, was not available for an interview for this article.
In 2007, Purdue pleaded guilty in federal court to illegally misbranding OxyContin to mislead and defraud physicians and patients. The company agreed to pay some $600 million in criminal and civil penalties and other payments.
Despite the perception that settlements represent at least some admission of guilt, companies see agreements with plaintiffs as preferable to the risks associated with a case going to trial.
“Jury decisions are very unpredictable,” said John Goldberg, a professor at Harvard Law School. “It’s very possible that they’d lose their shirts if they went to trial. There could be some catastrophic punitive damages awarded. They want the closure. What businesses tend to hate the most is uncertainty.”

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Drugs firms join fight against opioid deaths epidemic

Dec 2, 2017 | The Guardian

By Julia Kollewe

The numbers in the US alone are astonishing: more than 53,000 people over 12 months; an average of 146 a day. This is the death toll from opioid overdoses last year, many of them from widely prescribed painkillers, such as tramadol, codeine and oxycodone.
Donald Trump has declared America’s opioid problem a “public health emergency” as it spiralled into the deadliest drug epidemic in US history. Now the pharmaceutical industry, which has been heavily criticised for its role in the crisis, is seeking to address a disaster it helped create. Two companies are offering new monthly treatments for those hooked on powerful painkillers, with one approved by the US regulator last week.
London-listed Indivior, which was spun out of Reckitt Benckiser in 2014, has developed a medication that is injected into the belly fat once a month – the world’s first monthly treatment for opioid addiction. Sublocade contains buprenorphine, which was developed by Reckitt in Hull and takes away cravings without giving a high.
The new medication, which is set to hit the US market early next year, is designed to create a steady state in the patient without withdrawal symptoms (nausea, itching, the shakes), thereby reducing the chance of relapse while receiving counselling and support.
Indivior is also in talks with regulators in the UK, Australia, Canada, Sweden and Germany about having Sublocade approved. Paul Cuddon, analyst at stockbroker Numis, said: “Sadly, it is not a perfect cure, but does appear to significantly increase the abstinence rate in hard-to-treat patients. Coupled with psychosocial support and better awareness of the dangers of prescribing opioids, this epidemic can be brought under control.”
Elsewhere in the industry, another injectable treatment that can be given weekly or monthly has been developed by Swedish firm Camurus and licensed to private-equity-owned Braeburn Pharmaceuticals of the US. The advisory panel for the US Food and Drug Administration has recommended approval for some of the proposed doses, asking for more data on the higher doses. The regulator’s decision is due in mid-January. Braeburn says the medication can suppress patient withdrawals within an hour after the first dose.
Indivior and Braeburn are trying to tackle a massive problem. Almost 12 million adults misused opioids in the US last year and more than 2.5 million were diagnosed with opioid-use disorder; yet only 1.1 million received treatment. In England, the number of patients admitted to hospital for overdosing on opioid painkillers doubled in the past decade, to 11,660 last year. Opioid prescriptions doubled to 24 million in 2016, according to NHS Digital figures.
The Indivior and Braeburn drugs are an opportunity for the drug industry to atone for its aggressive push of opioids as the go-to medication for pain. It is facing a wave of litigation: a county in New York state has sued Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Teva and Endo over their marketing of opioids. At least 30 lawsuits have been filed against doctors, pharmacists and drug wholesalers in West Virginia alone, which has the highest overdose death rate in the nation (and the second-highest unemployment rate).
Opioid overdoses have become the leading cause of death in Americans under 50 – four people are dying from them every hour. At the root of the crisis are overprescriptions of opioid painkillers – drugs derived directly from the opium poppy or made synthetically – for anything from cancer to severe back pain, arthritis and sports injuries. Aside from the human cost, the cost to the US economy was estimated at $504bn in 2015, and since then the crisis has worsened.
Shaun Thaxter, Indivior’s chief executive, said: “This is not the stereotyped, old-fashioned, out-of-date image of an injecting heroin user living on the street – we are talking about normal people from all levels of society.”
More than 34,000 people died in the US in 2016 after overdosing on synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and tramadol (almost 20,000 deaths), or natural and semi-synthetic painkillers including morphine, codeine and oxycodone (over 14,500 deaths). There were also more than 15,500 heroin and 3,400 methadone deaths, according to provisional government figures.
Fentanyl, a painkiller developed as a patch for cancer patients that is nearly 100 times stronger than morphine, has become one of the biggest killers. It is the drug that killed singer Prince; it is easy to make illicitly and cheap to buy on the street. Street heroin is increasingly laced with fentanyl. Shipped over from China, the synthetic opioid’s apt street names are Drop Dead and Murder 8 – a single pill can kill.
In Britain, at least 88 deaths have been linked to fentanyl since last December, up from 58 in 2016 and 34 in 2015. Victims include 18-year-old skateboarder Robert Fraser from Kent, who died last November. His mother, who has joined a near-1,000 strong Facebook group called Fentanyl Victims – We Remember, said she had never heard of fentanyl until she read the toxicology report.
Harry Shapiro, director of UK charity DrugWise, has been calling on the UK government to set up a helpline. He said: “It’s a public health issue hidden in plain sight. It’s got to run into hundreds of thousands of people. There are millions of prescriptions being written. We are swallowing an awful lot of these pills. It’s an issue for primary healthcare professionals [GPs] as much as for treatments down the line.”
However, cost could also be an issue. Sublocade will cost $1,580 per monthly dose. But the new medication is still expected to become a blockbuster; analysts at Jefferies are forecasting peak sales of $1.3bn by 2025.
America’s opioid crisis dates back to the 1990s, when healthcare organisations encouraged doctors to treat post-operative pain more aggressively. But then drug companies, led by the Sackler family’s firm Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, embarked on an aggressive push of opioid painkillers for all kinds of chronic pain, enticing doctors with freebies and all-expenses-paid trips. Opioid pills were soon sold in vast quantities through barely regulated treatment centres, which became known as “pill mills”.
Many more pharma companies will need to follow Indivior’s example if the industry is to silence its critics.

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Broadcast Media Coverage

FOX 10 News at 5PM

Dec 4, 2017 | WALA (Fox)

By Mobile, AL

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31198078?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
Rough Transcript: new tonight at 5 - local hospitals are suing global drug companies... alleging the companies wrongfully pushed opioid pills. fox10 news investigative reporter kati weis obtained a copy of the suit - filed just yesterday in federal court. she joins us in the studio with the details. bob, lenise, it's a 134 page complaint - alleging several mulit-billion dollar drug companies are resposible for the opioid epidemic, due to their alleged fraudlent marketing and distribution of pain pills. but 6:16 PMone of the most stunning aspects to this suit - is that it's employing the "rico" act normally used against organized crime. lawsuit alleges several powerful pharmaceutical companies have beeacting like drug gangs - who "pushed high addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction... and aggressively advertised and persuaded doctors to prescribe highly addictive, dangerous opioids, and turned patients into drug addicts for their own corporate profit." it was filed under the racketeer influenced and corrput organizations act - or rico act - passed in the 70s to combat organized crime. attorneys for infirmary health hospitaland monroe county hospital in alabama, as well as the southwest mississippi regional medical center, filed the class action suit against several drug companies including - purdue pharma, johnson and 6:17 PMjohnson, endo pharmaceuticals, and teva pharmaceuticals. in the suit - the hospitals go on to allege the companies participated in a pattern of racketeering by purposely failing to report suspicious orders of their prescription opioids, despite being required by law to do so. the suit says the hospitals are seeking to recover "at leas some of the costs they have borne in responding on the front lines of the crisis."> while the drug companies have a few weeks to respond in court to the lawsuit - some representatives have sent us their takes on the allegations. a spokesperson for janssen pharmaceuticals - which is a company under johnson and johnson - says in part: "we believe th allegations in lawsuits against our company are both legally and factually unfounded." and a spokesperson for endo said in part: "endo has take meaningful action during the past year by voluntarily ceasing opioid promotion and eliminating its entire product salesforce." finally, a spokesperson for purdue pharma wrote in part: "w vigorously deny these allegations and look forward to the opportunity to present our defense."

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WKRG News 5 This Morning

Dec 4, 2017 | WRKG (CBS)

By Mobile, AL

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31198354?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
Rough Transcript: mobile based infirmary health hospitals is one of several hospitals that are suing more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies, claiming the companies deceptively marked and sold opiods. the federal lawsuit was filed late last week in mississippi. other hospitals in alabama and mississippi are also involved in the lawsuit. the lawsuit says hospitals have faced expenses for treating opioid addicts because companies "pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction."

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WDSU News Early This Morning

Dec 4, 2017 | WDSU (NBC)

By New Orleans, LA

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31198358?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
Rough Transcript: hospitals in mississippi and alabama are suing more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies, claiming the companies deceptively marked and sold opioids. the lawsuit alleges that these companies have pushed highly addictive and dangerous opioids on doctors, falsely saying that patients rarely succumb to drug addiction. the hospitals say they've faced higher expenses as a result. one of the companies said in a statement that it denies the allegations, and the company is working to solve the opioid public health cris.

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NewsChannel 2 at Sunrise

Dec 4, 2017 | WKTV (ABC)

By Utica, NY

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31198362?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
Rough Transcript: oneida county executive anthony picente jr. will make an announcement on opioid litigation. the announcement is taking place at the oneida county office building on the 10th floor conference room at 2 o'clock today.

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Good Morning Meridian: Early Edition

Dec 4, 2017 | WTOK (ABC)

By Meridian, MS

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Rough Transcript: hospitals in mississippi and alabama are suing more than a dozen pharmaceutical companies, claiming the companies deceptively marked and sold opioids. the class-action federal lawsuit was filed thursday. the plaintiffs are southwest mississippi regional medical center; infirmary health hospitals, inc., based in mobile, and monroe county healthcare authority, based in monroeville, alabama. the lawsuit says hospitals have faced expenses for treating opioid addicts because companies "pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction." purdue pharma makes oxycontin, the pill receiving the most claims of deceptive marketing.

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Inside Utah Politics

Dec 4, 2017 | KTVX (ABC)

By Salt Lake City, UT

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31198985?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
Rough Transcript: we are walking on this lawsuit approach against mefers. manufacturers. talk about what you have in mind. >> guest: we have been doing this work in the operation of rio grande area. homeless area. we have learned, unfortunately, that the foundation of those experiencing homelessness is drug addiction and drug trafficking. that is, in large part, coming out of prescription drugs. four out of five heroin users began with prescription drugs. this is scary, and something i didn't know until we really dove into this issue in that rio grande area, the viewers of your show need to know if you stayed within the prescription and doseage amount that your doctor would prescribe to manage pain, you could become an addict. it doesn't mean you would take a prescription drug and opioid and abuse it. use more than you were supposed to and find yourself addicted. you can use what was prescribed for the length of time the prescription and the bottle says 10:02 AMand find yourself addicted. that kind of danger, i don't think, has been realized. it has causedarnage, not only in this rio grande effort, but it is ravaging our community in every county across the state. >> glen: the idea here is going after the manufacturers though. why the manufacturers? >> guest: we think there's been some false marketing. we know and we have marketing messages that were sent to physicians and the public at large saying, this is not addictive. this is safe for long-term use. if you have an addiction, it's a pseudo-addiction. we don't believe physicians are trying to make heroin addicts out of their patients but we do believe the danger of these drugs and how highly addicted they can be, even under the prescribed doseage, is something above and beyond what people understood and the only way, glen, we believe to change practices and t to change procedures that these pharmaceutical companies go through in manufacturing these 10:03 AMdrugs is to go after them, have discovery and counties and states have standings. so you see counties across this country litigating on this issue. i think it would be important for our state, given the consequences for our state, to see every state step forward in this space and really hold the manufacturersaccount g. >> glen: more on the state, but first on the manufacturer's standpoint, is it more malicious incheintent or negligence? >> guest: discovery can be pursued. yo can find out much in the tobacco lawsuit, when did they know, if they knew that, this has such a highly addictive quality to it that, a, you will have more customers but that it is going to create a demand for the product that you are selling. we believe that discovery will allow us to know when. certainly we know now that these drugs have this kind of detrimental impact to society. we have all the data we know. the question becomes, when did 10:04 AMthe pharmaceutical companies that manufacture these drugs know. 99% of oxycontin, of that drug, is sold in the united states which is four to five percent of the world population. when you see those percentages so wildly different, you have to ask, why would that be the case? >> glen: you mentioned the lawsuit against tobacco. do you see this as a similar path to the big tobacco lawsuit? right now, it would appear as an uphill battle. >> guest: i would, with some differences. you had the tobacco industry, and it was said that if you take this product, you could find yourself with emphysema, lung cancer 20 years, 30 years of using this. this is a drug prescribed by a physician that would then 30 days you could be an addict. i think that that make the prospects and the danger of this product far worse than tobacco. if we ever did say, and we did, that tobacco, that the messaging and the marketing and impact of 10:05 AMthe community was faulty and they misled, certainly if that's the case, you can make, i believe, a stronger argument when talking about these painkillers. >> glen: you mentioned getting municipalities on board. you have been traveling the state to some degree about making this presentation. what's the ultimate goal? are you looking at counties with individu lawsuits? are you talking about one joint lawsuone giantlawsuit from the state of utah? >> guest: i would like to see every county step forward as a county. every county has its story to tell. the state has a story to tell. big pharma would like to put it into one, one jurisdiction, dilute the stories, dilute the experiences, dilute the damages to counties and states. and maybe like, if you had a car accident and the insurance company has a car, before you get an attorney, before you go 10:06 AMtoo far, let's settle. they are trying to mitigate their damages. if you consolidate this effort into one case, certainly you're mitigating the liability and damages of those manufacturers of these drugs. what i would like to see, more than even the dollar amount, i would like see a multifront attack on this problem, county by county in the state of utah, joing over 30 of the largest counties of america that have done this individually as counties up to 11 states who ve individually entered into this as well, where the fronts and court battles become and liability becomes so great, somebody has to start changing their practice and their processes because they can't confront the lawsuits in terms of degree. we need discovery but we need theractices changed. >> glen: that's what i want to ask you. are you going after a monetary award or more of a change your practices, likee saw with the tobacco lawsuit? we saw both there, but obviously a big change of the way they 10:07 AMmarketed their product. >> guest: correct. the monetary amount is how we get to the change of practices. we want the practices and procedures of those manufacturers to change. pain management and pain clinics are unique to the united states. i didt know this. if you go to canada, if you go to europe, anywhere else in the world and you have a procedure where you might, as a patient, experience pain, what happens typically is, here's ibuprofen. it might hurt for a couple days. here in the united states, we manage pain to a degree where nobody feels or thinks they should feel pain. that's a unique area of medicine here in the united states. we have to get to a place where the risk of these drugs is too high. it's addiction rate is too high. the consequences are too detrimental that we change the potency or the practice of how those drugs are marketed. >> glen: i have a couple minutes left. so far, salt lake utah, weber county have say they are on 10:08 AMboard and adopted resolutions. moving forward, who else is going to get into this? >> guest: with my goal, i would like to see all 29 counties in the state of utah step fward. you have rural communities where, because of the economy of scale, it's a small community, these painkillers are devastating these small rural communities as well. i would like to see every single county step forward in this space, and that's my goal because i think it will send a clear message to the manufacturers of these drugs that you're not going to be able to -- there's no hush money here. no way to make this go away sooner rather than later. there's an accountability that needs to be had. >> glen: there's talk, some of the manufacturers may be trying to get ahead of this. you are not down with that. >> guest: no, i would regret if we were to, in a hasty way, agree to a settlement. that would be money driven. it would stop us from the discovery that i think is important and goes to your earlier question. did the manufacturers know how dangerously addictive these drugs are. did they understand that? was it a -- how many people is it going to damage or the profits and was it a pro former or did they not know? i'm not looking for a quick settlement that makes people go away. i think that we're suffering as a state and a country where we need to understand those bigger questions. >> glen: okay. so much more i would like to get into with that because i know it will be a big issue in the session as well. we will check back in another time. appreciate having you here. thanks so much. >> guest: thanks for having me.

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Spectrum News All Evening

Dec 2, 2017 | Spectrum News

By Raleigh Durham, NC

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31198985?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
Rough Transcript: yadkin county officials are fed up with the ongoing opioid crisis. kevin austin, chairman, yadkin county board of commissioners "the epidemic has continued to explode and so we felt that now is the time to do and so we felt it." 01 so the county decided to file a 1-hundred and 65 page lawsuitagainst prescription opioid pain reliever manufactures. garry whitaker, attorney "counties such as thi county of yadkin county have suffered greatly from basically the illegal diversion of opioids into elicit hands" 1 they say distributors... they say distributors... garry whitaker, attorney "amerisourcebergen, cardina health and mckesson corporation" ..are responsible for not reporting suspicious orders. garry whitaker, attorney "suspicious orders can be a 10 percent garry whitaker, attorney "suspicious orders cases in the state. garry whitaker, attorney "in yadkin county alone theres been well over a 100 money will not be used in this lawsuit. kevin austin, chairman, yadkin county board of commissioners"it kevi austin, chairman, yadkin county board of commissioners"it is entirel a contingent basis. any fees payable to attorneys will be paid strictly out of the settlement or judgement." 0 hoping this filing will create a better future for citizens. kevin austin, chairman, yadkin county board of commissioners"w e are s hopeful that will change the reduce the amount of opioid that are being spilled out into the public."

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WCCO 4 News at Noon

Dec 1, 2017 | WCCO (CBS)

By Minneapolis - St. Paul, MN

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31199626?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
Rough Transcript: this afternoon state leaders will unveil new guidelines to cut opioid addiction in minnesota. the minnesota department of health says 395 minnesotans die from an opioid overdose last year. prescription pills were the cause of half of those. while police are learning to fight opioid addiction in the streets, county attorneys are taking the issue to court. yesterday attorneys from 20 minnesota counties announced plans to file civil lawsuits against drug manufacturers and distributors. the lawyers say these companies are contributing to the problem. they accuse the companies a fraudulent marketing and negligent distribution. >> these manufacturers have been sued several times in the last several years. documents show that they knew the highly addictive properties and get continue to market it as safe. >> the lawsuit seeks money for expenses like law enforcement, social services, medical care and treatment of opioid patients. about 70 similar lawsuits have been filed across the nation.

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News 8 This Morning

Dec 1, 2017 | WKBTDT@ (MyNetworkTVO

By La Crosse, WI

Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31199642?token=0956cd53-3a99-4e57-ac20-0a17b625abbb
Rough Transcript: twenty more wisconsin counties... including several from our area... are filing lawsuits against big 10:34 AMpharmaceutical companies alleging the businesses engaged in deceptive marketing campaigns to push their products. the counties are asking for money from three companies to pay for an increase in services provided because of the opioid epidemic. two law firms based in new york and milwaukee representing the counties are asking for an unspecified amount of money. a representative for monroe county says it has affected its local budget for human services... law enforcement and the court system. "the point here is to get this rectified with the opiod manufacturers and come to some sort of resolution for reimbursement ." while la crosse county has not yet filed a lawsuit... county administrator steve o'malley says the issue will be discussed during an executive committee meeting on december 13- th. it's not just counties in wisconsin taking legal action against the makers of those powerful painkillers. a group of county attorneys in minnesota announced yesterday they're filing lawsuits of their own. the minnesota suits accuse opioid manufacturers and distributors of false advertising... fraud... and negligent distribution to doctors. "what we seek b filing these suits is accountability and restitution. that's what we want. this is not a money grab, we want them to help pay for the cris they have put in our laps." about 20 of minnesota's 87 counties are expected to join that state's lawsuit.

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