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Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report - 1/3/2018
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City, county to file lawsuit against opioid manufacturers
Jan 2, 2018 | Rock River Times (IL)
By Jim Hagerty
Winnebago County and the City of Rockford plan to file a lawsuit against companies that distribute and manufacture opioids, officials announced Tuesday. -
Rockford and Winnebago County Announce Federal Lawsuit in Light of Opioid Crisis
Jan 2, 2018 | WTVO (IL)
By Jerrica Valtierra
2017 will be a record year for drug overdose deaths in Rockford and Winnebago county. Community leaders say they've had enough. Winnebago County and City of Rockford are filing a lawsuit against the companies they blame for the opioid crisis. -
Winnebago County and Rockford announce joint opioid suit
Jan 2, 2018 | Rockford Register Star (IL)
By Chris Green
Winnebago County and the city of Rockford are joining forces in a lawsuit against pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors, which they blame for the opioid addiction crisis that is sweeping the nation. -
Rockford, Winnebago County join governmental bodies nationwide in opioid lawsuit
Jan 2, 2018 | WREX (IL)
By Breane Lyga
Rockford and Winnebago County aren't the first governing bodies to announce they will be filing a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies. In fact, hundreds of cities and counties around the nation have done so already. -
Surry County files suit in federal court against opioid manufacturers and distributors
Jan 2, 2018 | Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
By Michael Hewlett
Add Surry County to the growing list of local governments around the country that are suing opioid manufacturers and distributors, putting the blame on those companies for the opioid epidemic that has led to increasing numbers of fatalities. -
Delray Beach makes the case for damages from opioid scourge
Jan 2, 2018 | Sun Sentinel (FL)
By Randy Schultz
To understand America’s opioid crisis, read Delray Beach’s lawsuit against companies that have profited from the crisis they created. -
Other cities should join Delray lawsuit against Big Pharma (EDITORIAL)
Jan 3, 2018 | My Palm Beach Post (FL)
By Editorial Board
The city of Delray Beach has had enough of the opioid crisis. And now, tired of draining its resources against a devastating drug scourge, city officials have taken the audacious step of suing Big Pharma in federal court. -
US millennials were almost 20% more likely to die in 2016 than 2014
Jan 3, 2018 | Quartz
By Dan Kopf
The US is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. It’s the world’s center of innovation and medical science, yet the country can’t keep their youth from dying. US millennials are now dying at such high rates that it’s driven life expectancy in the country to decline for two years in a row, the first time that’s happened since the early 1960s. The primary cause for the trend is the opioid crisis. -
Class-action lawsuits rightly target opioid manufacturers (EDITORIAL)
Jan 3, 2018 | Tuscaloosa News (AL)
By Staff
For the past few years, NFL football players have worn pink during the month of October in an effort to raise awareness of breast cancer. The league moved last year to end the practice, but you still see players wearing the color. It is a worthwhile cause that has led to increased donations. But breast cancer, as bad as it is, now kills fewer Americans each year than opioids. -
We Can’t Measure Pain. Is That Fueling the Opioid Crisis?
Jan 3, 2018 | The Daily Beast
By Neel V. Patel
According to the CDC, 91 people die every day from opioid overdoses—a problem that has become epidemic in proportion and led the Trump administration to try to solve the crisis with everything from declaring it a “public health emergency,” an ad campaign, and a messy attempt to find an opioid czar. -
Wisconsin battling opioids on multiple fronts
Jan 2, 2018 | Superior Telegram (WI)
By M. Longaecker
Patty Schachtner suspects she saw a new level of desperation in 2017. -
Eyewitness News More Local at 7:00 AM
Jan 3, 2018 | WQRF (Fox)
By Rockford, IL
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31625462?token=92c91cf5-8475-46a9-9a51-51ab1aef1a80 -
Local 15 Today
Jan 3, 2018 | WPMI (NBC)
By Mobile, AL
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31625473?token=92c91cf5-8475-46a9-9a51-51ab1aef1a80 -
3 in the Morning at 4:30AM
Jan 3, 2018 | WEAR (ABC)
By Mobile, AL
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31625506?token=92c91cf5-8475-46a9-9a51-51ab1aef1a80 -
FOX8 News at 6:00A
Jan 3, 2018 | WGHP (Fox)
By Greensboro, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31625470?token=92c91cf5-8475-46a9-9a51-51ab1aef1a80 -
WXII 12 News at 5am
Jan 3, 2018 | WXII (NBC)
By Greensboro, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31625544?token=92c91cf5-8475-46a9-9a51-51ab1aef1a80 -
FOX 51 Good Day 8a
Jan 3, 2018 | KFXK (Fox)
By Tyler, TX
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31625432?token=92c91cf5-8475-46a9-9a51-51ab1aef1a80
Midwest (IL)
Southeast (NC, FL)
Commentary and FYIs
Broadcast Media Coverage
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City, county to file lawsuit against opioid manufacturers
Jan 2, 2018 | Rock River Times (IL)
By Jim Hagerty
Winnebago County and the City of Rockford plan to file a lawsuit against companies that distribute and manufacture opioids, officials announced Tuesday.
The announcement comes a month after DuPage, Kane, Will, McHenry and Lake counties accused several companies, including Purdue Pharma, Abbott Laboratories, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Cephalon, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Endo Health Solutions, of “aggressive and fraudulent marketing of prescription opioid painkillers,” leading to what lawyers are calling a “corporate-caused drug epidemic.”
Rockford and Winnebago County’s decision to bring against the industry was sparked six months ago when State’s Attorney Joe Bruscato and County Board Chairman Frank Haney engaged in talks about what area officials say is a full-blown opioid crisis that continues to complement an often deadly and growing heroin epidemic.
“As that conversation proceeded, we talked about what could be done on a local level to assist,” Bruscato said.
However, because the Office of the Illinois Attorney General typically handles consumer issues, Bruscato said a plan to battle this one would be unique, possible litigation without the AG.
“We did our due diligence, if you will,” Bruscato said. “That included a trip down to Springfield with the Illinois attorney general and number of my colleagues from across the state–elected and sitting state’s attorneys.”
Bruscato said his team also interviewed drug industry experts.
“One of the responsibilities of the state’s attorney’s office is to be the lawyer for the county and for the citizens,” he said. “The City of Rockford’s responsibility is to represent the citizens of the city and take up any potential litigation on their behalf.”
And both governments plan to do just that, the three-term state’s attorney said, to stop what he called profiteering at the expense of the citizenry.
“(They) expect our taxpayers to clean up the mess,” he said. “These are your community leaders standing up today, saying, ‘We’ve had enough.'”
Bruscato said if the Winnebago County Board and Rockford City Council approve the lawsuit, it will ask the court to hold companies responsible for various costs associated with the local opioid addiction crisis. The suit is also aimed at changing the way the drugs are marketed and distributed.
Ann Callis, of Goldenberg Heller Antognoli P.C., will lead the litigation team on behalf the municipalities. A former judge, Callis is part of a national consortium of lawyers that represents more than 100 public clients in 11 states.
“I’ve seen the devastation of the opioid epidemic on our communities,” Callis said. “I feel it is my particular duty to represent these communities in overcoming this epidemic caused by these distributors and caused by these manufacturers.”
If the suit is approved, litigation will not cost the taxpayers anything, Callis said.
“Families are being devastated,” Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara added. “It is imperative that drug manufacturers change their current practices. Data shows that past use of prescription opioids is the strongest risk factor for starting and continuing to use heroin.”
Haney said a lawsuit won’t end the crisis, but it will serve as an important piece of the overall puzzle. It’s a vital piece, though. In asking local leaders to support the complaint, Haney said he was surprised to learn how many local residents are dealing with addiction.
“It’s personal,” Haney said. “And don’t take my word for it. Ask our first responders.”
The suit will name various companies, such as McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health.
A leading pharmaceutical distributor, McKesson reported revenues of $198.5 billion in 2017, and paid $13 million in fines in 2008 for failing to report massive orders of the pain medication hydrocodone.
AmerisourceBergen is a wholesaler responsible for 20 percent of all pharmaceuticals distributed in the United States. The company was sued in 2012 by the State of West Virginia, which alleged that it contributed to the state’s pain-pill epidemic. Like McKesson, AmerisourceBergen is a leading distributor of hydrocodone.
Cardinal Health agreed to pay $34 million in civil penalties in 2008 to settle allegations that it failed to report suspicious orders of hydrocodone. The agreement followed the suspension of its distribution facilities in Florida, New Jersey and Washington.
Rockford and Winnebago County’s complaint will be filed in U.S. District Court. R.
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Rockford and Winnebago County Announce Federal Lawsuit in Light of Opioid Crisis
Jan 2, 2018 | WTVO (IL)
By Jerrica Valtierra
2017 will be a record year for drug overdose deaths in Rockford and Winnebago county. Community leaders say they've had enough. Winnebago County and City of Rockford are filing a lawsuit against the companies they blame for the opioid crisis.
Local officials say some drug companies are to blame, because they created the opioid drug crisis. Which has led to someone dying from a drug overdose in Winnebago County every three days. It's not just their families who pay the price, it's the public too. Now a lawsuit will be filed in federal court.
"We are just simply not going to allow these profiteers to prey on this community, then force our taxpayers to clean up the mess," said Winnebago County State's Attorney Joe Bruscato. "It ends now."
The partnership with the Winnebago County, City of Rockford take a new approach to solving the epidemic seen here in the Stateline."Families are being devastated," said Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara. "It is imperative that drug manufacturers change their current practices. We can no longer afford to pay lip service to this growing problem in our community. The talk is obviously not working. We need to take action and we need to take action immediately."
Chairman Frank Haney says the overdose deaths in Winnebago County have quadrupled in the past 10 years. In 2006 there were 33, in 2016, there were 96. The County Coroner said half way through December in 2017, the number of deaths rose to 122. The lawsuit is not only hoping to change business practices, but county, city leaders and the attorneys on this case, also say they're looking to make those companies and distributors pay for the damage they've already created.
"There are hundreds of trips, hundreds and hundreds of trips to the emergency room, hospital stays as well as the pain and suffering of individuals, families, and communities," said Haney.
"Each of these defendants will be included in these claims for damages both retroactively," said Attorney Peter Mougey. "Whether it be the jails, the coroners, the first responders whether it be Narcan that's used."
Rockford Fire Chief Derek Bergsten says his department saw 310 overdoses this year, who were saved by carrying Narcan. The Winnebago County Sheriff's office also uses the antidote to save lives.
"As a community, what I see on the streets and the number of Narcan saves that we have on the streets, that has to tell you something," said Winnebago County Sheriff Gary Caruana.
The City of Rockford and Winnebago County hired an outside team of attorneys with experience in civil lawsuits to represent them. The next step in the lawsuit will be filing it in Northern Illinois District court.
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Winnebago County and Rockford announce joint opioid suit
Jan 2, 2018 | Rockford Register Star (IL)
By Chris Green
Winnebago County and the city of Rockford are joining forces in a lawsuit against pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors, which they blame for the opioid addiction crisis that is sweeping the nation.
The municipalities have hired, at no cost to taxpayers, a team of law firms working as one. The prosecution is headed by Ann Callis, a former federal trial judge and partner at Edwardsville-based Goldenberg Heller Antognoli, P.C., and Peter Mougey, another lead attorney recognized as one of Florida’s top 100 trial lawyers. Winnebago County State’s Attorney Joe Bruscato said the attorneys will work as “special assistants” to his office.
If successful, Mougey said the lawsuit will “take the financial burden (treatment, incarceration and other drug-related costs) off the shoulders of taxpayers of both the city and the county and put it back to where it belongs — on these corporate entities that are making hundreds of billions of dollars a year selling opiates in our communities.
“We are going to use every tool in the tool box: RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act), common law claims, fraud claims, Consumer Protection Deceptive Practices Act under the Illinois statutory code, every tool we have available we are including in this complaint.”
Pending approval by Rockford City Council and the Winnebago County Board, Bruscato anticipates the lawsuit being filed in federal court before the end of the month.
“We are simply not going to allow these profiteers to prey on the people of this community and then force our taxpayers to clean up the mess,” he said.
The defendants include multibillion-dollar drug distributors giants such as McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen.
Winnebago County and Rockford are the latest in a growing wave of communities across the state and country to seek monetary damages against opioid manufacturers and distributors after witnessing spikes in crime, opioid-related deaths, overdoses and costs associated with drug treatment.
Since 1999, the amount of prescription opioids sold in the U.S. has nearly quadrupled, according to Simmons Hanly Conroy, a New York law firm that specializes in undertaking opioid litigation on behalf of government entities and institutions. The number of deaths from prescription opioids have more than quadrupled over the same time period. From 1999 to 2015, more than 183,000 people have died in the United States from overdoses related to prescription opioids.
Simmons Hanly Conroy also plans to file a suit against more than 10 pharmaceutical companies on behalf of Boone County.
Attorneys for McHenry, DuPage, Kane, Will and Lake counties have already filed separate lawsuits against several drugmakers, including Lake Bluff-based Abbott Laboratories, as well as three doctors.
Winnebago County Board Chairman Frank Haney said the amount of opioid prescriptions written every year in the U.S. is roughly equal to the country’s population of 320 million. In Illinois alone, he said, 11,000 people have died from opioid overdoses since 2008.
“Law enforcement is responding to overdose calls, hospitals are seeing the impact, and we’re feeling it across all sectors of our community,” he said. “We must take action before this epidemic increases.”
The number of fatal drug overdose nearly tripled in Winnebago County from 33 in 2006 to 96 in 2016. Meanwhile, the number of fatal overdoses last year in Winnebago County is still being tallied, but County Coroner Bill Hintz said there were 122 overdoes through Dec. 15.
Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara said, “Data shows that past use of prescription opioids is the strongest risk factor to those using and continuing to use heroin. Families are being devastated, and it’s imperative that drug manufacturers change their current practices.”
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Rockford, Winnebago County join governmental bodies nationwide in opioid lawsuit
Jan 2, 2018 | WREX (IL)
By Breane Lyga
Rockford and Winnebago County aren't the first governing bodies to announce they will be filing a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies. In fact, hundreds of cities and counties around the nation have done so already.
Just in Illinois, Cook, DuPage, Kane, Will, McHenry and Lake counties all filed lawsuits last month against several opioid manufacturers. The counties cited aggressive marketing of opioids that resulted in a rise in overdose rates.
Forty-one states, including Illinois, banded together earlier this year to subpoena more information from opioid companies to investigate the marketing. Attorney General Lisa Madigan reached a $4.5 million dollar settlement with a pharmaceutical company for deceptive marketing.
Back in 2015, Kentucky settled with the maker of OxyContin for $24 million.
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Surry County files suit in federal court against opioid manufacturers and distributors
Jan 2, 2018 | Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
By Michael Hewlett
Add Surry County to the growing list of local governments around the country that are suing opioid manufacturers and distributors, putting the blame on those companies for the opioid epidemic that has led to increasing numbers of fatalities.
Surry County officials filed a 165-page federal lawsuit Dec. 29, 2017, in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of North Carolina in Greensboro. Yadkin County officials filed a similar lawsuit on Dec. 1, 2017 in the same federal court. Surry County’s lawsuit lists as defendants 24 drug manufacturers, distributors and their subsidiaries. Those defendants include Cardinal Health Inc. of Dublin, Ohio, which has 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.
The Surry County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution to file the lawsuit last month. Garry Whitaker, a Winston-Salem lawyer, filed the lawsuit.
Buncombe, New Hanover, Brunswick, Rockingham and Onslow counties also have filed lawsuits. According to the New York Times, nearly 200 local governments have filed federal lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors.
The lawsuit alleges that the companies used various methods to deceptively market opioid medication, such as Oxycodone, and provide misleading or false information about how addictive those drugs could become. The companies marketed those drugs specifically to vulnerable communities such as the elderly and veterans, according to the lawsuit.
And even when some of the companies reached settlements with the U.S. government to stop deceptive marketing, they found ways around the restrictions through organizations such as the American Pain Association and through doctors to continue to push opioid medications and minimize the risks of addiction, the lawsuit alleges.
According to the lawsuit, the companies engaged in an illegal racketeering scheme to promote opioids and ignored suspiciously high orders of opioid prescriptions that would have indicated an illegal market for the medications.
The actions have had two results — huge profits for the companies and devastating impacts for counties such as Surry, the lawsuit alleges. Opioids have become the most prescribed class of medications. Opioid sales generated $11 billion in revenue globally for drug companies, the lawsuit said.
Deaths from opioid use have increased in Surry County. From 1999 to 2007, Surry County had 46 opiate-related deaths, but from 2008 to 2016, the county had 100 opiate-related deaths, the lawsuit said.
“Our 165-page Complaint makes clear the dire need for abatement of this nuisance and details some of the damage suffered by our county,” County Attorney Ed Woltz said in a news release Tuesday about the lawsuit. “We are taking this action against the fundamental cause of the opioid crisis — the manufacturers’ and distributors’ failure to follow well understood laws surrounding the marketing and distribution of highly addictive narcotics.”
Whitaker said in a statement that the number of opioid prescriptions distributed in Surry County in 2016 exceeded the total county population with an estimated 164 opioid prescriptions dispensed per 100 people.
Not all of the companies could be reached for comment late Tuesday afternoon. Kaelan Hollon, senior director of communications for Teva Pharmaceuticals, said in a statement that the company is dedicated to the appropriate use of opioid medications and is aware of the critical public health issues because of illegal drug use and the abuse of opioids.
“To that end, we take a multi-faceted approach to this complex issue,” she said. That includes working to educate communities and healthcare providers and complying with federal and state regulations, among other things, Hollon said.
Teva, she said is also developing non-opioid treatments and working to understand how to prevent prescription-drug abuse “without sacrificing patients’ needed access to pain medicine.”
John Parker, a spokesman for Healthcare Distribution Alliance, said distributors aren’t willing to be scapegoats.
“Distributors are logistics companies that arrange for the safe and secure storage, transport, and delivery of medicines from manufacturers to pharmacies, hospitals, long-term care facilities, and others based on prescriptions from licensed physicians,” Parker said. “We don’t make medicines, market medicines, prescribe medicines or dispense them to consumers. Given our role, the idea that distributors are solely responsible for the number of opioid prescriptions written defies common sense and lacks understanding of how the pharmaceutical supply chain actually works and how it is regulated.”
Surry County is seeking a jury trial and an unspecified amount of damages that would cover medical care and treatment.
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Delray Beach makes the case for damages from opioid scourge
Jan 2, 2018 | Sun Sentinel (FL)
By Randy Schultz
To understand America’s opioid crisis, read Delray Beach’s lawsuit against companies that have profited from the crisis they created.
Last month, the city became the first in Florida to seek damages from the profiteers. Broward and Palm Beach counties also plan to sue. Opioids plague much of the state, but Delray Beach especially suffers because of all the sober houses that fleece recovering addicts.
Those addicts, the lawsuit reads, “are desperately seeking treatment for an opioid addiction that was caused by defendants’ false marketing and omissions and by the influx of opioids engendered by defendants’ failure to report suspicious orders of opioid medication.”
The defendants include drug companies — notably Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin — and drug distributors. The lawsuit alleges that they violated the state’s deceptive and unfair practices law, created a public nuisance and unjustly enriched themselves in a manner similar to organized crime.
Delray Beach’s law firm — Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd — filed the suit here, but it will be heard with nearly 70 similar cases by a federal judge in Ohio. “If these cases get to a jury,” Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein said, “the damages will be in the billions, not the millions. These are bad people.”
Brand-name opioids such as OxyContin belong to a class of drugs that include heroin and interact with opioid receptors on nerve cells. They produce euphoria, not just pain relief, and thus can be highly addictive beyond short-term use. When Purdue Pharma developed OxyContin in the mid-1990s, regulators envisioned a niche market: end-stage, palliative care for cancer patients.
But as news reports have revealed, and the lawsuit affirms, Purdue Pharma and others co-opted medical organizations and got doctors to prescribe opioids for almost any pain. The profiteers persuaded doctors to make pain the fifth vital sign, with heart rate, blood pressure, respiration and temperature.
Purdue Pharma and two other defendants provided what the lawsuit calls “substantial funding” to the Federation of State Medical Boards. The board develops practice guidelines for physicians.
In 2007, after adopting a guide called “Responsible Opioid Prescribing,” the board asked Purdue Pharma for $100,000 toward printing and distribution. The guide went to 700,000 practicing physicians just before “pill mills” set up in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
The General Accounting Office reported that Purdue Pharma paid for “pain management educational courses” to teach the new care standard. Between 2001 and 2012, the defendants collectively donated $1.5 million to the Federation of State Medical Boards. According to the GAO, Purdue used other “educational materials on pain management” to promote hospitals’ use of OxyContin.
As the lawsuit states, painkiller profiteers created “an entirely new ‘health care narrative’ — one in which opioids are considered safe and effective for long-term use, and pain is aggressively treated at all costs. . .and doctors came under enormous pressure to treat all kinds of pain with opioids.” When authorities closed the pill mills, addicts turned to cheaper heroin.
This is the devastatingly simple story that Glickstein said profiteers want to keep from a jury. The opioid scourge, which now kills more Americans than car crashes and ravages communities, “didn’t happen by accident.”
Purdue Pharma and others have avoided deeper scrutiny by settling litigation, invariably before the potential release of damning documents. Delray Beach is seeking damages for the cost of the scourge. The lawsuit doesn’t list an amount, but Glickstein said the city places combined fire and police costs at between $2,000 and $2,500 per 911 call. “Every time a new batch of fentanyl hits the streets,” Glickstein said, “the overdose calls start coming about two days later.”
Ideally, Delray Beach would be following the lead of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Since 12 percent of all opioid deaths nationally in 2015 happened in Florida, suing should be an easy call. But Bondi, who let Donald Trump off the hook for his “university” scam after a $25,000 donation, keeps ducking questions about a lawsuit against the profiteers.
Which at this point is fine with Glickstein. “If they can’t be shamed into suing, I don’t want the state telling our city what to do with the money.” Despite tougher talk from Gov. Rick Scott, “not one dollar” has come from Tallahassee for the opioid crisis.
So the city must seek many dollars from those who brought the scourge. They are bad people.
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Other cities should join Delray lawsuit against Big Pharma (EDITORIAL)
Jan 3, 2018 | My Palm Beach Post (FL)
By Editorial Board
The city of Delray Beach has had enough of the opioid crisis. And now, tired of draining its resources against a devastating drug scourge, city officials have taken the audacious step of suing Big Pharma in federal court.
The legal action is a long-overdue attempt to recoup millions for fighting a national epidemic. It’s the first Florida city to join a growing number of communities across the country that have taken legal action against a new, corporate breed of drug-pushers. It shouldn’t be the last.
Far from a frivolous lawsuit, the city’s decision to sue the pharmaceutical industry is a well-reasoned attempt to gain compensation for the time, money and resources spent to address the devastation heaped on the city by some of the nation’s largest Fortune 500 firms.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more people in the United States now die from drugs than automobile accidents, and the use of prescription painkillers costs health insurers up to $72.5 billion annually in direct health care costs.
Palm Beach County is one of the hardest-hit counties in the state, and Delray Beach — a leading destination for drug treatment — sits at the epicenter. The crisis has forced city officials to spend millions on opioid- and addiction-related services that could have gone to other pressing needs.
Cephalon, Endo International, Insys, Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceuticals may not be household names. But these firms, targeted in the Delray lawsuit, read like a who’s who of multinational corporations whose sales tactics would make any two-bit street pusher proud.
For generations, physicians were taught that opium and similar painkillers were highly addictive and should be used sparingly and mainly for patients near death. But, as the lawsuit details, opioid-makers engaged in a long-running campaign to market their drugs as fixes for “chronic pain”: back pain, headaches, arthritis and other common conditions. Unsuspecting patients began popping OxyContin and other powerful opioids like breath mints.
It was a “concerted, coordinated strategy” by the largest drugmakers and distributors to deceptively market their products, the city alleges. On their way to stunning profits, Big Pharma converted the medical and academic communities and government regulators to the idea that opioids were safe for long-term use.
As opioid use spread, so did addictions — and overdoses. In 2016 alone, Delray Beach spent about $3 million responding to more than 700 opioid overdose calls. The costs include employee overtime, new equipment for first responders, the overdose antidote, naloxone – and mental health services for employees who must respond to overdose scenes.
If Big Pharma’s marketing tactics sound familiar, it should. Tobacco companies used a similar approach in pushing cigarettes on an unsuspecting consumer market that included children. Big Tobacco downplayed the health risk of its products, just like Big Pharma is doing today.
Florida ultimately turned to the courtroom against Big Tobacco. Cursory observers gave the state little chance to win anything from an industry that routinely made smoking look fashionable. Yet in 1998, the suit resulted in the U.S.’s largest civil litigation agreement, which forced tobacco companies to make annual payments for anti-smoking campaigns and health programs.
The state of Florida can — and should — take legal action again. It’s disappointing that Attorney General Pam Bondi won’t even talk about doing so.
Fortunately, other communities refuse to remain quiet. Such states as Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio have already sued Big Pharma. So have Chicago; Dayton, Ohio; Everett, Washington, and the Cherokee Nation.
Florida is suffering no less than those places. An estimated 15 persons in this state died each day in 2016 from opioids or with some form of the painkiller in their system, according to a Palm Beach Post analysis. The 5,725 deaths are a 35 percent jump from 2015.
We believe the city has a good case. As the body count in America’s “Recovery County” has grown, drug companies have paid local physicians to promote oxycodone and other pain medication, all the while understating the addictive nature of their products.
Taking on the pharmaceutical industry is no small challenge. Yet the city of Delray Beach is stepping up to it. The opioid crisis is a big problem, calling for equally large solutions — remedies Delray Beach shouldn’t face alone.
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US millennials were almost 20% more likely to die in 2016 than 2014
Jan 3, 2018 | Quartz
By Dan Kopf
The US is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. It’s the world’s center of innovation and medical science, yet the country can’t keep their youth from dying. US millennials are now dying at such high rates that it’s driven life expectancy in the country to decline for two years in a row, the first time that’s happened since the early 1960s. The primary cause for the trend is the opioid crisis.
According to recently released data from the US Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC), 129 out of every 100,000 25-34 year old US adults died in 2016. Not since 1995, at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, have death rates been so high among this group.
The speed at which death rates are rising among young adults in the US is staggering. In just two years, from 2014 to 2016, the rate at which 25-34 year olds died rose by 19%, from 108 per 100,000 to 129. Death rates also grew quickly for those 15-24 and 35-44 years old. At the same time, the elderly are dying a bit less, and life expectancy for those that reach 75 years old continues to rise slowly.
The explanation for the trends is simple: young Americans are overdosing on drugs, particularly opioids.
In 2010, just 18 out of every 100,000 Americans aged 25-34 died from a drug overdose. By 2014, that rate rose to about 23 in 100,000—then it really took off. From 2014 to 2016 it spiked by 50% to almost 35. The majority of this rise can be accounted for by an increase of deaths from heroin (3.4 to 4.9 for every 100,000), natural and semisynthetic non-heroin opioids like oxycodone (3.8 to 4.4) and, most importantly, synthetic prescription opioids like fentanyl (1.8 to 6.2).
Beginning in the 1990s, doctors began overprescribing opioids for pain management, leading many patients to become addicted. Jay Joshi, the former chairman of the National Pain Foundation, wrote in Quartz that ignorance among physicians and aggressive marketing by opioid manufacturers are primarily to blame for the crisis. Prescription opioids like oxycodone aren’t that dangerous, but patients can become easily addicted and so seek out more potent,cheaper, and conveyors of opiates like heroin and fentanyl, which has led to the recent spike in opioid-related deaths.
Quarterly drug-abuse data from the CDC show that the death rate from drug abuse increased throughout 2016, and there is little evidence in preliminary 2017 data that the situation is improving.
In October 2017, US president Donald Trump declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency. The move allows some federal funds to be redirected to the crisis, but did not specify an amount. That decision is in the hands of the Republican-controlled Congress. Trump also appointed Kellyanne Conway, the former pollster and campaign strategist, as his “opioid czar,” despite her questionable qualificationsfor the job. The moves have been seen by some public health experts as a paltry response to the crisis, who say the US will need to spend billions of dollars on addiction treatment, including large investments into medications that help wean addicts off of opioids, in order to solve the problem.
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Class-action lawsuits rightly target opioid manufacturers (EDITORIAL)
Jan 3, 2018 | Tuscaloosa News (AL)
By Staff
For the past few years, NFL football players have worn pink during the month of October in an effort to raise awareness of breast cancer. The league moved last year to end the practice, but you still see players wearing the color. It is a worthwhile cause that has led to increased donations. But breast cancer, as bad as it is, now kills fewer Americans each year than opioids.
In 2016, there were 41,070 Americans who died from breast cancer, but there were 42,249 overdose deaths involving opioids that same year. Opioids were involved in the majority of the more than 63,600 overdose deaths last year.
And, as pharmaceutical companies get richer, the problem is only getting worse. U.S. deaths from drug overdoses increased a whopping 21 percent in 2016. Preliminary 2017 data shows that the rise in overdose deaths is continuing. It is such a problem that it is dragging down the overall life expectancy of Americans for the second straight year.
While the problem is nationwide, it is especially troubling in Alabama, where we have more opioid painkiller prescriptions than people. A recent study by Quintiles IMS found earlier this year that there are 1.18 opioid prescriptions per person in Alabama, which was the worst ratio of all states.
There’s no way that pharmaceutical companies don’t know that they are shipping more of these drugs than are needed in Alabama. There’s no way that doctors prescribing these highly addictive drugs at such a remarkable rate are unaware they are being abused.
Back in June, the New York Times reported that overdoses are now the leading cause of death of Americans under the age of 50, outpacing disease, car crashes or gun violence. That same month Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office Chief Loyd Baker told a local meeting of the League of Women Voters that “drugs are the underlying current, affecting everything we do.” He said about 21 to 23 people die from opioid overdoses in Tuscaloosa County each year.
It’s time to address this incredibly serious problem in a serious way, a way that gets results, so we’re heartened to hear that Tuscaloosa County’s largest local governments are considering participating in a class-action lawsuit against manufacturers and distributors of opioid drugs. Tuscaloosa County, the city of Tuscaloosa and the city of Northport are all in the process of doing due diligence and researching which law firm they should choose.
While joining the lawsuits isn’t a panacea that will make this problem go away, it is a step in the right direction. Settlements have already been reached in other cases brought against the pharmaceutical companies. And Mississippi, Ohio, West Virginia, along with other counties and cities, such as Chicago, have also started litigation.
These companies have enriched themselves while our citizens are addicted and dying. They’ve wreaked havoc in our communities and depleted resources and we’re all paying a steep cost.
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We Can’t Measure Pain. Is That Fueling the Opioid Crisis?
Jan 3, 2018 | The Daily Beast
By Neel V. Patel
According to the CDC, 91 people die every day from opioid overdoses—a problem that has become epidemic in proportion and led the Trump administration to try to solve the crisis with everything from declaring it a “public health emergency,” an ad campaign, and a messy attempt to find an opioid czar.
One way public health officials are trying to figure out how to help those suffering from opioid addiction is through a theoretical device being described as a “pain-o-meter” capable of measuring a patient’s pain objectively and accurately. The National Institutes of Health has begunevaluating proposals for $4 million in small business grants that will go towards developing some sort of technology or methodology that objectively measures pain, as part of a larger effort to help reduce the number of painkillers from being overprescribed and fueling opioid addictions.
Here's why: A patient could be suffering from anything between mild discomfort and irascible torture, but an opioid painkiller is almost certainly going to provide some relief. The dose, however, should vary—but often does not, leading to some people to get addicted to drugs that might have been way too powerful for their pain needs.
The current system leaves much to be desired in terms of scientific accuracy: Doctors simply ask patients to rate their pain on a numerical scale or something similar, and use that information to determine what kind of painkiller prescription would work best.
“Pain assessment heavily relies on self-report of pain,” Dr. Dave Thomas, a Health Scientist Administrator at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), told The Daily Beast. “Whereas how a person describes their pain is important to know, there are some issues with using self-report measures to do science or diagnose the causes and best treatment of pain.”
The problem with pain is that it’s person-specific. Someone with little experience with pain might be more prone to citing their pain on higher levels of a numerical scale, while another person who’s used to a similar kind of pain would underrate it. Some individuals naturally possess a stronger tolerance to pain, while others may be more sensitive due to their genetics.
Thomas, NIDA’s representative to the NIH Pain Consortium, says an ideal version of the pain-o-meter wouldn’t simply measure pain levels objectively, but also forecast if opioids are useful in helping a person's pain in the first place. That means doctors only give a patient what they need—no more, no less.
“This would cut down on opioid prescriptions that do not help and are not used,” Thomas said, reducing the number of prescription painkillers being sold on the streets.
To that end, a pain-o-meter could be anything from a blood test that determines patient pain, to a device that observes physical signs of pain like pupil dilation or muscular stress, to intelligent software capable of looking at a patient’s response to pain and assessing what that pain is on a quantifiable scale. Other factors could include measuring brain activity, immune system functions, gene signaling that results from pain, and more overt behavioral changes.
It’s critical to note that the pain-o-meter is just one of several solutions public health officials are pursuing to tackle opioid addiction. The president’s commission on combating the opioid crisis found, like many experts have, that the pharmaceutical industry has too aggressively marketed opioids to doctors looking for a solution to patient reports of pain, and that health insurance companies are incentivizing opioid prescriptions as a cheaper alternative to other treatments that could allegiant pain.
But is it realistic to expect a pain-o-meter to work, much less exist?
Dr. John Farrar, a professor of epidemiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, is a bit skeptical a pain-measuring device would really put a significant dent in the opioid crisis. “The treatment of patients with pain are a small percentage of people who end up with problems with addiction to opioids,” he told The Daily Beast. He’s not quite sold on how well such a tool could clamp down on the number of prescription opioids making their way through communities.
Furthermore, he’s not quite sure it would ever be possible to properly gauge pain in a patient using a pain-o-meter of some kind. “Pain is 100 percent subjective,” he continued. “The only way we’re going to know about whether a patient has pain is by asking.” Too many factors play into how a person experiences pain, and Farrar believes that, currently, “the concept of there being a device [to measure pain with complete accuracy] is overly optimistic...I would argue that that simply is not possible.”
Regardless, there seems to be a consensus that physicians and researchers can do more in this field to help patients. “People in pain do get frustrated,” Thomas said. “They are frustrated for many reasons, mostly around not getting adequate pain relief. And they are frustrated when they are questioned and doubted about the pain they report.”
That doesn't mean Thomas believes a pain-o-meter would be a catch-all for figuring out pain reports. Rather, he envisioned it as a way to help the medical community figure out how to best treat pain. “With the better picture of pain provided by self-report and objective measures, better diagnosis may be achieved, better treatment courses may be followed and better research may be conducted,” he said.
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Wisconsin battling opioids on multiple fronts
Jan 2, 2018 | Superior Telegram (WI)
By M. Longaecker
Patty Schachtner suspects she saw a new level of desperation in 2017.
The St. Croix County medical examiner this year determined a person died from consuming horse wormer medication. Schachtner said the suicide was the first of its kind the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory has reviewed.
"I think it's a sign of deeper desperation," she said, adding that the deceased obtained the drug through the Dark Web.
Schachtner fears addicts are moving beyond — or augmenting — opioid abuse by tapping into different substances that aren't meant for human consumption.
"This is far bigger than people think," she said.
Schachtner exists within a framework of health professionals, law enforcement members and lawmakers struggling to make headway against opioid addiction in Wisconsin, where greater access to a critical antidote, a class-action lawsuit and new laws are among the emerging answers to the evolving problem.
Two people — Attorney General Brad Schimel and Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette — have figured prominently as leaders in Wisconsin's battle against opioid abuse.
Nygren, a Marinette Republican whose family has been deeply affected by addiction, has put drug abuse in his crosshairs and has seen nearly 30 bills signed into law since 2013. Nygren's daughter has struggled for years with heroin addiction, including a 2017 homicide charge stemming from a Wisconsin man's fatal overdose.
Spurred by his daughter's struggles, Nygren has been the driving force behind Wisconsin's HOPE (Heroin, Opioid Prevention Education) legislation, which includes a bill mandating the state's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program.
The program includes a provision that took effect in April, which requires medical professionals to check with the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program before approving opioids for a patient. The PDMP includes information provided by law enforcement, public health, pharmacies and health care professionals.
The effort is aimed at curbing so-called "doctor shopping," where addicts bounce from one office to the next in hopes of getting a prescription filled.
St. Croix County Sheriff Scott Knudson said laws like that are proving to be successful "so a person isn't pharmacy shopping." Still, law enforcement efforts to spread awareness about the problem — as St. Croix County has addressed through a task force — remain necessary, he said.
"We continue to hope for way to work more cooperatively with the pharmaceutical industry in the area," Knudson said.
The sheriff said western Wisconsin hasn't dealt with the volume of opioid-related overdoses that his counterparts have in the state's eastern region. According to county records, 2015 and 2016 each saw four accidental opioid overdoses.
"We continue to increase, and my concern is that what they're experiencing across the state, that we're going to start seeing that," Knudson said. "The problem really is: One overdose is too many overdoses."
On Dec. 15, Schimel, the state's attorney general, outlined a three-pronged effort he's touting in response to an epidemic that killed 827 people last year in Wisconsin.
"We cannot arrest our way out of the opioid epidemic," he said.
Schimel said the state is attacking opioid abuse through prevention, treatment and enforcement.
Among those efforts is an investigation launched in concert with other attorneys general to determine the role of opioid manufacturers in creating and prolonging the epidemic. That effort has included investigative subpoenas issued for manufacturers Endo, Janssen, Teva/Cephalon and Allergan.
Meanwhile, 28 Wisconsin counties, including Douglas County, have joined in a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies, alleging "aggressive and fraudulent marketing of prescription opioid painkillers that has led to a drug epidemic in the state" and beyond, according to a news release.
The state's justice department on Dec. 13 announced a program providing expanded access and affordability on University of Wisconsin-System campuses for Narcan, the antidote used in overdoses.
The program, forged in partnership with the drug's manufacturer, Adapt Pharma, will provide law enforcement and campus security with Narcan at no cost. Nine campuses, including Superior, are among those receiving the antidote.
More people are being saved by the drug Narcan than ever before, Schachtner said.
"What Narcan's supposed to do is working," she said.
But, she explained, addicts are also aware of that.
The emerging problem, Schachtner said, is that some users have their own access to the drug and have it administered to them after overdosing. That makes her wonder what happens when people are receiving the antidote weekly or monthly.
"What are the long-term effects of that," Schachtner said.
She noted the rise of ultra-potent drugs like fentanyl and carfentanil, which create immediate exposure risks. Schachtner and law enforcement investigators have been given Narcan doses to administer to officers who overdose on those drugs simply by responding to a crime scene.
That's how potent this stuff is," she said. "It is now a workplace hazard for frontline workers."
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Eyewitness News More Local at 7:00 AM
Jan 3, 2018 | WQRF (Fox)
By Rockford, IL
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31625462?token=92c91cf5-8475-46a9-9a51-51ab1aef1a80
Rough Transcription: 20-17 will be a record year for drug overdose deaths in rockford and winnebago county. someone dies from an o-d every 3 days. ((christie)) the fatal statistics bring community leaders together... to file a lawsuit against the drug companies they blame for the cris. eyewitness news 8:34 AMreporter jerrica valtierra was there when supporters announced the joint effort. joe bruscato, winnebago county state's attorney "we are just simply not going to allow these profiteers to prey on this community then force our taxpayers to clean up the mess. it ends now." state's attorney joe bruscato annoucing a lawsuit against pharmaceutical manufacturers and distrubtors of opioids. the partnership with the winnebago county - city of rockford - taking a new approach to solving the epidemic seen here in the stateline. mayor tom mcnamara, city of rockford "families are being devasated it is imperative that drug manufacturers change their current practices. we can no longer afford to pay lip service to this growing problem in our community. the talk is obviously not working we need to take action and we need to take action immediately." chairman frank haney says the overdose deaths in the county have quardrupled in the past ten years. in 2006 - there were 33. and in 2016 - we saw 96... the county coroner saying by mid-december this year -- the number of deaths rose to 122. the lawsuit not only hoping to change business practices.. but county - city leaders and the attorneys on this case - also say they're looking to make those companies and distrubutors - pay for the damage they've already 8:35 AMcreated. chairman frank haney, winnebago county "there are hundreds o trips, hundreds and hundreds of trips to the emergency room, hospital stays as well as the pain and suffering of individuals, families, and communities." peter mougey, attorney "each of thes defendants will be included in these claims for damages both retroactivelywhether it be the jails, the coroners, the first responders whether it be narcan thats used." rockfor'sd fire chief says his department saw 310 overdoses this year who were saved by carrying narcan. the winnebago county sheriff's office also using the antidote to save live. sheriff gary caruana, winnebago county "as a community, what i see on the streets and the number of narcan saves that we have on the streets, that has to tell you something." ((christie)) jerrica valtierra reporting. 8:36 AMthe city and county have hired an outside team of attorneys with experience in these kind of lawsuits to represent them. the next step -- filing it in northern illinois district court. ((jay)) it's time for morning mug club.. ((christie)) the city of rockford and winnebago county are teaming up to sue drug makers they blame for the stateline's opioid epidemic. so do you think the city and county are headed in the right direction in doing this, or do you think this won't solve the on-going epidemic. ((jay)) comment on our morning mug club post on facebook... facebook dot com slash my eyewitness news ((christie)) the lawsuit comes as a new state law aimed at curbing opioid abuse goes into effect. senate bill 772 requires doctors who are prescribing opioids to check first with the illinois prescription monitoring program. it's a database that will record patients' prescription histories. it's meant in part to prevent what's called 'doctor shopping' ... where an addict will consult with more than one doctor to get more drugs. it will also help insure doctors are not over- prescribing opioids to their patients.
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Jan 3, 2018 | WPMI (NBC)
By Mobile, AL
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31625473?token=92c91cf5-8475-46a9-9a51-51ab1aef1a80
Rough Transcript: opioid lawsuit baldwin county is filing a lawsuit against big pharma as part of the ongoing battle against the opioid crisis. county commissioners voted tuesday morning to file a suit against major pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors, to try to get a handle on the opioid epidemic. this is in line with the city of mobile's recent lawsuit. several other alabama counties and cities have filed suit as well.
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Jan 3, 2018 | WEAR (ABC)
By Mobile, AL
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31625506?token=92c91cf5-8475-46a9-9a51-51ab1aef1a80
Rough Transcript: baldwin county is now joining the long list of plaintiffs suing big pharma over the opioid crisis. county commissioners voted yesterday to file suit against major pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors, to try to get a handle on the opioid epidemic. this is in line with the city of mobile's recent lawsuit. in northwest florida -- bapist and jay hospitals have both filed similar lawsuits as well. plaintiffs in these lawsuits say pharmaceutical companies have ignored the crisis and have distributed millions of dollars prescription medications irresponsibly.
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Jan 3, 2018 | WGHP (Fox)
By Greensboro, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31625470?token=92c91cf5-8475-46a9-9a51-51ab1aef1a80
Rough Transcript: another local county suing opioid manufacturers. surry county has filed a federal lawsuit against 24-drug makers and distributors, according to the journal. the lawsuit claims the companies have misled customers about how addictive their drugs could be - saying they were specificaly marketed to vulnerable groups like the elderly and veterans. sury county is just the latest government in our area to file a lawsuit against opioid makers.
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Jan 3, 2018 | WXII (NBC)
By Greensboro, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31625544?token=92c91cf5-8475-46a9-9a51-51ab1aef1a80
Rough Transcript: now to our state of addiction coverage, surry county is going after companies that make and distribute opioids. the county filed a lawsuit with the federal court in greensboro yesterday. leaders want to be reimbursed for law enforcement hours jail costs treatment costs and recovery costs. according to the c.d.c. the number of opioids distributed in surry county last year exceeded the county's total population. devonte: 5:28. the big part of the stop act is now in effect. doctors say it should help curb the opioid crisis in our state. the stop act limits how many opioids a doctor can precribe during a patient's first visit. doctors can prescribe up to five days worth of opioids for acute pain like broken bones and muscle trauma. and one-week worth of opioids for post-surgery pain. refills can be prescribed as need. doctors at novant health in winston-salem tell us the new regulations will hopefully cut down on prescription drug abuse and overdoses. >> decreasing the prescribing of opioids is really a fundamental step in curbing the opioid epidemic. so it's really the baseline regulations that we need to get started to help solve this cris. devonte: novant health now has a 90-person task force to deal with the opioid cris. as part our state of addiction coverage, we've been sharing stories about addiction and recovery. you can find treatment options, resources and success stories on our website,
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Jan 3, 2018 | KFXK (Fox)
By Tyler, TX
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31625432?token=92c91cf5-8475-46a9-9a51-51ab1aef1a80
Rough Transcript: the fight against opioid abuse in east texas continues. nacogdoches county may join other texas counties in the legal battle to in this epidemic. fox 51's matt thibodeau has more on this. >>reporter: the nacogdoches county commissioners court called a special meeting tuesday to consider suing pharmaceutical only. multiple firms are seeking to represent the county. >>> we are filing lawsuits we vardy filed several we are asking the county join in the against opioid manufacturers per speaker if the commissioners join, they will be the 28th texas county to do so. one law firm the pharmaceutical companies have been selling opioids to people who don't need them or for longer periods than you. this includes vicodin and oxycodone. >>reporter: is created and addicted america and that has led to severe cost across the nation. >>reporter: an estimated 142 americans die each year from an opioid overdose. the county attorney says there is enough information out there to make a decision. >> it would be our recommendation to engage a law firm to protect the interest of nacogdoches county in the long term to the extent there is liability appears to be that the commissioners court will meet again for the regular meeting wednesday. there they will decide whether or not to hire one of the firms.
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