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Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report - 1/10/18
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Ohio judge urges action on '100 percent manmade' opioid crisis
Jan 10, 2018 | Associated Press
By Andrew Welsh-Huggins
A federal judge on Tuesday set a goal of doing something about the nation’s opioid epidemic this year, while noting the drug crisis is “100 percent man-made.” -
Opioid Judge Wants ‘Meaningful’ National Accord on Cities Suits
Jan 9, 2018 | Bloomberg
By Jef Feeley
The judge overseeing U.S. cities’ and counties’ lawsuits against makers of opioid painkillers said he hopes a sweeping resolution can be worked out by the end of the year that will have a “meaningful impact’’ on the burgeoning drug epidemic. -
Judge Overseeing Local Opioid Lawsuits Hopes for ‘Meaningful’ Settlement
Jan 9, 2018 | Bloomberg
By Jef Feeley
The judge overseeing U.S. cities’ and counties’ lawsuits against makers of opioid painkillers said he hopes a sweeping resolution can be worked out by the end of the year that will have a “meaningful impact” on the burgeoning drug epidemic. -
Federal Judge Seeks Speedy Resolution of Opioid Lawsuits
Jan 9, 2018 | The Wall Street Journal
By Sara Randazzo
A federal judge is pushing for a swift resolution to hundreds of lawsuits filed by cities and counties over the opioid crisis, saying Tuesday that too many people are dying each year from opioid abuse. -
Here's why a federal judge presiding over opioid lawsuits thinks settling them is important
Jan 9, 2018 | Cleveland.com (OH)
By Eric Heising
A longtime Cleveland federal judge presiding over more than 200 lawsuits filed over the opioid epidemic made a series of pointed comments Tuesday as he urged lawyers for Big Pharma and government entities to craft a sweeping resolution to help quell the nation's worsening overdose rate. -
Federal judge calls for quick settlement in opioid lawsuit
Jan 9, 2018 | Sun Sentinel (FL)
By Dan Sweeney
A massive federal lawsuit aims to hold pharmaceutical companies responsible for contributing to the opioid crisis, and a federal judge is seeking a quick resolution. -
Judge Orders Opioid Lawyers to Come Up With a Settlement Plan
Jan 10, 2018 | National Law Journal
By Amanda Bronstad
The federal judge overseeing about 200 opioid lawsuits ordered lawyers into private talks on Tuesday with one goal in mind: find a way to settle the cases, and quickly. -
In opioid litigation, federal judge urges settlement
Jan 10, 2018 | Alabama.com (AL)
By Lawrence Specker
Parties involved in litigation over the nation's opioid abuse epidemic should settle the case rather than battling it out while more people die, a federal judge said on Tuesday. -
SD Tribes Add To Flood Of Opioid Marketing Suits
Jan 9, 2018 | Law360
By Shayna Posses
Three South Dakota tribes have added to the sea of suits accusing drugmakers and distributors of deceptively marketing highly addictive opioids, alleging in a Monday federal court suit that the companies have worked to conceal the risk of abuse while making billions off the nation’s prescription painkiller epidemic. -
3 S.D. Indian tribes sue drugmakers over opioid addiction
Jan 9, 2018 | The Washington Post
By Sari Horwitz
Three American Indian tribes in South Dakota have sued the country’s top opioid manufacturers and distributors, accusing them of concealing and minimizing the addiction risk in tribal communities that have been devastated by such drugs. -
Native American tribes sue opioid manufacturers, distributors
Jan 9, 2018 | CBS/AP
By Staff
Three Native American tribes in the Dakotas are suing opioid manufacturers and distributors, alleging they concealed and minimized the addiction risk of prescription drugs. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe and the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate sued 24 opioid industry groups in federal court on Monday. -
IOWA COUNTIES ASKED TO SIGN RESOLUTION ON A LAWSUIT REGARDING OPIOIDS
Jan 10, 2018 | KIMT3 News (IA)
By Stefante Randall
Opioid use is an epidemic impacting people across the country, leaving organizations and medical providers struggling to find ways to educate the public on the issue. -
Black Hawk County joins federal opioid lawsuit
Jan 9, 2018 | The Courier (IA)
By Tim Jamison
Black Hawk has joined a growing list of Iowa counties suing drug manufacturers for the costs of dealing with the nation’s opioid epidemic. -
City, county officially file opioid suits
Jan 10, 2018 | The Journal Gazette (IN)
By Matthew LeBlanc
Fort Wayne and Allen County each have filed federal lawsuits against the makers and distributors of opioid drugs. City and county officials announced in December they would sue the companies, saying the pharmaceutical industry misrepresented the nature of opioid painkillers including those under the brand names OxyContin, Vicodin and Opana. -
Greenwood joins opioid lawsuit
Jan 9, 2018 | Daily Journal (IN)
By Annie Goeller
The impacts of the opioid crisis are being felt in ambulance runs, calls to police and court programs specifically geared to address addiction in one local community. -
Seymour joining opioid lawsuit
Jan 9, 2018 | The Tribune (IN)
By January Rutherford
Seymour City Council has agreed to join a growing list of cities, towns, counties and states in lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors blaming them for the opioid crisis communities have been battling for the past few years. -
Upper Midwest tribes file suit over opioid crisis
Jan 9, 2018 | Star Tribune (MN)
By Jennifer Brooks
Indian tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas are suing opioid manufacturers and distributors over the epidemic of addiction and overdoses that racks their reservations. -
Jasper County panel OKs pursuing opioid lawsuit
Jan 9, 2018 | The Joplin Globe (MO)
By Koby Levin
Add Jasper County to the growing list of local governments suing pharmaceutical companies in pursuit of damages they allege were caused by the national opioid epidemic. -
Missouri Attorney General Hawley Celebrates One-Year Anniversary of Swearing In
Jan 9, 2018 | STL News (MO)
By Staff
To mark the one-year anniversary of taking office, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley today recognized the achievements of the past year. -
18 Connecticut Municipalities Sue Big Pharma Over Opioid Crisis
Jan 10, 2018 | Connecticut Law Tribune (CT)
By Celia Ampel
Eighteen Connecticut municipalities filed a lawsuit Tuesday against several large pharmaceutical companies for allegedly concealing the risk of opioid addiction from the public. -
Methuen files lawsuit against companies that sell opioids
Jan 9, 2018 | Eagle-Tribune (MA)
By Lisa Kashinsky
The city is taking on big pharmaceutical companies they say are responsible for dumping “millions of dollars' worth” of prescription opiates into the community in a lawsuit against several major manufacturers and distributors. -
County files lawsuit against opioid manufacturers
Jan 9, 2018 | The Cecil Whig (MD)
By Katie Tabeling
Nearly two dozen pharmaceutical companies “turned patients into addicts for their own corporate profit” by funneling opioids to the community through deceptive marketing practices and ignoring signs that the drugs were diverted to underground markets, according to a lawsuit recently filed by Cecil County. -
Harford executive plans suit against opioid manufacturers, prescribers
Jan 10, 2018 | The Baltimore Sun (MD)
By David Anderson
Harford County will join the growing list of Maryland Counties in suing opioid manufacturers, distributors and local subscribers for their alleged roles in spurring an abuse crisis that has reached epidemic proportions, County Executive Barry Glassman said Tuesday. -
City’s opioid lawsuit moves to Ohio court
Jan 10, 2018 | The Telegraph (NH)
By Damien Fisher
Nashua is now joining more than 100 other plaintiffs in taking on Big Pharma over the way opioids have flooded the streets. -
Baldwin County joining wave of painkiller litigation
Jan 9, 2018 | AL.com
By Lawrence Specker
Baldwin County is joining the wave of litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors, and should it see any proceeds from a favorable ruling or settlement, county leaders hope to fund increased law enforcement efforts. -
A Seven-Step Plan for Ending the Opioid Crisis (EDITORIAL)
Jan 10, 2018 | Bloomberg
By Michael R. Bloomberg
The opioid epidemic is now a full-blown national crisis, yet the federal government continues to dawdle. President Donald Trump declared opioid addiction a public health emergency, and he talks a tough game. But he has not taken forceful action. If he will not lead, Congress must -- and now, before the crisis grows even worse. -
DEA launches ’360 strategy’ to combat heroin, opioid crisis in South Jersey
Jan 9, 2018 | Burlington County Times (NJ)
By Kelly Kultys
With drug overdoses continuing to rise across the country, the federal government is stepping in to coordinate an initiative that has a special focus on South Jersey. -
Midday in KELOLAND
Jan 9, 2018 | KCLO (CBS)
By Rapid City, SD
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826565?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9 -
KVRR Local News at 8
Jan 10, 2018 | KVRR (FOX)
By Fargo, ND
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826466?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9 -
KIMT News 3 DayBreak
Jan 10, 2018 | KIMT (CBS)
By Rochester, MN
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826498?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9 -
Local 15 Today
Jan 10, 2018 | WPMI (NBC)
By Mobile, AL
VIDEO LINK: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826505?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9 -
10 This Morning at 6am
Jan 10, 2018 | WBNS (CBS)
By Columbus, OH
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826511?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9 -
News 12 This Morning
Jan 10, 2018 | WAGT (NBC)
By Augusta-Aiken, GA
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826538?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9 -
News 10 This Morning
Jan 10, 2018 | WTHI (CBS)
By Terre Haute, IN
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826544?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9 -
KCRG-TV9 First News
Jan 10, 2018 | KCRG (ABC)
By Cedar Rapids, IA
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826549?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9 -
7&4 News at 6PM
Jan 9, 2018 | WPBN (NBC)
By Traverse City, MI
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826557?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster MDL Statements
Midwest (IA, IN, MN, MO, SD)
Northeast (CT, MA, MD, NH)
Southeast (AL)
Commentary and FYIs
Broadcast Media Coverage
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Ohio judge urges action on '100 percent manmade' opioid crisis
Jan 10, 2018 | Associated Press
By Andrew Welsh-Huggins
A federal judge on Tuesday set a goal of doing something about the nation’s opioid epidemic this year, while noting the drug crisis is “100 percent man-made.”
Judge Dan Polster urged participants on all sides of lawsuits against drugmakers and distributors to work toward a common goal of reducing overdose deaths. He said the issue has come to courts because “other branches of government have punted” it.
The judge is overseeing more than 180 lawsuits against drug companies brought by local communities across the country, including those in California, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. Municipalities include San Joaquin County in California; Portsmouth, Ohio; and Huntington, W.Va.
Polster said the goal must be reining in the amount of painkillers available.
“What we’ve got to do is dramatically reduce the number of pills that are out there, and make sure that the pills that are out there are being used properly,” Polster said during a hearing in his Cleveland courtroom. “Because we all know that a whole lot of them have gone walking, with devastating results.”
The judge said he believes everyone from drugmakers to doctors to individuals bear some responsibility for the crisis and haven’t done enough to stop it.
The government tallied 63,600 overdose drug deaths in 2016, another record. Most of the deaths involved prescription opioids such as OxyContin or Vicodin or related illicit drugs such as heroin and fentanyl.
The epidemic is the most widespread and deadly drug crisis in the nation’s history, and for now shows little sign of abating. Counties in hard-hit Ohio already were recording overdose deaths last year that would put the state above its record 4,050 deaths in 2016.
Hundreds of lawsuits filed by municipal and county governments could end up as part of the consolidated federal case overseen by Polster, but others are not likely to.
Some government bodies, including Ohio and at least nine other states, are suing the industry in state courts. Additionally, most states have joined a multistate investigation of the industry that could end up sparking a settlement or yet more litigation against the industry.
Targets of the lawsuits include drugmakers such as Allergan, Johnson & Johnson, and Purdue Pharma, and the three large drug distribution companies, Amerisource Bergen, Ohio-based Cardinal Health and McKesson. Drug distributors and manufacturers named in these and other lawsuits have said they don’t believe litigation is the answer but have pledged to help solve the crisis.
Polster likened the epidemic to the 1918 flu which killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, while pointing out a key difference.
“This is 100 percent man-made,” Polster said. “I’m pretty ashamed that this has occurred while I’ve been around.”
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Opioid Judge Wants ‘Meaningful’ National Accord on Cities Suits
Jan 9, 2018 | Bloomberg
By Jef Feeley
The judge overseeing U.S. cities’ and counties’ lawsuits against makers of opioid painkillers said he hopes a sweeping resolution can be worked out by the end of the year that will have a “meaningful impact’’ on the burgeoning drug epidemic.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster on Tuesday told lawyers representing drugmakers, including Purdue Pharma Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, and governments that he intends to push for a settlement that does more than “just moves money around.’’
“We have to dramatically reduce the total number of pills out there, and make sure the pills that are out there are being used properly,’’ the Cleveland-based judge said. “We all know a lot of those pills have gone walking with devastating results’’-- referring to the resale of the drugs on the black market.
Polster is overseeing more than 200 cases filed by local governments accusing drugmakers and drug distributors, such as McKesson Corp., of creating a public-health crisis with their mishandling of the powerful drugs, which are blamed for killing 150 Americans daily.
Purdue officials confirmed in November that they are in settlement talks with a group of state attorneys general and trying to come up with a global resolution of the government opioid claims.
The opioid makers are accused in the lawsuits of downplaying the addiction risks and overstating the effectiveness of their drugs. Some of the states hired big-name plaintiffs’ lawyers in hopes of generating a Big Tobacco-style settlement. Cigarette makers agreed in 1999 to pay $246 billion to settle states’ suits that sought to recoup the costs of smoking to society.
Polster sequestered groups of plaintiffs’ lawyers representing cities and counties and drugmakers’ defense lawyers in separate courtrooms Monday in hopes of laying the groundwork for a settlement.
If no deal can be reached, Polster said he’s prepared to try the state of Ohio’s claims against opioid makers in 2019.
“I’ll try the case I have jurisdiction over,’’ he said. The judge added the opioid crisis is “100 percent man-made’’ and federal courts are unlikely places to find solutions.
The case is National Prescription Opiate Litigation, 17-md-2804, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio (Cleveland)
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Judge Overseeing Local Opioid Lawsuits Hopes for ‘Meaningful’ Settlement
Jan 9, 2018 | Bloomberg
By Jef Feeley
The judge overseeing U.S. cities’ and counties’ lawsuits against makers of opioid painkillers said he hopes a sweeping resolution can be worked out by the end of the year that will have a “meaningful impact” on the burgeoning drug epidemic.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster on Tuesday told lawyers representing drugmakers, including Purdue Pharma Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, and governments that he intends to push for a settlement that does more than “just moves money around.”
“We have to dramatically reduce the total number of pills out there, and make sure the pills that are out there are being used properly,” the Cleveland-based judge said. “We all know a lot of those pills have gone walking with devastating results”– referring to the resale of the drugs on the black market.
Polster is overseeing more than 200 cases filed by local governments accusing drugmakers and drug distributors, such as McKesson Corp., of creating a public-health crisis with their mishandling of the powerful drugs, which are blamed for killing 150 Americans daily.
Purdue officials confirmed in November that they are in settlement talks with a group of state attorneys general and trying to come up with a global resolution of the government opioid claims.
The opioid makers are accused in the lawsuits of downplaying the addiction risks and overstating the effectiveness of their drugs. Some of the states hired big-name plaintiffs’ lawyers in hopes of generating a Big Tobacco-style settlement. Cigarette makers agreed in 1999 to pay $246 billion to settle states’ suits that sought to recoup the costs of smoking to society.
Polster sequestered groups of plaintiffs’ lawyers representing cities and counties and drugmakers’ defense lawyers in separate courtrooms Monday in hopes of laying the groundwork for a settlement.
If no deal can be reached, Polster said he’s prepared to try the state of Ohio’s claims against opioid makers in 2019.
“I’ll try the case I have jurisdiction over,” he said. The judge added the opioid crisis is “100 percent man-made” and federal courts are unlikely places to find solutions.
The case is National Prescription Opiate Litigation, 17-md-2804, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio (Cleveland).
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Federal Judge Seeks Speedy Resolution of Opioid Lawsuits
Jan 9, 2018 | The Wall Street Journal
By Sara Randazzo
A federal judge is pushing for a swift resolution to hundreds of lawsuits filed by cities and counties over the opioid crisis, saying Tuesday that too many people are dying each year from opioid abuse.
“I don’t think anyone in the country is interested in a whole lot of finger pointing at this point, and I’m not either,” U.S. District Judge Dan Polster said Tuesday at the first gathering, in a Cleveland courtroom that was packed, of lawyers involved in the sprawling opioid litigation.
Judge Polster is overseeing the consolidation of more than 200 cases filed in federal court by local governments, hospitals and other parties, all seeking to recoup the costs of opioid addiction from the manufacturers and distributors of the painkillers.
More than a dozen state attorneys general, including those in Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri and New Mexico, have also sued manufacturers and distributors in state courts. New suits are piling up each day as plaintiffs’ lawyers sign up additional clients.
“In my humble opinion, everyone shares some of the responsibility, and no one has done enough to abate it,” said Judge Polster, a former prosecutor nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton.
He urged both sides to reach an agreement—one that involves the reduction of pills to those who abuse them, rather than just a monetary payment—without enduring the protracted cost and hassle of litigation. “We don’t need briefs and we don’t need trials,” the judge said. “None of those are going to solve what we’ve got.”
If a speedy resolution doesn’t work, he said, the lawyers will have to prepare a test case for trial.
A few early cases show how long litigating such opioid cases can take.
California’s Orange and Santa Clara counties sued five drugmakers, including Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and Endo International, for deceptive marketing in 2014, and have since revised their state-court complaint four times. One defendant, Teva Pharmaceuticals , agreed last year to pay $1.6 million as part of a pending agreement, while the rest continue to push for its dismissal.
Chicago similarly sued drugmakers for false marketing in 2014. Several of Chicago’s claims have been dismissed, and the case has been hung up in disputes over document discovery. That case is now on hold and part of the multidistrict litigation in front of Judge Polster.
The Ohio judge last week named New York lawyer Paul Hanly, South Carolina lawyer Joseph Rice and West Virginia-based Paul Farrell as co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the case. They oversee additional groups of court-appointed plaintiffs’ lawyers working on the litigation.
In court Tuesday, Mr. Rice, a founding partner at Motley Rice LLC, told Judge Polster that the plaintiffs “share your feeling of urgency.”
Attorneys for the drug distributors and manufacturers said in court that they are willing to enter into discussions but have some legal questions they’d like resolved first.
“All of us recognize there are issues in this country [and we] want to be part of the solution,” said Mark Cheffo, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP representing Purdue. “We welcome the opportunity to sit down with the court, hear your ideas, and try to be as productive as we can.”
Purdue said late last year it was working on an “expedited basis” with more than 30 state attorneys general that hadn’t yet sued but are probing the opioid crisis. That disclosure came in a letter to Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine urging him to rejoin those talksrather than pursue his own lawsuit.
Judge Polster said Tuesday that he could ask state attorneys general to join the discussions in the multidistrict litigation so defendants wouldn’t be negotiating on several fronts, though he acknowledged he didn’t have power to dictate how state court judges overseeing opioid cases proceed.
Multidistrict litigation, initially meant to streamline pre-trial motions, is increasingly used as leverage to strike a settlement. Volkswagen agreed to a series of deals in 2016 totaling more than $17 billion to resolve civil claims with consumers and others over its diesel-emissions cheating scandal, without the case going to trial.
Judge Polster said his branch of government seemed to be the least likely one to try to resolve the opioid crisis. Ideally, he said, solutions should come from federal and state government. But, he said, “They haven’t seemed to have done a whole lot. So it’s here.”
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Here's why a federal judge presiding over opioid lawsuits thinks settling them is important
Jan 9, 2018 | Cleveland.com (OH)
By Eric Heising
A longtime Cleveland federal judge presiding over more than 200 lawsuits filed over the opioid epidemic made a series of pointed comments Tuesday as he urged lawyers for Big Pharma and government entities to craft a sweeping resolution to help quell the nation's worsening overdose rate.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster made the statements to attorneys from across the country who flooded into his courtroom in downtown Cleveland, as well as those watching a video feed in an overflow courtroom and those listening on the phone.
A judge since 1998, Polster has long shown a proclivity to settle litigation. But the opioid epidemic -- which has hit the Cleveland area, where he lives, as hard as anywhere in the country -- and his social responsibility clearly weighed heavy on his mind.
He said he had thought about a large settlement that involves more than money, but rather real solutions that will help abate the number of overdose deaths the country sees on a daily basis. He would also would like to see the settlement touch on other state and federal cases not included in the multi-district litigation he presides over.
The lawsuits allege drug manufacturers overstated the benefits and downplayed the risks of addiction when treating pain with opioids, and that distributors failed to properly monitor suspicious orders of prescription painkillers.
It remains to be seen whether such a settlement can be reached, but attorneys on both sides showed Tuesday a willingness to at least discuss what can be done about the opioid epidemic.
Below are a few statements Polster made during Tuesday's hearing. The full quotes come courtesy of a court reporter's transcript.
(You can read the full transcript of the hearing here or at the bottom of this story.)
Here's Polster on who's to blame for the opioid crisis:
In my humble opinion, everyone shares some of the responsibility, and no one has done enough to abate it. That includes the manufacturers, the distributors, the pharmacies, the doctors, the federal government and state government, local governments, hospitals, third-party payers and individuals. Just about everyone we've got on both sides of the equation in this case.
The federal court is probably the least likely branch of government to try and tackle this, but candidly, the other branches of government, federal and state, have punted. So it's here.
The judge said he accepts some responsibility too:
I read recently that we've managed in the last two years, because of the opioid problem, to do what our country has not done in 50 years, which is to -- for two consecutive years, reduce, lower the average life expectancy of Americans. And if we don't do something in 2018, we'll have accomplished it for three years in a row, which we haven't done since the flu epidemic 100 years ago wiped out 10 percent of our population.
And this is 100 percent manmade. Now, I'm pretty ashamed that this has occurred while I've been around. So I think we all should be.
Here's the judge on what he would like to see a settlement cover:
The resolution I'm talking about is really -- what 'm interested in doing is not just moving money around, because this is an ongoing crisis. What we've got to do is dramatically reduce the number of the pills that are out there and make sure that the pills that are out there are being used properly. Because we all know that a whole lot of them have gone walking and with devastating results. And that's happening right now.
So that's what I want to accomplish. And then we'll deal with the money. We can deal with the money also and the treatment. I mean, that's what -- you know, we need a whole lot -- some new systems in place, and we need some treatment.
Here's Polster on why he thinks the litigation is useless in the public's eye:
I don't think anyone in the country is interested in a whole lot of finger-pointing at this point, and I'm not either. People aren't interested in depositions, and discovery, and trials. People aren't interested in figuring out the answer to interesting legal questions like preemption and learPolster said if a settlement can't be reached, he'll preside over litigation, but doesn't think it will do anything to help the epidemic.
I'll turn the plaintiffs loose on the defendants; I'll turn the defendants lose on the plaintiffs. You'll, you know, tear each other up way down ... for discovery. You can go after the federal government, full discovery there, too.
You know, FDA, DEA, have at it, and in 2019, I'll try the Ohio case myself and see what happens, after dealing with whatever motions, and I'm sure some of the claims and theories are going to be knocked out and some will survive. ...
What that will accomplish, I don't know. But I'd rather not do that.
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Federal judge calls for quick settlement in opioid lawsuit
Jan 9, 2018 | Sun Sentinel (FL)
By Dan Sweeney
A massive federal lawsuit aims to hold pharmaceutical companies responsible for contributing to the opioid crisis, and a federal judge is seeking a quick resolution.
A lawsuit filed by Delray Beach is one of more than 180 that have been wrapped into the litigation, and Broward and Palm Beach counties may soon join the fight.
The governments are suing over what they claim are false marketing practices by pharmaceutical companies that manufacture prescription painkillers, as well as claims that drug wholesalers brought more pills than needed into areas with high levels of addiction, knowing that the pills would be diverted for illegal use.
They want pharmaceutical companies to pay for:
-- Money spent fighting the opioid crisis, including addiction treatment, law enforcement and overdose treatment from public hospitals.
-- Employment costs such as health care of government workers and absenteeism.
-- Ancillary costs including homelessness and foster care.
All told, the costs could come to hundreds of billions of dollars.
“If you’re a pharmaceutical company and you’ve manufactured or marketed an opioid in the last 15 years, you’re probably named here. Similarly if you’re a wholesaler, you’re probably named here,” said James Young, a Jacksonville-based lawyer with the Morgan and Morgan firm, who is among dozens of lawyers representing the governments. “It’s a very big problem that’s been brewing for years, and it’s hard to un-ring the bell.”
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster of Ohio pushed Tuesday for the pharmaceutical manufacturers and governments to settle the dispute quickly. He noted that the United States is at risk this year of seeing life expectancy go down for the third straight year, a statistic unmatched since the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed at least 50 million people worldwide, including 550,000 in the United States.
But unlike that particularly deadly strain of flu virus, “this is 100 percent manmade,” Polster said. “I’m pretty ashamed that this has occurred while I've been around.”
Despite Polster’s call for a quick settlement, Young predicted that the litigation would involve months of discovery, test cases and monthly meetings before the judge.
South Florida has been hit particularly hard by the opioid crisis. A report by the Florida Medical Examiner’s Office found opioid-related deaths in the state increased 35 percent from 2016 to 2017.
In Delray Beach, the proliferation of sober homes, halfway houses for people fresh out of rehab, has meant a similar increase in the number of opioid overdoses, one reason the city joined the lawsuit in late December.
At the beginning of December, Palm Beach County directed its county attorney to begin the process of choosing a legal team to represent it in a federal lawsuit, though it has yet to file one. Broward County is also exploring a lawsuit.
Florida as a state has not yet made a decision to join the lawsuit. But in September, Attorney General Pam Bondi joined Republican and Democratic attorneys general from several other states in demanding marketing information from pharmaceutical companies. Subpoenas went to major pharmaceutical companies such as Janssen, Allergan and Purdue Pharma.
Late last week, state Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami, sent a letter to Bondi asking for an update to the state’s investigations into the marketing practices of pharmaceutical companies.
“We have not received any update from your office or in the media on the status of this investigation, including whether your office has received responses from drug companies,” he wrote. “I would like to know whether your office has taken any steps outside of the multi-state investigation to determine whether these drug companies should be held liable for their role in the opioid crisis.”
As of Tuesday, he had not yet had a response. When asked about the subpoenas and whether they had been answered, Bondi’s office replied that it would be inappropriate to comment on an open investigation. However, Bondi spokesman Whitney Ray left the door open to joining the lawsuit.
“The multi-state investigation our office is co-leading is active and ongoing,” he said. “Furthermore, we remain prepared to litigate as necessary and will make the decision as to when and where to file at the appropriate time.”
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Judge Orders Opioid Lawyers to Come Up With a Settlement Plan
Jan 10, 2018 | National Law Journal
By Amanda Bronstad
The federal judge overseeing about 200 opioid lawsuits ordered lawyers into private talks on Tuesday with one goal in mind: find a way to settle the cases, and quickly.
The remainder of this article is under paywall: https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/sites/nationallawjournal/2018/01/09/judge-orders-opioid-lawyers-to-come-up-with-a-settlement-plan/
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In opioid litigation, federal judge urges settlement
Jan 10, 2018 | Alabama.com (AL)
By Lawrence Specker
Parties involved in litigation over the nation's opioid abuse epidemic should settle the case rather than battling it out while more people die, a federal judge said on Tuesday.
Nationwide, scores of lawsuits have been filed against companies that make and distribute opioid painkillers. Hospitals, states, cities and county governments charge that they've been saddled with the costs of handling an epidemic of addiction fueled by corporate irresponsibility. A number of Alabama entities have filed such suits, including the cities of Birmingham and Mobile; several counties; and Mobile-based Infirmary Health.
More than 200 such suits, including some of those originating in Alabama, have been consolidated in a multi-district process being overseen by U.S. District Judge Dan A. Polster in Cleveland. News site Cleveland.com reported that in an initial hearing on Tuesday, Polster told more than 100 attorneys that because of the life-and-death stakes, "We don't need a lot of briefs and we don't need trials."
According to the report by Eric Heisig, "Polster said he was particularly troubled by reports that the number of deaths caused by opioids has contributed to an overall decrease in the life expectancy for Americans. He said he believes everybody has some responsibility for the crisis."
Polster reportedly said that if no settlement is reached, more American will die while litigation proceeds. According to the Cleveland.com report, "Attorneys from across the country filled every corner of Polster's courtroom at the federal courthouse in downtown Cleveland, with others either in an overflow room watching a video feed or listening on the phone."
Cleveland.com also published a separate story sharing extensive excerpts from Polster's remarks. Among other things, he said that "what I'm interested in doing is not just moving money around, because this is an ongoing crisis. What we've got to do is dramatically reduce the number of the pills that are out there and make sure that the pills that are out there are being used properly. ... So that's what I want to accomplish. And then we'll deal with the money. We can deal with the money also and the treatment. I mean, that's what -- you know, we need a whole lot -- some new systems in place, and we need some treatment."
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SD Tribes Add To Flood Of Opioid Marketing Suits
Jan 9, 2018 | Law360
By Shayna Posses
Three South Dakota tribes have added to the sea of suits accusing drugmakers and distributors of deceptively marketing highly addictive opioids, alleging in a Monday federal court suit that the companies have worked to conceal the risk of abuse while making billions off the nation’s prescription painkiller epidemic.
The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, Rosebud Sioux Tribe and Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate went after a slew of companies — including drugmakers like Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. and distributors like Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp. — in South Dakota federal court, alleging that they have knowingly fueled the growing opioid epidemic to boost their own profits.
“An epidemic of prescription opioid abuse is devastating the United States," the complaint said. "Indian Country has been particularly hard hit, causing plaintiffs Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate to suffer substantial loss of resources, economic damages, and damages to the health and welfare of its members."
There are hundreds of suits making similar allegations, which have since been consolidated into multidistrict litigation, but Monday’s suit is one of the few tribal actions to be filed thus far. The Cherokee Nation has filed a similar suit in tribal court, while the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin and North Carolina’s Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have brought federal court actions in their respective states.
The South Dakota tribes allege that prior to the 1990s, medical standards indicated that opioids should only be used for short-term pain relief due to their addictive nature. However, recognizing the “much larger and more lucrative market” for patients with chronic pain, drugmakers sought to turn the tide, flooding the market with opioids and lying to doctors and patients about the risk of addiction, according to the complaint.
The suit alleges that distributors could have helped keep the market in check by properly monitoring the distribution of the drugs in order to prevent theft, misuse and diversion and by stopping suspicious orders. But they didn’t do so, further exacerbating the nationwide opioid crisis, according to the complaint.
The tribes contend that they have been left to pick up the pieces, shelling out money for things like therapeutic care and treatment, counseling and rehabilitation services, welfare and foster care for the children of addicted parents, and law enforcement and public safety.
The tribes note that a disproportionate number of South Dakotans treated for opioid-use disorder are Native American, with tribe members making up 28 percent of those receiving treatment in the state from 2015 to 2016.
The suit brings claims for violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the Lanham Act, as well as public nuisance, deceptive trade practices, fraud, negligence, unjust enrichment and civil conspiracy, seeking damages and injunctive relief.
Brendan V. Johnson, who represents the tribes, said in a Monday statement that the effect of opioids on South Dakota tribes has been horrific.
“This epidemic has overwhelmed our public-health and law-enforcement services, drained resources for addiction therapy, and sent the cost of caring for children of opioid-addicted parents skyrocketing,” he said. “This is a crisis that affects virtually every tribal member in the state.”
Meanwhile, the drugmakers and distributors have continued to deny wrongdoing in the face of opioid-related litigation, saying that the medications are a necessary option for doctors and patients and that they are committed to addressing opioid abuse and addiction.
Janssen spokeswoman Jessica Castles Smith said in a Tuesday statement that they believe the allegations in the lawsuits against the company are legally and factually unfounded.
“Janssen has acted in the best interests of patients and physicians with regard to its opioid pain medicines, which are [Food and Drug Administration]-approved and carry FDA-mandated warnings about possible risks on every product label,” the spokeswoman said.
Purdue Pharma also denied the allegations in a Tuesday statement, saying it is “deeply troubled by the prescription and illicit opioid abuse crisis, and [is] dedicated to being part of the solution. As a company grounded in science, we must balance patient access to FDA-approved medicines, while working collaboratively to solve this public health challenge.”
AmerisourceBergen noted in a Tuesday statement that it is dedicated to doing its part as a distributor to mitigate the diversion of opioids without interfering with clinical decisions made by doctors.
“Beyond our reporting and immediate halting of tens of thousands of potentially suspicious orders, we refuse service to customers we deem as a diversion risk and provide daily reports to the [Drug Enforcement Administration] that detail the quantity, type, and the receiving pharmacy of every single order of these products that we distribute,” the company said.
Trade association Healthcare Distribution Alliance, whose members include AmerisourceBergen and fellow distributor defendants McKesson Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc., also offered a statement Tuesday, with spokesman John Parker saying distributors are “deeply engaged in the issue and are taking our own steps to be part of the solution — but we aren’t willing to be scapegoats.”
The tribes are represented by Brendan V. Johnson, Timothy W. Billion, Tara D. Sutton and Timothy Q. Purdon of Robins Kaplan LLP.
Counsel information for the companies wasn’t immediately available Tuesday.
The suit is Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe et al. v. Purdue Pharma LP et al., suit number 4:18-cv-04003, in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota.
--Additional reporting by Dani Kass and Adam Lidgett. Editing by Jack Karp. -
3 S.D. Indian tribes sue drugmakers over opioid addiction
Jan 9, 2018 | The Washington Post
By Sari Horwitz
Three American Indian tribes in South Dakota have sued the country’s top opioid manufacturers and distributors, accusing them of concealing and minimizing the addiction risk in tribal communities that have been devastated by such drugs.
While 200,000 Americans died from prescription opioid overdoses from 2000 to 2016, the national epidemic has hit Indian reservations particularly hard. Native Americans suffer the highest per capita rate of opioid overdoses, and one in 10 American Indian youths age 12 or older used prescription opioids for nonmedical purposes in 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s double the rate for white youths.
“The effect of opioids on South Dakota Tribes has been horrific,” said Brendan Johnson, the former U.S. Attorney for South Dakota, who filed the lawsuit along with Tim Purdon, the former U.S. attorney for North Dakota. “This epidemic has overwhelmed our public health and law enforcement services, drained resources for addiction therapy and sent the cost of caring for children of opioid-addicted parents skyrocketing.”
Three tribes — Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe and the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate — sued 24 manufacturers and distributors, including Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Allergan PLC, McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen Corp. But the attorneys allege the opioid epidemic has wreaked havoc on all of South Dakota’s nine tribes.
The complaint alleges the opioid industry failed to comply with federal prescription-drug laws intended to prevent the diversion of prescription opioids and prevent their abuse. The lawsuit accuses the companies of violating federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) laws, deceptive trade practices, and fraudulent and negligent conduct.
Most of the companies did not immediately respond to the lawsuit.
Kaelan Hollon, spokesperson for Teva Pharmaceuticals, released a statement saying the company is working to educate communities and health-care providers and comply with federal and state regulations. A Pharma spokesman said “we vigorously deny these allegations.” The company is “deeply troubled by the prescription and illicit opioid abuse crisis, and . . . dedicated to being part of the solution,” its statement says.
Neither statement addressed the South Dakota case specifically.
Hundreds of cities, states and counties have filed lawsuits against opioid drug manufacturers and distributors, among them seven counties in West Virginia, which has the highest prescription drug overdose rate in the nation. In April, the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma became the first tribe to do so.
Walmart, CVS and the other companies that were sued went to a federal judge in Oklahoma in June and argued that Cherokee tribal courts do not have jurisdiction over them. The judge has not ruled on whether the case will remain in tribal court or be transferred to U.S. District Court.
Over the past three weeks, three other tribes in Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Carolina have filed similar lawsuits, all in federal court. The South Dakota complaint is the first multi-tribe lawsuit and the first representing Lakota Sioux in the Great Plains.
“The opioid crisis impacts almost every community, but the real danger spots are in economically challenged rural parts of the country,” said Purdon, now with Robins Kaplan law firm. “Indian reservations in the Great Plains and the Southwest and other parts of the country fit that description. And they struggle with addiction problems.”
Pregnant Native American women, for example, are up to 8.7 times more likely to be diagnosed with opioid dependency or abuse, compared with the next highest demographic, and in some communities more than one in 10 pregnant Native American women has a diagnosis of opioid dependency or abuse, according to a study of the opioid crisis in Indian Country. As a result, many tribal infants suffer from opioid withdrawal and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, the South Dakota lawsuit says.
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Native American tribes sue opioid manufacturers, distributors
Jan 9, 2018 | CBS/AP
By Staff
Three Native American tribes in the Dakotas are suing opioid manufacturers and distributors, alleging they concealed and minimized the addiction risk of prescription drugs. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe and the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate sued 24 opioid industry groups in federal court on Monday.
Defendants include drug manufacturers Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Allergan, and distributors McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp.
The lawsuit follows more than 70 cases filed across the country, including in Mississippi, Washington, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Ohio. It is one of the first to tie claims to the drugs' impact on Native Americans.
The Cherokee Nation launched a similar suit in April. The tribes are being represented by former North Dakota U.S. Attorney Tim Purdon and former South Dakota U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson.
"The prescription opioid crisis has hit Indian Country hard," said Purdon. He added he is "hopeful" that other North Dakota tribes will also file suit.
The complaint noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that one in 10 Native Americans used prescription opioids for non-medical purposes in 2012, which is double the rate of whites.
In October, the CDC said 64,070 people died from drug overdoses in 2016 -- a 21 percent increase over the year before. Approximately three-fourths of all drug overdose deaths are now caused by opioids.
Between 2015 and 2016, Native Americans represented almost 18 percent of opioid-related deaths and 28 percent of patients treated for opioid use in South Dakota. At the time, Native Americans made up 9 percent of the state's population.
"This epidemic has overwhelmed our public-health and law-enforcement services, drained resources for addiction therapy, and sent the cost of caring for children of opioid-addicted parents skyrocketing," said Johnson.
Allegations against the defendants include deceptive marketing, fraudulent and negligent conduct and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. The complaint seeks a jury trial to determine monetary damages as well as an "abatement fund" to pay for treatment programs. The companies hadn't responded to the suit as of Monday.
In October, an explosive joint investigation by "60 Minutes" and The Washington Post reported on moves by Congress to help disarm the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from going after high-volume distributors. Joe Rannazzisi, who used to run the DEA's diversion control unit, told "60 Minutes" that the opioid crisis was aided in part by Congress, lobbyists and the drug distribution industry.
The DEA said it has taken action against far fewer opioid distributors under a new law. A Justice Department memo shows 65 doctors, pharmacies and drug companies received suspension orders in 2011. Only six of them received them in 2017.
CBS News' Paula Reid reported the Justice Department, which oversees the DEA, does not dispute any of the "60 Minutes" reporting but said the drug crisis is a top priority for the Trump administration.
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IOWA COUNTIES ASKED TO SIGN RESOLUTION ON A LAWSUIT REGARDING OPIOIDS
Jan 10, 2018 | KIMT3 News (IA)
By Stefante Randall
Opioid use is an epidemic impacting people across the country, leaving organizations and medical providers struggling to find ways to educate the public on the issue.
The Iowa State Counties Association Board has asked Iowa’s 99 counties to sign a resolution on a lawsuit regarding opioids.
The Floyd County Board of Supervisors held a meeting Tuesday about a resolution in support of opioid litigation action.
This comes after two law firms out of New York and Wisconsin filed a law suit to hold certain pharmaceutical firms responsible for damages to the public in misrepresenting the safety of opioid usage.
Floyd County Board of Supervisor Douglas Kamm says they wanted to make sure they did not pass the resolution and focus more on combating the opioid issue.
“Thinking that we would want to hear more about it from our mental health people, but I also wanted to point out that I think a lot of the problem in our health care today is that we have been regulated and sued to where everybody makes decision on what the lawsuit is going to happen rather than what the real problem is.”
In Minnesota, Freeborn County has agreed to pursue litigation related to the opioid crisis.
The agreement provides for a contingent fee depending upon the gross amount recovered whether by settlement, trial or appeal.
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Black Hawk County joins federal opioid lawsuit
Jan 9, 2018 | The Courier (IA)
By Tim Jamison
Black Hawk has joined a growing list of Iowa counties suing drug manufacturers for the costs of dealing with the nation’s opioid epidemic.
Members of the county Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a request from County Attorney Brian Williams for Black Hawk to join the federal lawsuit filed Friday by 36 other Iowa counties.
The suit alleges five major pharmaceutical manufacturers, their subsidiaries and several physicians used “nefarious and deceptive” marketing campaigns “falsely portraying both the risks of addiction and abuse and the safety and benefits of long-term (opioid) use.”
It’s the first such wave of lawsuits filed in Iowa against the opioid manufacturers and comes on the heels of similar suits filed in New York, Louisiana, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Wisconsin.
“I think most of us know that big pharma is screwing Americans every day, and they’re largely responsible for this epidemic,” said Black Hawk County Supervisor Chris Schwartz. “I’m glad that we’re going to be potentially a part of challenging them.”
Other counties filing suit in Iowa are: Adair, Adams, Audubon, Benton, Bremer, Buchanan, Buena Vista, Calhoun, Carroll, Cedar, Clay, Clayton, Clinton, Dallas, Delaware, Fayette, Hamilton, Hardin, Humboldt, Johnson, Lee, Mahaska, Marion, Mitchell, Monroe, Montgomery, O’Brien, Plymouth, Polk, Pottawattamie, Sac, Scott, Shelby, Sioux, Taylor and Winneshiek.
The counties are represented by the law firms of Crueger Dickinson, of Wisconsin, and Simmons Hanly Conroy, of Illinois, who will be compensated based on the size of any award or settlement and will not bill counties upfront for the cost of the litigation.PauseCurrent Time0:00/Duration Time0:00Stream TypeLIVELoaded: 0%Progress: 0%0:00Fullscreen00:00Mute
The counties allege opioid deaths have quadrupled in Iowa over the past 20 years and rates of prescription opioid overdose deaths have increased four-fold since 1999.
The Iowa Department of Public Health noted the majority of opioid related deaths in Iowa involved prescriptions, noting 646 such deaths between 2009 and 2014. And those numbers are rapidly increasing along with heroin overdose death rates, which are two to three times higher than the national average.
Counties claim the crisis is “straining county government services to the breaking point,” with costs including human services, social services, courts, law enforcement, medical examiner and health services, including hospital, emergency and ambulatory services.
Williams said he was initially reluctant to have Black Hawk County join the litigation.
“My main concern on this would have been: One, how do we quantify the damages the county may have sustained by this; and two, I really didn’t want to take money out of the hands of those who have really suffered from opioids.”
But after talking with other attorneys and “seeing in the flesh how this has affected (people) on a weekly basis” he recommended the supervisors join the suit.
“I’ve been assured that counsel will undertake the obligation to quantify any damages that have been suffered by the county,” Williams said.
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City, county officially file opioid suits
Jan 10, 2018 | The Journal Gazette (IN)
By Matthew LeBlanc
Fort Wayne and Allen County each have filed federal lawsuits against the makers and distributors of opioid drugs. City and county officials announced in December they would sue the companies, saying the pharmaceutical industry misrepresented the nature of opioid painkillers including those under the brand names OxyContin, Vicodin and Opana.
The county's lawsuit names drugmakers including Purdue Pharma and Janssen Pharmaceuticals among several defendants. The city is suing Amerisource Bergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson Corp., distributors with combined annual revenues of $400 billion that control 80 percent of the opioid market, an attorney for the city said last month.
“Opioid addiction and overdose in the United States as a result of prescription opioid use has reached epidemic levels over the past decade,” the county's lawsuit says. “Indiana and Allen County are in the midst of this crisis.”
The lawsuits are pending in U.S. District Court in Fort Wayne, and both entities are seeking unspecified damages.
The filings come as states, cities and counties across the U.S. take to courts to fight an opioid epidemic officials say is sapping the budgets of public agencies. Drug manufacturers and distributors have flooded the market with the potent painkillers, and it has fallen to municipalities to deal with fallout that includes paying for treatment for addicts and increased arrests for drug crimes, the municipalities say.
Ohio and Mississippi are suing, according to news reports, and the cities of Chicago and Detroit have also filed lawsuits against manufacturers and distributors.
Deaths tied to opioids have increased in recent years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, as the amount of painkillers sold to pharmacies, hospitals and doctor's offices quadrupled from 1999 to 2010.
Ninety-one Americans die each day from opioid overdoses, according to the CDC.
“Allen County's Board of Health estimates that 50,000 people of the roughly 350,000 people in Allen County are opioid dependent in some form, with between 6,000 to 10,000 as intravenous users,” court documents filed by the county say.
Citing data from the Indiana State Department of health, court documents filed by the city state hospital visits for non-fatal opioid overdoses doubled to nearly 31 per 100,000 population from 2011-15.
“Having profited enormously through the aggressive sale, misleading promotion and irresponsible distribution of opiates, defendants should be required to take responsibility for the financial burdens their conduct has inflicted upon the plaintiff and plaintiff's community,” the city states in court documents.
Allen County commissioners voted unanimously Dec. 15 to approve a contract with law firm Crueger Dickinson LLC of Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, to sue the companies.
The city is represented by Taft Stettinus & Hollister LLP of Indianapolis.
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Greenwood joins opioid lawsuit
Jan 9, 2018 | Daily Journal (IN)
By Annie Goeller
The impacts of the opioid crisis are being felt in ambulance runs, calls to police and court programs specifically geared to address addiction in one local community.
And the city of Greenwood, along with several other communities in the state, is trying to get drug manufacturers and distributors to help pay for those costs.
In a federal lawsuit, the city is asking for damages and compensation that would pay for past and future expenses of addressing the opioid crisis, including medical care, rehabilitation and therapy, along with law enforcement and public safety costs, according to the filing.
But the lawsuit also is meant to hold the makers and distributors of those drugs accountable, said Manuel Herceg, an attorney with Taft, Stettinius & Hollister in Indianapolis.
“For all Indiana municipalities, the drive is very similar, they’ve seen the scourge of the opioid impact take over their communities,” Herceg said.
The lawsuit would help recoup some of the city’s costs, especially for emergency services, which are a huge cost to the taxpayers and cost the city in manpower for the time spent on those calls, Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers said.
And the issues are only getting worse, so the lawsuit also sends a message to the drug companies, Myers said.
“Part of it is to tell drug manufacturers to stop producing so much and stop encouraging narcotic use,” Myers said.
Nearly a dozen Indiana cities and counties have filed lawsuits against opioid makers and distributors, claiming the companies have flooded their communities with the addictive painkillers and engaged in deceptive marketing campaigns that helped lead to a growing crisis. Many of the lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, are nearly identical, claiming the manufacturers aggressively pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids and falsely represented to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction.
The lawsuits eventually will be consolidated in a multi-district litigation effort in U.S. District Court in Cleveland and will include lawsuits from other states, including Ohio and Kentucky, Herceg said. Plaintiffs include Fort Wayne, Noblesville, Terre Haute, New Castle, Chandler and Atlanta, as well as Harrison County, Vigo County and Jennings County. Defendants include opioid makers Purdue Pharma, which produces OxyContin and has no affiliation to Purdue University, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Jannsen Pharmaceuticals, as well as distributors Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen.
Communities have had to bear the costs of the opioid crisis, including emergency medical runs, law enforcement costs, specialized drug programs, such as the Greenwood drug court, and crowded jails, such as in Johnson County, Herceg said.
“These are real, consequential, and have a tremendous impact on municipal coffers,” he said.
The lawsuit also points to local statistics showing how much of an issue the opioid crisis is in the county, including a doubling in both the number of emergency room visits due to opioid overdoses and chronic hepatitis C cases, which can be spread by drug users sharing needles, between 2011 and 2015, according to state data. Johnson County’s prescription rate in 2015 was also 84.1 per 100 people, which is above the state average, the lawsuit said.
In the lawsuit, the city claims the drug manufacturers are a public nuisance that threatens “the health, safety and welfare of the residents of Plaintiff’s Community, creating an atmosphere of fear and addiction that tears at the residents’ sense of well-being and security.”
That has impacted Greenwood and other communities in the state through higher rates of addiction and overdose, including in teens and children, babies being born addicted, loved ones caring for people who are addicted, increasing health care costs, employers struggling to get productive and healthy employees and an increase in crime due to drugs, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also claims the companies engaged in racketeering, illegal sale of drugs, violated the state’s corrupt business influence act, were negligent, used deceptive trade practices and engaged in fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation by overstating the benefits of the drugs and understating or providing misleading information about the risk of addiction, while also not reporting suspicious orders for drugs and supplying the black market, according to the filing.
“These companies have profited from pushing these opioids into the market and not being the gatekeepers they were tasked with being,” Herceg said.
Each community is seeking damages and compensation for responding to the opioid crisis, but those exact amounts will be determined by experts based on other data and information from the communities, he said.
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Seymour joining opioid lawsuit
Jan 9, 2018 | The Tribune (IN)
By January Rutherford
Seymour City Council has agreed to join a growing list of cities, towns, counties and states in lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors blaming them for the opioid crisis communities have been battling for the past few years.
The decision came at the end of Monday’s council meeting after Mayor Craig Luedeman brought up the matter under miscellaneous issues.
City attorney Rodney Farrow said the opioid crisis is affecting every level of government, and he recommended the city join the suit.
If successful, the city could recoup money it has paid police officers and firefighters for overtime in dealing with opioid-related arrests and overdoses, Farrow said.
But it will be up to the courts to determine how any money awarded is to be spent, he said.
It also could help the city pay for the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone or Narcan in the future, Farrow said. Currently, the city receives naloxone free from Overdose Lifeline Inc., but the state grant that is paying for it will run out.
“If the city wants to continue to have Narcan available to officers and first responders, they’re going to have to buy it, so it’s going to cost more and more money,” Farrow said.
Farrow and Luedeman said they don’t expect a payout any time soon if there is one.
“This is a long-term project,” Farrow said.
“If it does happen, it won’t be quickly,” Luedeman added.
As a voting member of the city’s board of public works and safety, Luedeman said that board recommended at its Dec. 28 meeting that the council get involved in the lawsuits along with the Jackson County Commissioners.
County Commissioner Bob Gillaspy attended Monday’s city council meeting. Commissioners expressed their willingness to be a part of the lawsuits in December, and Jennings County filed suit Monday.
Farrow said the Brownstown Town Council, which he also represents, is interested in joining in the lawsuits, too.
The 164-page document is under review by county attorney Susan Bevers. She expects the suit, which contains data specific to Jackson County, to be filed by Taft, Stettinius & Hollister LLP in federal court sometime this week.
Farrow said it won’t cost any money for Seymour and Brownstown to join the lawsuits.
“There would be no upfront costs,” Farrow told the Brownstown Town Council. “The fees would be collected by (Taft, Stettinius & Hollister) at the tail end if they collect anything based on 30 percent contingency.”
The Brownstown Police Department has had officers involved in overdose death investigations, Chief Tom Hanner said. Officers also have worked with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department and Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office in opioid-related cases.
The department also recently received a stock of naloxone, and officers were trained to administer it, but all of that was free thanks to the Jackson County Health Department receiving a grant to distribute naloxone.
Brownstown has 30 doses, and fortunately, Hanner said no officers have had to administer it yet.
“We could get hit with one weekend where the potential to go through those in a weekend could happen,” he said. “We haven’t had to administer it yet, but we know that day’s going to come.”
Hanner also said he realizes there could be a time when naloxone isn’t free.
Brownstown Town Councilman Gregg Goshorn asked Farrow if there is a deadline to join the lawsuits.
“No, but obviously the sooner, the better,” Farrow said. “The sooner you get your hat in the ring, the better off you’re going to be.”
Councilman Gary Drake asked Farrow’s opinion on the town getting involved.
“You might as well join up and see what happens, roll the dice, I guess,” he said.
Farrow said he would share the letter of agreement and other paperwork with the council members so they could review everything and make a decision.
At the time commissioners decided to join the lawsuit, President Matt Reedy said the county foresees the need to expand the jail and has a committee looking into the matter.
He said he thought the need to expand the jail could be tied to the costs of the opioid crisis.
The jail roster Tuesday morning was at 242, while capacity is 172.
Overcrowding at the jail has led to a 7 percent increase in the county’s liability insurance premiums because of the risks involved, representatives from Beatty Insurance said during a proposal to the county for 2018 insurance costs.
Three percent of the increase was due to property values going up, county human resources director Jeff Hubbard said, but the remainder was due to the risk of overcrowding at the jail.
Overcrowding at the jail is not the only issue affected.
Bevers said the county has expanded the prosecutor’s office from four prosecutors to seven over the last few years.
“We have significantly increased that because we just have more criminal activity,” she said. “A lot of that is due to the opioid issue.”
Reedy said he also hopes the lawsuit could stop the flow of opioids into Jackson County.
“Or if we could slow them down considerably, I’m all in favor of the lawsuit,” Reedy said.
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Upper Midwest tribes file suit over opioid crisis
Jan 9, 2018 | Star Tribune (MN)
By Jennifer Brooks
Indian tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas are suing opioid manufacturers and distributors over the epidemic of addiction and overdoses that racks their reservations.
Three North and South Dakota tribes filed suit in federal court Monday against two dozen companies. Minnesota’s Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe filed a similar suit in December, the same month the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin filed suit against the industries they accuse of minimizing nationwide abuse of prescription narcotics.
“The opioid epidemic has hit Indian Country particularly hard,” said Tim Purdon, former U.S. attorney for North Dakota, one of the attorneys who filed suit this week on behalf of the Rosebud Sioux, Flandreau Santee Sioux, and Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribes.
The newly filed lawsuits seek compensation for the added costs the tribes are shouldering for everything from law enforcement to health care to child protective services in response to the health crisis.
“Our tribal communities have endured many challenges and adversities in our history and found a way to survive,” Leech Lake Tribal Chairman Faron Jackson Sr. said in a statement last month. “The crisis caused by the proliferation of opiates throughout our communities is the newest threat to our way of life.
“We hope this lawsuit will help to bring further attention to this major issue and ultimately make sure the major opioid manufacturers, who have put their corporate profit margins over the lives of our people, are held accountable for their actions.”
Almost 200 communities across the country have filed suit against the companies they say oversold and underegulated opioids, spawning a public health crisis that has taken thousands of lives and ruined countless more. In Minnesota, where opioid overdose deaths have increased by 430 percent since 2000, county attorneys filed suit against the pharmaceutical industry in November.
But the industry says it is being scapegoated. “We don’t make medicines, market medicines, prescribe medicines, or dispense them to consumers,” John Parker, senior vice president of the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, said in a statement. The national trade association represents the companies that arrange the storage, transport and delivery of opioid painkillers and other medicines.
“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.”
But, he added: “We are ready to have a serious conversation about solving a complex problem and are eager to work with political leaders and all stakeholders in finding forward-looking solutions.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Jasper County panel OKs pursuing opioid lawsuit
Jan 9, 2018 | The Joplin Globe (MO)
By Koby Levin
Add Jasper County to the growing list of local governments suing pharmaceutical companies in pursuit of damages they allege were caused by the national opioid epidemic.
County commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution to file a lawsuit against eight manufacturers and distributors of opioid medicines through Carey, Danis & Lowe, a St. Louis-based law firm. They claim the companies violated state and federal laws requiring them to report the diversion of prescription opioids into the illicit drug market.
A spike in drug overdoses has been declared a public health crisis in the U.S. Overdoses killed roughly 64,000 Americans in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The death rate was 21 percent higher than 2015.
By comparison, fewer U.S. soldiers were killed during the entire Vietnam War.
The resolution signed Tuesday alleges “distribution of prescription controlled substances has created a public nuisance and a serious public health and safety crisis for the citizens of Jasper County.”
Drug overdoses have killed dozens of people in Jasper County over the last decade, according to data from the coroner.
The companies deny playing a role in the epidemic. Firms to be named in the suit are Perdue Pharma, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, McKesson Pharmaceutical, Cardinal Health Inc., Endo Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., AmerisourceBergen, and Janssen.
Hundreds of county and state governments have filed similar lawsuits in state and federal courts, including Missouri.
Missouri has a higher overdose death rate than the typical U.S. state. Roughly 900 people died of opioid overdoses in the state in 2016, and preliminary numbers for 2017 showed the death toll accelerating.
Norman Rouse, Jasper County attorney, says there’s no telling when the lawsuit could be resolved.
“You’re going against a huge pharmaceutical company,” Rouse said. “It could take a long time.”
For some, the wave of opioid-related lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies is reminiscent of the effort to force tobacco companies to pay for damages related to misleading advertising.
John Garvey, a former circuit judge in St. Louis who now works for Carey, Danis & Lowe, says there is a key difference this time around. Whereas the tobacco lawsuits were won by states and individual citizens, it is local governments that are leading the charge against the opioid industry.
“The cities are the ones who are getting crushed here,” he said.
He said his firm may propose a similar lawsuit to the city of Joplin.
The complaint will be filed in circuit court in Jasper County, likely in February, with the county as the only plaintiff.
The firm has crisscrossed the state asking officials in more than 15 counties to file lawsuits individually in local courts. The counties, which include Barton, Jefferson, Christian and Greene, sit on the western and southern edges of the state. They were chosen for two reasons: a relatively high number of opioid-related overdose deaths and populations — and budgets — large enough to justify the firm’s efforts.
The lawsuit will seek compensation for the county’s work to combat the opioid crisis, from law enforcement to health care. Under the terms approved Tuesday, the firm would take 30 percent of any proceeds from the suit, with the remaining amount going to the county’s coffers.
There will be no cost to the county if the lawsuit fails.
Officials thought at first that the main cost to the county would be the work required to estimate the costs incurred by efforts to fight the opioid crisis.
Those concerns appear to be unfounded. According to Carey, Danis & Lowe it will take less than 10 hours to estimate the county’s costs, said Rouse.
Garvey said the information will be harvested from county computers to be analyzed off-site. The process will only require the involvement of department heads.
Counties
The St. Louis-based law firm of Carey, Danis & Lowe has approached more than 10 counties about suing pharmaceutical companies for an alleged role in the opioid epidemic.
Jefferson County and now Jasper are the first two to sign on.
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Missouri Attorney General Hawley Celebrates One-Year Anniversary of Swearing In
Jan 9, 2018 | STL News (MO)
By Staff
To mark the one-year anniversary of taking office, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley today recognized the achievements of the past year.
“Since taking office one year ago, my Office has vigorously defended the rights, safety, and well-being of Missourians,” Hawley said. “I am proud of the work we have done to fight public corruption at all levels, increase transparency, remove regulations that harm Missouri farmers, investigate companies that defraud consumers, and prosecute those who harm Missouri’s vulnerable citizens. There is still much work to be done—and I look forward to continuing to serve the great people of this State.”
Among many accomplishments, in 2017, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office:
- Launched an investigation into whether Google has violated the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act—Missouri’s principal consumer-protection statute—and Missouri’s Antitrust laws.
- Filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, Endo Health Solutions, and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, alleging that these companies carried out a complex, multi-year campaign in which they deliberately misrepresented the addictive risks of opioids. The AGO also launched related investigations into seven other opioid manufacturers and three major opioid distributors.
- Issued innovative new regulations, the first of their kind in the country, that would impose strict penalties on human trafficking under Missouri’s consumer-protection laws.
- Launched an initiative to combat human trafficking in Missouri which included forming an anti-trafficking task force, anti-trafficking enforcement unit, the Business Council Against Human Trafficking, and an investigation into Backpage.com.
- Spearheaded the largest anti-trafficking raid in Missouri history targeting businesses in Springfield believed to be involved in illegal human trafficking.
- Obtained nearly $12 million in criminal/abuse/neglect/fraud outcomes and nearly $12 million in civil outcomes in Medicaid fraud cases.
- Obtained over $14 million in restitution for Missouri consumers, nearly $4 million more than in 2016.
- Committed 10 sexually violent predators.
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18 Connecticut Municipalities Sue Big Pharma Over Opioid Crisis
Jan 10, 2018 | Connecticut Law Tribune (CT)
By Celia Ampel
Eighteen Connecticut municipalities filed a lawsuit Tuesday against several large pharmaceutical companies for allegedly concealing the risk of opioid addiction from the public.
“By virtue of their deceptive and fraudulent marketing campaign, defendants have given rise to a drug epidemic the likes of which the Connecticut municipalities, the state of Connecticut, and the nation have never before seen, resulting in substantial economic harm to plaintiffs,” the complaint alleges.
The Waterbury Superior Court lawsuit comes on the heels of separate cases filed by New Haven, New Britain and Waterbury for the companies’ alleged role in the prescription drug crisis. The defendants include Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Endo Health Solutions Inc. and subsidiaries.
Tuesday’s complaint was filed by Jim Hartley of Drubner, Hartley & Hellman, who also represents Waterbury, where his office is located. Also on the case is New York lawyer Paul Hanly of Simmons Hanly Conroy, who is co-lead counsel for about 180 government plaintiffs suing Big Pharma in multidistrict litigation consolidated in Ohio.
The judge there ordered the attorneys Tuesday to hold talks to find a way to settle the litigation, which includes nearly 200 plaintiffs.
Hartley and Hanly did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Their clients in this lawsuit are Bridgeport, Naugatuck, Southbury, Woodbury, Fairfield, Beacon Falls, Milford, Oxford, West Haven, North Haven, Thomaston, Torrington, Bristol, East Hartford, Southington, Newtown, Shelton and Tolland.
The 89-page complaint includes claims of violations of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, public nuisance, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, innocent misrepresentation and unjust enrichment.
Connecticut had the 12th-highest number of opioid deaths in the country as of 2015, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Endo Health denies the allegations and intends to vigorously defend the case, the company said in a statement. The company has voluntarily stopped promoting opioids, eliminated its entire product salesforce and withdrew the drug Opana ER from the market.
“Endo is dedicated to providing safe, quality products to patients in need and we share the public concern regarding opioid abuse and misuse,” the statement said. “We are committed to working collaboratively to develop and implement a comprehensive solution to the opioid crisis, which is a complex problem with several causes that are difficult to disentangle.”
Teva said it is developing non-opioid treatments for choronic pain.
“Teva is committed to the appropriate use of opioid medicines, and we recognize the critical public health issues impacting communities across the U.S. as a result of illegal drug use as well as the misuse and abuse of opioids that are available legally by prescription,” a company statement said. “To that end, we take a multi-faceted approach to this complex issue; we work to educate communities and health care providers on appropriate medicine use and prescribing, we comply closely with all relevant federal and state regulations regarding these medicines.”
The other defendants did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.
The Scott + Scott firm represents New Haven and New Britain in their separate litigation.
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Methuen files lawsuit against companies that sell opioids
Jan 9, 2018 | Eagle-Tribune (MA)
By Lisa Kashinsky
The city is taking on big pharmaceutical companies they say are responsible for dumping “millions of dollars' worth” of prescription opiates into the community in a lawsuit against several major manufacturers and distributors.
Methuen is joining a nationwide effort of lawsuits against big-name drug companies as the opioid epidemic continues its grip on communities large and small throughout the country, according to City Solicitor Richard D'Agostino. He said the effort is being spearheaded in Massachusetts by Rodman, Rodman & Sandman, based in Malden. D'Agostino said the firm contacted him last year and asked if Methuen was interested in being involved.
The "public nuisance" lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Boston, D'Agostino said.
Citing the toll of “death and destruction and the ruined lives” from the ongoing epidemic, newly minted Methuen Mayor James Jajuga said the lawsuit is “something I think has to be done.”
“I absolutely think it's the right thing to do. Too many lives have been lost, too many people have suffered,” Jajuga said, adding there is a needed “accountability in my eyes on their part.”
The lawsuit goes after several large prescription opioid manufacturers and their related companies, as well as some of the country's largest wholesale drug distributors. It faults manufacturers for allegedly “aggressively” pushing “highly addictive, dangerous opioids” and “falsely representing to doctors” that patients would only “rarely” become addicted, going so far as to say the push to advertise these drugs “turned patients into drug addicts for their own corporate profit.”
It also claims wholesale distributors "breached legal duties" to monitor, detect, investigate, refuse and report suspicious activity in the size and frequency of prescription opioid shipments.
The lawsuit says the “widespread abuse of opioids has resulted in a national epidemic of opioid overdose deaths and addictions.”
"It's a big, big problem and it calls out for a lawsuit of this magnitude," Jajuga said.
Newly elected City Council Chairwoman Jennifer Kannan also voiced her support for the lawsuit.
“It is the pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and wholesale drug distributors who failed in their legal obligation to notify the Drug Enforcement Administration of suspicious orders, even as the number of pills flowing into our county rose and rose,” Kannan said in a statement.
Like many communities throughout the commonwealth and beyond, Methuen has been grappling with a rising number of opioid overdoses and related deaths in recent years. The city saw 14 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2016, up from 7 in 2015 and 13 in 2014, according to the most recent state data from the Department of Public Health, released in November.
Essex County has seen some of the higher instances of opioid-related overdose deaths in the state since 2000, with 288 deaths recorded countywide in 2016, according to the data. Opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts declined 10 percent in the first nine months of 2017 compared to the same time period the year prior, reports said.
In Methuen, according to the lawsuit, opioids have also surpassed alcohol as the reason people in the city enter substance abuse treatment.
Beyond the human toll of the opioid epidemic, Jajuga said the proliferation of prescription opioids has led to “enormous financial costs” for Methuen and other communities, from hiring people to help those battling addiction, to opening more treatment facilities, to providing increased education to help combat improper opioid use.
The lawsuit names five large manufacturers of prescription opioids and their related companies and three of the country's largest wholesale drug distributors as defendants. They include: Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Cephalon Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc.
McKesson Corporation, a pharmaceutical distributor, is also listed. McKesson has a Methuen location at 9 Aegean Drive. Jajuga said the lawsuit is “not aimed specifically at a Methuen company” but is aimed at the company overall.
To aid their case, the city has hired law firms whom it claims are “experienced at holding the powerful pharmaceutical industry accountable.” The firms include Barod & Budd; Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Rafferty & Proctor; Greene Ketchum Bailey Farrell & Tweel; Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler; McHugh Fuller Law Group; Rodman, Rodman & Sandman; and Sweeney Merrigan Law.
It is unclear how much the law firms will be paid.
Ultimately, Jajuga said the city is hoping for “recognition that something was done wrong,” and that in the future, companies will “think about people before profits.”
The city is also hoping for “some relief for the costs that are being borne because of this problem,” Jajuga said.
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County files lawsuit against opioid manufacturers
Jan 9, 2018 | The Cecil Whig (MD)
By Katie Tabeling
Nearly two dozen pharmaceutical companies “turned patients into addicts for their own corporate profit” by funneling opioids to the community through deceptive marketing practices and ignoring signs that the drugs were diverted to underground markets, according to a lawsuit recently filed by Cecil County.
The lawsuit, filed Friday by Baron & Budd P.C. in federal court, alleges that 23 companies — including Endo Pharmaceuticals, the creator of Percocet, and OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma — have downplayed the danger of opioids and overstated the benefits of long-term use.
Cecil County also claims that big pharma violated their duty, as mandated by federal and state laws, to maintain controls against diverting drugs for illegal use. That makes the county one of the first across the nation to invoke the Violations of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in their lawsuit.
“Finding it impossible to legally achieve their ever-increasing sales ambition … [the defendants] systematically and fraudulently violated their duty to … identify [and halt] suspicious orders of their drugs and to notify the DEA of suspicious orders,” wrote Burton LeBlanc, the county’s lead counsel in this matter. “In doing so, the RICO defendants allowed hundreds of millions of pills to enter the illicit market which allowed them to generate obscene profits.”
Among the lawsuit’s 20 manufacturing defendants, 14 are subsidiaries of six pharmaceutical giants, including Endo, Purdue, Johnson & Johnson, Teva, Allegran and Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. The remaining defendants are McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen — characterized in the complaint as “the big three” drug wholesale distributors.
The lawsuit does not request a specific sum of money if successful, but instead seeks compensatory damages caused by the opioid epidemic, the establishment of an abandonment fund and payment for legal costs.
Baron & Budd, which is representing the county on a contingent fee basis, would only be paid if the lawsuit results in awarded damages. If that’s the case, the law firm would receive a maximum of 48 percent of the award.
Opioid 'hotspot'
Maryland is one of the states hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, and Cecil County has been identified by the U.S. Center of Disease Control Prevention as a “hotspot” for the past decade.
The national opioid prescription rate in 2016, according to the most recently available data, was 66.5 prescriptions per 100 people. While Maryland fell below that average at 58.7 per 100 people, Cecil County overshot that figure at 74 per 100 people.
CDC stats show that Cecil County’s high prescription rates weren’t uncommon over the last 10 years, averaging 102.9 per 100 people. For three years, opioid scripts outnumbered people, reaching its height in 2010 with 113.4 scripts per 100 people — making it the fourth highest in Maryland that year.
“[These] statistics prove the opioid prescription rates have exceeded any legitimate medical scientific or industrial purpose,” LeBlanc wrote.
The county closed 2017 with roughly 540 overdoses in the county, of which 87 percent involved opioids, according to county officials. Sixty-four overdoses were fatal, with 92 percent of those attributed to opioids.
Creating a crisis
Blame for Cecil County’s opioid crisis, LeBlanc claims, can be attributed to the defendant’s aggressive and unscrupulous business practices in Maryland and the local community. The six big pharma companies knowingly “pushed highly addictive and dangerous opioids” and repeatedly made false claims “to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction” when used for chronic pain management.
Before the 1990s, it was generally accepted in the medical field that opioids should only be used on a short-term basis for acute pain, recovering from surgery or end-of-life care. But due to evidence of a serious risk of addiction, caused by developing a tolerance over time, opioids were rarely prescribed for chronic pain.
That all changed when big pharma spent millions of dollars in marketing ventures. Some methods employed were obvious, like advertisements in medical journals and sending sales representatives to pitch products to doctors to “distort the meaning of studies” and “providing misleading information” to ensure patients did not become addicted, according to the lawsuit.
Other tactics, like paying doctors to act as “key opinion leaders” about opioids, were more effective and insidious. LeBlanc claims that these doctors were paid to generally promote long-term opioid use through the media or public speaking events, while leaving the risks unsaid.
“[Manufacturer defendants] know that doctors rely heavily and less critically on their peers for guidance, and [key opinion leaders] provide the false appearance of unbiased and reliable support for chronic opioid therapy,” LeBlanc wrote.
Another hidden avenue the opioid manufacturers used was funneling money to organizations that purported to be independent and unbiased in order to craft pro-opioid messages. One organization in particular, the American Pain Foundation, received 80 percent of its operating budget from these companies, including Endo, Teva and Purdue, before closing its doors in 2012.
All told, the marketing tactics worked — opioid sales in the United States have exceeded $8 billion in revenue annually since 2009.
Ignoring the red flags
The “big three” drug distributors are also culpable, LeBlanc said, as they either failed to have an adequate system to check for suspiciously large orders shipped out to Cecil County or ignored the signs.
Federal and state laws make these companies “the first major line of defense” of ensuring opioids do not make their way into the illicit market. Their responsibilities include being vigilant in selecting prospective customers that can be trusted to deliver the drugs for lawful purposes and to identify, stop and to report any suspicious orders.
Pointing to the county’s opioid prescription rate, LeBlanc argues that based on the “sheer volume of prescriptions distributed” the three companies knew that the opioids were likely to be diverted into Cecil County.
“Some red flags are so obvious that no one who engages in the legitimate distribution of controlled substances can reasonably claim ignorance of them,” he wrote.
Backing this claim, the lawsuit points to a $44 million fine paid in 2016 by Cardinal Health and a January 2017 agreement by McKesson to pay a $150 million penalty for failing to identify and report suspicious orders at a number of its facilities.
LeBlanc claims that all defendants conspired to sustain the opioid epidemic through strategic meetings and correspondents as members of the Pain Care Forum, a coalition of drugmakers, trade groups and dozens of nonprofit organizations, and the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, a national trade association.
Notably, both these entities successfully lobbied for the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act in 2016, which increased the Drug Enforcement Agency’s burden to revoke a distributor’s license for “imminent harm.”
Battles across the country
Cecil County is the latest to file a civil suit against big pharma, mirroring efforts in other jurisdictions around the region.
The nine companies have been seen in headlines about lawsuits, as Anne Arundel County and York County, Pa., have targeted Purdue Pharma, Endo, Johnson & Johnson, Teva Pharmaceuticals in similar cases. York County has also taken aim at the “big three” distributor companies, like Cecil County.
Baltimore County officials declared their intent to file a similar lawsuit last week, while Montgomery County representatives also claimed they would follow suit last month, but have yet to follow through.
The hope is that a win for Cecil County would result in a financial award that would not only help the community recover costs for health care, counseling, and law enforcement, but also serve as a “punishment and a deterrence," LeBlanc said in the lawsuit.
“The epidemic still rages because the fines and suspensions imposed by the DEA do not change the conduct of the industry,” he wrote. “The distributors ... pay fines as a cost of doing business in an industry that generates billions of dollars in annual revenue. They hold multiple DEA registration numbers and when one facility is suspended, they simply ship from another facility … [they] chose profit over prudence.”
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Harford executive plans suit against opioid manufacturers, prescribers
Jan 10, 2018 | The Baltimore Sun (MD)
By David Anderson
Harford County will join the growing list of Maryland Counties in suing opioid manufacturers, distributors and local subscribers for their alleged roles in spurring an abuse crisis that has reached epidemic proportions, County Executive Barry Glassman said Tuesday.
In his annual State of the County Address delivered in the County Council chamber in Bel Air, Glassman said he will direct the county’s Law Department to draw up request for proposals for such a lawsuit.
Prescription drugs have been blamed as a key factor in getting people addicted to opioids, leading them to harder drugs such as heroin and fentanyl.
Harford County experienced more than 80 deaths blamed on opioid overdoses in 2017 on top of more than 50 in 2016, according to the County Sheriff’s Office, which has responded to more than 600 overdose calls in the past three years.
Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz announced plans this week to file a federal lawsuit against drug companies, and Anne Arundel County filed suit in local Circuit Court last week.
Both county governments allege drug manufacturers and distributors pressured doctors to prescribe opioids and misrepresented the risks of addiction, The Baltimore Sun and Annapolis Capital reported.
Cecil County also filed suit against opioid manufacturers, the Cecil Whig reported.
Glassman said the county will work with the county Health Department, the nonprofit Healthy Harford and University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health to establish a 24-hour crisis center “for those in their ultimate moment of need.”
He will allocate $250,000 toward the center, on top of the $250,000 the county already spends on addiction treatment and prevention.
Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler, who was in the audience during the State of the County, lauded Glassman’s plans for the crisis center and expressed his support for joining other counties in suing opioid manufacturers.
Gahler said “overprescription by the medical providers is what has led us into the high loss of life and the overdoses that we’re seeing.”
“We know from our three years of experience, looking at this from the treatment angle as well as the law enforcement angle that when we touch these people, that’s the time that we can have the most impact and steer them to a path of treatment, and having a place to put them is huge,” the sheriff said of a crisis center. “We don’t have that now, and the county executive has taken a big step in that direction, and that’s great.”
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City’s opioid lawsuit moves to Ohio court
Jan 10, 2018 | The Telegraph (NH)
By Damien Fisher
Nashua is now joining more than 100 other plaintiffs in taking on Big Pharma over the way opioids have flooded the streets.
The remainder of this article is under paywall: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/2018/01/10/citys-opioid-lawsuit-moves-to-ohio-court/
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Baldwin County joining wave of painkiller litigation
Jan 9, 2018 | AL.com
By Lawrence Specker
Baldwin County is joining the wave of litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors, and should it see any proceeds from a favorable ruling or settlement, county leaders hope to fund increased law enforcement efforts.
Last week the Baldwin County Commission approved a resolution that cleared the way for a civil complaint against manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioid pain relievers. On Tuesday, Commission Chairman Chris Elliott and Baldwin County Sheriff Hoss Mack jointly discussed the motivations for the suit and hopes for its outcome.
Both said that the national opioid addiction epidemic has cost Baldwin County millions of dollars, particularly as it has struggled to handle with the number of addicted inmates in its jail. Mack said that just as in other parts of the country, prescription drug abuse has fueled an increase in heroin use, with signs that heroin users are turning to mixtures featuring the even more powerful drug fentanyl.
"We are seeing an alarming number of prescriptions and frankly of individual pills that are entering Baldwin County and are costing taxpayers an enormous amount of money," said Ellliott.
"We're tracking about a 56 percent increase in the use of heroin," said Mack. He added that addicts also will turn to methamphetamine when heroin isn't available, so those numbers are up as well.
Elliot said the costs went far beyond prison healthcare, but that provided one measure for gauging the severity and cost of the problem. Mack estimated that 10 to 15 percent of those booked into jail had an addiction problem, and that anytime an inmate had to receive emergency hospital treatment for overdose or withdrawal the bill could easily top $5,000.
Elliott said it was his understanding that the actual suit had not yet been filed, though it would be soon in federal district court in Mobile. Elliott said he expected it to be similar to numerous other suits filed around the country.
Similar suits already have been filed by Birmingham, Mobile and several smaller Alabama cities; some counties; and medical institutions including Mobile-based Infirmary Health. Some of those are among scores of suits that have been rolled into a multi-district litigation process being handled in Cleveland, before Judge Dan A. Polster in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
On Tuesday, Elliott and Mack reiterated a line of reasoning common to the cases: That drug manufacturers and distributors over-marketed potent painkillers, misleading doctors and the public about their addictive potential, and also failed to cut off the flow of drugs in cases where the consumption rate was high enough to be suspicious.
Hospitals, states, cities and counties complain that this, in turn, saddled them with costs for which the makers and distributors should be liable. The companies, meanwhile, have argued that they've done nothing wrong. Distributors, for example, say they operate in a highly regulated environment in which manufactures provide the drugs, doctors prescribe them and the DEA keeps close watch.
Elliot said it was costing the county nothing to file its suit, and acknowledged that any return could be months or years in the future. In the short term, Mack said that he was assigning a narcotics officer to focus strictly on prescription drug abuse and related heroin abuse, and to serve as a liaison to the DEA.
In the long term, Mack and Elliott said they were eager to funnel a significant portion of any money from the case to beefing up local enforcement. They said that while they believed most medical professionals were responsible, they wanted to crack down on doctors and dentists who cater to addicts with excessive prescriptions.
"I think you will see more of those to come," said Elliott.
Asked if he expects that the Baldwin County suit will be swept up among the others being consolidated in Ohio, Elliot said "I think that's a possibility."
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A Seven-Step Plan for Ending the Opioid Crisis (EDITORIAL)
Jan 10, 2018 | Bloomberg
By Michael R. Bloomberg
The opioid epidemic is now a full-blown national crisis, yet the federal government continues to dawdle. President Donald Trump declared opioid addiction a public health emergency, and he talks a tough game. But he has not taken forceful action. If he will not lead, Congress must -- and now, before the crisis grows even worse.
Opioid overdose deaths rose 28 percent in 2016, to 42,000 men, women and children. Some 2.6 million more Americans are addicted to opioids, and communities in every region of the country are suffering from the resulting trauma. Largely as a result, life expectancy declined in 2016 for a second straight year -- something that has not happened since the early 1960s.
This is a solvable problem, and through philanthropy we can make some progress. But real success requires much bolder leadership -- and a far greater sense of urgency -- from both elected officials and industry leaders.
We must stop doctors from over-prescribing opioids, especially when non-addictive pain medications (such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen) would be just as effective. Steps have been taken to educate doctors and to curtail prescriptions for opioids (such as Oxycontin, Percocet and Vicodin), and the prescription rate has fallen from its peak in 2010. But it remains three times what it was in 1999 -- and four times what it is in Europe.
More aggressive action is needed. The Food and Drug Administration should allow only doctors who complete specialized education in pain management to prescribe opioids for more than a few days, a move FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is considering. Some states have limited the size of certain opioid prescriptions -- all should do so. To avoid the need for bans or other draconian measures, which would harm people suffering the most severe chronic pain (including many who are terminally ill), the medical profession must do more to rein in prescriptions and create effective monitoring programs.
Insurers and pharmacy benefit managers must better oversee opioid prescriptions. CVS Caremark has moved to limit coverage for opioid prescriptions. Others should follow its lead. These companies exist to help people lead better, healthier lives, and they should not be complicit actors in an addiction and overdose epidemic.
We must hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for the supply of prescription opioids. Like gun manufacturers that continue to supply dealers with a history of selling to traffickers, pharmaceutical companies and their distributors have a history of turning a blind eye to pill mills. Local governments have filed nearly 200 lawsuits against manufacturers and distributors. They deserve their day in court, but we cannot pin our hopes on the outcome. The federal government must do more to monitor the supply of the drugs and crack down on companies that skirt the law.
We must start treating those with addiction disorders when they come in contact with emergency rooms, hospitals and clinics. Too often, those who overdose are not offered long-term treatment -- a regimen of buprenorphine, methadone or naltrexone -- because the hospitals they are taken to do not provide it. Many walk out the door looking for their next hit, with fatal consequences. More funding is needed for treatment -- and it may be that further state intervention is needed, too. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has proposed requiring overdose patients to be sent to treatment centers for up to three days in hopes of convincing them to accept longer-term treatment. Drastic times require drastic measures.
We must stop stigmatizing the medications that have been proven to help people recover. Many politicians wrongly believe that providing methadone or other opioid-based treatment to people allows them to get high. In fact, when used as part of treatment programs, these medications address the symptoms of cravings and physical withdrawal without providing the euphoria of illicit drug use.
The stigmatization of medication is especially problematic for our criminal justice system. Each year, about one-third of heroin users spend time locked up, yet the federal government, and the vast majority of states and localities, do not offer them medication-assisted treatment while they are behind bars. That treatment, when linked to addiction services after release, boosts the odds of putting their lives back together and reduces the likelihood that they will return to crime.
The federal government should incentivize cities and states to offer treatment to inmates, as New York City and a handful of other localities do. In addition, police need new strategies to respond to heroin and fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid. These include providing ready doses of naloxone (Narcan) to reverse overdoses, and offering paths to treatment for all users.
We must develop better data. Existing statistics on misuse and overdose are out of date and often inaccurate. In many communities, relevant data is gathered only when people are arrested, or when they die from overdoses -- or not at all. Better information of all kinds could help communities, states and the federal government monitor the scope of the crisis and target interventions more effectively.
We must do more to block the importation of heroin -- and of fentanyl, much of which originates in China. President Trump declared that this would be "a top priority" of his meeting with President Xi Jinping -- "He will do something about it," Trump said prior to the meeting. We have yet to hear what, if any, new commitments he secured. Nor will building a wall along the Mexican border stop the drugs from entering the U.S., despite the president's belief that it will have a "great impact" on the problem. Government by symbolism -- whether building a wall or declaring an emergency -- doesn't solve real problems.
All of these steps come with a cost, but little effort has been made to quantify it. Local and state agencies bear most of the burden of this crisis, but no one has yet analyzed the extent of the assistance they need. That should be done before coming up with a price tag. Senate Democrats have proposed spending $25 billion without first detailing a plan. If money is to be spent effectively, it must be attached to a comprehensive plan of attack.
The number of opioid deaths for 2017 is likely to set a record. Yet it's business as usual in Washington. In 2018, the American people must demand more -- from all their elected officials.
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DEA launches ’360 strategy’ to combat heroin, opioid crisis in South Jersey
Jan 9, 2018 | Burlington County Times (NJ)
By Kelly Kultys
With drug overdoses continuing to rise across the country, the federal government is stepping in to coordinate an initiative that has a special focus on South Jersey.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Division announced its “360 strategy” on Tuesday to combat the heroin and opioid epidemic across the southern part of the state, which includes Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Mercer, Ocean and Salem counties. The gathering was held at the Boys and Girls Club of Camden County.
“This strategy has been developed to address the heroin epidemic that the great state of New Jersey and many others across the country face daily,” said Valerie Nickerson, special agent in charge of the DEA’s New Jersey Division. “In 2016, approximately 64,000 Americans died from a drug overdose. To put that number in perspective, that is almost the entire population of Salem County or, if you can imagine, filling almost every seat at Lincoln Financial Field.”
As of the end of November, 108 people in Burlington County have died of an overdose, on top of the 82 from 2016. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2,056 New Jersey residents died in 2016 from a drug-related overdose, up from 1,454 the year before.
The “360 strategy,” which emphasizes a comprehensive approach tackling the cycle of violence and addiction, will bring together law enforcement, diversion control and prevention to help cities that are dealing with the opioid and heroin epidemic and the crime that comes along with it, according to DEA officials.
The intent is to help prevent families from enduring what Charlene Maycott went through in 2015. Maycott, of Monroe, Gloucester County, said her daughter, Monica, had been in rehab and then a halfway house to help her addiction. She came home in May 2015.
“I got a call from my youngest daughter, Melissa, who said, ‘I’m hearing noises from her bedroom. You may want to come home,’ ” Maycott said. “So I came home, I knocked on the door and I heard noise, but I didn’t know what was going on. I remembered seeing that my husband had left a ladder from cleaning the gutters outside her bedroom window. So I went out, climbed the ladder, and looked in and saw my daughter, purple and struggling to breathe.”
Fortunately, Maycott’s situation didn’t end like so may others.
“I was lucky, because weeks before I had been trained in Narcan and CPR,” she said.
Maycott was told that her daughter might die and then that her leg may need amputation, but Monica pulled through and is now living in recovery.
The pair have become recovery specialists and are working with the DEA as part of the new initiative.
The three-pronged strategy starts with coordinating efforts with local and county law enforcement officials to stop the drug cartels and heroin traffickers in communities, according to Nicholas Kolen, assistant special agent in charge of the DEA’s New Jersey Division, including enforcement, diversion control and community outreach.
“Specifically, targeting drug traffickers that are responsible for the heroin and fentanyl in our communities,” Nickerson said.
The first step is the most natural for the DEA, according to Nickerson and Kolen, but they said the agency has realized that enforcement alone can’t fix the problem.
“DEA does one thing very well — drug enforcement,” Nickerson said. “But we recognize this issue is much larger and more complex.”
That’s how the DEA developed the other two prongs: diversion and community outreach.
Through the diversion program, the agency would work with doctors, dentists, pharmacists and drug manufacturers to “develop solutions aimed at preventing prescription drug abuse, which we know has fueled the epidemic of addiction,” Nickerson said.
Dr. James Baird, assistant medical director for the emergency department at Jefferson Health in Washington, Gloucester County, said he sees up close how families are torn apart by addiction.
“The substances that are on the street, what we’re seeing in our emergency departments, just at an alarming rate with no end in sight right now — we have in my small community emergency department anywhere from two overdoses a day up to 12,” Baird said. “We’ve given Narcan. ... We’ve given it to a 9-year-old, we’ve given it to a 91-year-old. We are pronouncing people dead on a daily basis, and we are giving Narcan to the same person over and over again.”
From witnessing these tragedies firsthand, Baird said he is looking forward to working with the DEA to better provide resources to people in need and help prevent others from being affected.
That’s where the third prong of the strategy comes in, according to Nickerson: community partnerships.
One of the partnerships the DEA has already formed is with the Rev. John Stabeno, the director of addiction and healing ministries for Catholic Charities.
“2018 started off with one (fatal overdose) on Jan. 1, and then again another on Jan. 2,” Stabeno said. “Yesterday morning, I had a funeral Mass for one of those young men, and this morning is a funeral Mass, as we are gathered here, for the other young man. I would have been there concelebrating that funeral, but I am here this morning because I believe in what the DEA is doing here.”
Stabeno reached into his pocket and pulled out two Mass cards, for each of the men who died.
“These young men, who just died in 2018, they are the latest victims in this epidemic,” he said.
About $500,000 will be available in resources to help schools and other groups work with students to prevent the abuse of drugs, Nickerson said.
One of the biggest public aspects of the strategy is a summit on April 28 in Wildwood, at which the DEA plans to bring together a variety of partnerships, including the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
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Jan 9, 2018 | KCLO (CBS)
By Rapid City, SD
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826565?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9
Rough Transcript: three native american tribes are suing opioid manufacturers and distributors.the tribes claim that the addiction risk of prescription drugs was concealed and minimized. this lawsuit is one of 70 similar cases across the country. but this case is the first to tie claims to the impact on native americans. the complaint seeks financial damages and an "abatement fund" to pa for treatment programs. so far, the companies being sued have not responded. coming up new tonight at ten... justin minyard is a two-time purple heart recipient. he was also a first responder on 9/11 at the pentagon - where he fractured his spine. as he fought the pain from his injuries... he became addicted to opioids. but now he's receiving a new therapy that is drug- free. "it has become much mor effective over the years, and there's been really an explosion of development and research in the last even five years, making this a very effective and very viable therapy, which i think is very timely when you look at the opioid epidemic in this country right now" coming up on tonight's eye on keloland...
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Jan 10, 2018 | KVRR (FOX)
By Fargo, ND
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826466?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9
Rough Transcript: three more native american tribes in the dakotas are suing opioid manufacturers and distributors this morning. three more tribes sue over opioidcrisis north dakota & south dakota>> the tribes allege that they concealed and minimized the addiction risk of prescription drugs. the rosebud sioux tribe, flandreau santee sioux tribe and the sisseton wahpeton oyate sued 24 opioid industry groups in federal court on monday. the lawsuit follows more than 70 similar cases filed across the country. allegations include deceptive marketing and fraud. the complaint seeks monetary damages and an úúabatement fund'' to pay for treatment programs.
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Jan 10, 2018 | KIMT (CBS)
By Rochester, MN
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826498?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9
Rough Transcript: in according to the national institute on drug abuseá among the more than 64á thousand estimated drug overdose deaths in 2016... many were because of fentanyl and synthetic opioids. kimt's news 3 stefante randall is finding out how iowa counties plan to turn the epidemic around. she joins us live now in the newsroom. stefante?xxx the iowa state association of counties executive board has asked each of iowa's 99 counties to sign a resolution on a lawsuit regarding 7:38 AMopioids. this comes after á two law firms out of new york and wisconsin filed a law suit to hold certain pharmaceutica l firms responsible for damages to the public in misrepresentin g the safety of opiod usage. yesterday á the floyd county board of supervisors held a meeting regarding a resolution in support of opiod litigation action and they agreed to not support it.xxx i talked to the deputy sheriff and they have had 0 cases in floyd county that they knew of and our floyd county attorney only had a couple our hospital is not aware and it is nationwide epidemic it doesn't seem to be as big in floyd county as it has been everywhere." the number of opioidárelated treatment admissions in freeborn county doubled from 2013 to 2016 according to offcials. reporting in the newsroom á stefante randall kimt freeborn county has agreed to pursue litigation related to thopioid crisis. the agreement comes with a contingent fee depending on the gross amount recovered whether by settlement, trial or appeal.//
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Jan 10, 2018 | WPMI (NBC)
By Mobile, AL
VIDEO LINK: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826505?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9
Rough Transcript: opioid as the opioid idemic continues across the country--we're learning more about the progress of a lawsuit baldwin county is bringing against major drug distributors. county commissioner chris elliott and sheriff hoss mack pointed to more and more inmates coming into the county jail addicted to opioids then needing costly treatments. emergency room visits and hospital stays all at the county tax payer's expense. huey mack jr/ baldwin sheriff "we're booking in booking out thousands of people in our county jail every year but what we've started to see is that those individuals are up and its up somewhere in the neighborhood of a 10 to a 15 % range right now." the county's lawsuit targets distributors and manufacturersthat county officials say - push the drugs to be sold where the drugs are already over-prescribed. county attorneys working on all the numbers right now. the lawsuit expected to be filed in federal court by the end of the month.
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Jan 10, 2018 | WBNS (CBS)
By Columbus, OH
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826511?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9
Rough Transcript: franklin county joining a lawsuit against drug manufacturers and distributors over the opioid epidemic. more than 60 lawsuits have been filed, some naming dublin-based cardinal health. the suits accuse them of fuelling the opioid epidemic.
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Jan 10, 2018 | WAGT (NBC)
By Augusta-Aiken, GA
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826538?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9
Rough Transcript: augusta city leaders are joining a national fight against opioids.yesterday--- the commission voted to join a nationwide lawsuit against distributors and manufacturers of the drugs. "the cdc indicated that nine out of ten had received prescriptions in augusta richmond county,""i think i is a great decision. we do realize that opioids are a problem across the country and across richmond county as well,"on top of saving lives--- city leaders are hoping to recover some of the money they've spent baddling the problem.augusta fire department has had to order dozens of units of an overdose fighting drug narcan -- costing the city thousands. there are around 200 other counties involved in the lawsuit.
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Jan 10, 2018 | WTHI (CBS)
By Terre Haute, IN
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826544?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9
Rough Transcript: we're learning more about "why vigo county commissioners" decided to join a lawsuit -- "against the distributors and manufacturers of opioids". commissioner "judy anderson" said-- the decision was made "after talking with other counties" and doing their "own research". she says, it won't cost taxpayers "anything". the law firm handling the suit for vigo county will only get paid "if" the county receives a settlement. "if anything, it's a good effect for the taxpayer, because it's a reimbusement of monies that we have had to spend on our opiate problems." /// anderson says "the courts" -- "sheriff's office" and "the prosecutor's office" are working to compile "how much the county has spent" addressing "our local opioid epidemic".
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Jan 10, 2018 | KCRG (ABC)
By Cedar Rapids, IA
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826549?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9
Rough Transcript: black hawk county is joining a growing list of iowa counties suing drug manufacturer s for the costs of dealing with the nation's opioid epidemic. the courier report, that suit aleges 5 major pharmaceutical manufacturers, their subsidiaries and several physicians used "deceptive" marketing campaigns. it says those campaigns falsely portrayed both the risks of addiction and benefits of long term opioid use. the courier reports now black hawk is joining 36 other iowa counties in that lawsuit.
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Jan 9, 2018 | WPBN (NBC)
By Traverse City, MI
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/31826557?token=b4f72130-314c-4ef3-9635-89a6e9e52cc9
Rough Transcript: otsego county decided to join a law suit against dozens of pharmaceutical companies. they believe they played a role in the opioid cris. county board of commissioners made the decision in its meeting this morning. the county hopes to receive damages from the pharmaceutical companies for the economic drain the drugs have had on the community. it also decided to pick the michigan based group of law firms. that includes whites in luxen burg, sam bernstein law firm, smith and johnson attorneys. grand traverse and chippewa counties have also joined the lawsuit. >>>
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