Preview Newsletter
Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report - 1/26/18
-
Drug companies flex lobbying muscle in fight against state opioid lawsuits
Jan 25, 2018 | CBS Evening News
By Julianna Goldman & Laura Strickler
Drug makers and distributors accused of fueling America's opioid crisis will be in federal court in Cleveland next week. They are trying to negotiate a settlement as they face hundreds of lawsuits and potentially dozens more from the states -- with a flurry of maneuvering behind the scenes. Video Link: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/drug-companies-flex-lobbying-muscle-in-fight-against-state-opioid-lawsuits/ -
Md. may join suits against opioid companies
Jan 26, 2018 | Star Democrat (MD)
By Denae Spiering
Maryland may be joining dozens of other states and hundreds of cities across the country that have filed lawsuits against the opioid industry. -
Prince George’s Files Lawsuit Against Opioid Manufacturers
Jan 26, 2018 | The Washington Infomen (DC)
By William J. Ford
Prince George’s County has filed a lawsuit against 26 opioid manufacturers that the county said have created a crisis and addiction among residents. -
Charlton joins lawsuit against opioid makers
Jan 25, 2018 | Telegram & Gazette (MA)
By Brian Lee
A Central Massachusetts town has voted to join Greenfield in suing big pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors for their alleged roles in opioid addiction leading to a crisis, and other communities are considering joining as well. -
Johnston joins 13 municipalities in legal action against opioid distributers, manufacturers
Jan 25, 2018 | Johnston Sunrise (RI)
By Staff
Johnston has joined 13 municipalities in a lawsuit against pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and drug distributors that they allege have made the opioid epidemic possible. -
Commissioners agree to join lawsuit over opioid epidemic
Jan 26, 2018 | Indiana Gazette (IN)
By Chauncey Ross
Indiana County has joined hundreds of other counties, towns and cities in a lawsuit that accuses three major U.S. drugmakers with creating the nation’s opioid crisis. -
Clay County Commission files suit against several pharmaceutical companies
Jan 25, 2018 | WV News (WV)
By Matt Samples
Clay County Commission has filed lawsuit against a number of large drug manufacturers. -
Forsyth County to sue opioid manufacturers, distributors
Jan 26, 2018 | Winston - Salem Journal (NC)
By Fran Daniel
Forsyth County plans to sue manufacturers, distributors and other parties involved in the manufacture and distribution of opioid medications. -
Washington County Pursuing Opioid Lawsuit
Jan 26, 2018 | My Panhandle
By Staff
The Washington County Commission has hired the Perry & Young law firm to represent the county in the Opioid Multi-District Litigation. -
Boonville files lawsuit against opioid manufacturers, distributors
Jan 25, 2018 | 14 News (KY)
By Sean Edmondson & Brittany Harry
The City of Boonville has filed a lawsuit against some opioid manufacturers and distributors. -
There Is More Than One Opioid Crisis
Jan 16, 2018 | Five Thirty Eight
By Katryn Casteel
Sarah Hargrove didn’t expect to be on the front lines of a national emergency after getting a master’s degree in forensic science. But the opioid crisis has put her there. A Chicago native, she moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 2012 to work as an autopsy technician in the office of the state’s chief medical examiner. She prepared bodies for examination and assisted doctors with death investigations. She loved doing the hands-on work and helping to answer questions about what caused a person’s death. “I’ve always been very interested in puzzles,” she told me recently. -
Everything That Could Go Wrong for This Drugmaker Did
Jan 26, 2018 | Bloomberg Businessweek
By Cynthia Koons & Jef Feeley
Opioids. Vaginal mesh. Testosterone. These have become some of the ugliest words in the pharmaceutical industry, telegraphing medical treatments gone awry, in some cases leaving behind disabled customers, epic legal battles, and vast capital destruction. Some of the industry’s largest companies have been mired in lawsuits and government probes over these issues. But no company has been haunted by the drug industry’s worst nightmares as mercilessly as Endo International Plc. -
Judge Polster thrust into spotlight with opioid lawsuits
Jan 25, 2018 | Cleveland Jewish News (OH)
By Alyssa Schmitt
Multi-district litigation has gradually taken a front role in creating law and policy. The tactic was used when handling multiple cases filed against tobacco companies and is being adapted to handle the opioid epidemic. -
New York City Sues Big Pharma For Opioid Epidemic, But Does The Lawsuit Make Sense? (EDITORIAL)
Jan 26, 2018 | Market Exclusive
By Matt Winkler
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is suing 8 pharmaceutical companies for $500 million for abetting the opioid epidemic. He and the city claim it constitutes a public nuisance, making these companies liable for damages payable to New York City. -
How the FDA helped pave the way for an opioid epidemic (EDITORIAL)
Jan 26, 2018 | Clarion Ledger
By Jerry Mitchell
The FDA played a key role in the greatest medical disaster in U.S. history — the opioid epidemic that has fueled so many drug overdose deaths they now top all the nation’s deaths in world wars. -
Fighting the opioid epidemic will require more court battles (EDITORIAL)
Jan 26, 2018 | Fox News
By Rick Van Warner
New York City’s decision to file a lawsuit this week against eight big pharmaceutical corporations and distributors that ignited the nation’s raging opioid epidemic cannot bring back the hundreds of thousands of loved ones who have perished during this crisis. -
Beshear correct to sue drug company in opioid fight (EDITORIAL)
Jan 26, 2018 | Bowling Green Daily News
By Staff
Years ago, it was common to open this newspaper and read about methamphetamine busts and, in some cases, deaths related to meth overdoses or explosions from a meth cook that occurred in houses where children were living. -
Legislating Addiction (EDITORIAL)
Jan 26, 2018 | California Lawyer (CA)
By Karina Saranovic
In an era plagued by addiction and self-interest, it has become more critical than ever for legislators and community leaders to address epidemics in an honest way. It is no secret that economics have historically motivated human and corporate behavior, but when the repercussions of this approach start to affect a major segment of the population, it’s time to start paying attention and allocate much-needed resources accordingly. -
CBS Evening News / This Morning
Jan 26, 2018 | CBS
By National Programming
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32249311?token=3d530066-89da-4c52-9816-c9eb32b99c82 -
14 News Sunrise
Jan 26, 2018 | WFIE (NBC)
By Evansville, IN
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32249094?token=3d530066-89da-4c52-9816-c9eb32b99c82 -
44News This Morning at 8
Jan 26, 2018 | WEVVDT2 (Fox)
By Evansville, IN
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32249110?token=3d530066-89da-4c52-9816-c9eb32b99c82 -
FOX8 News at 9:00A
Jan 26, 2018 | WGHP (FOX)
By Greensboro, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32249104?token=3d530066-89da-4c52-9816-c9eb32b99c82 -
WCCB News Rising
Jan 26, 2018 | WCCB (CW)
By Charlotte, NC
Video Link:http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32249133?token=3d530066-89da-4c52-9816-c9eb32b99c82
CBS Evening News
Northeast (MD, MA, RI)
Midwest (IN, WV)
Southeast (NC, FL, KY)
Commentary and FYIs
Broadcast Media Coverage
-
Drug companies flex lobbying muscle in fight against state opioid lawsuits
Jan 25, 2018 | CBS Evening News
By Julianna Goldman & Laura Strickler
Drug makers and distributors accused of fueling America's opioid crisis will be in federal court in Cleveland next week. They are trying to negotiate a settlement as they face hundreds of lawsuits and potentially dozens more from the states -- with a flurry of maneuvering behind the scenes.
Video Link: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/drug-companies-flex-lobbying-muscle-in-fight-against-state-opioid-lawsuits/
"Now I can enjoy every day that I live, I can really enjoy myself," said Johnny Sullivan, a patient Purdue Pharma profiled in a 1998 promotional video.
The video was video sent to 15,000 primary care doctors in 1998 from Purdue Pharma, the company that made $35 billion from the sales of the painkiller Oxycontin.
A pain specialist in the video also stated that "the rate of addiction amongst pain patients who are treated by doctors is much less than 1 percent."
The company says it corrected its marketing, and in 2007, it pleaded guilty to misbranding. But Ohio Attorney General Mike Dewine says the company continued deceptive marketing through 2014.
"It is very addictive and the drug companies knew that and they lied about it," he said.
More than 35 state attorneys general are investigating and negotiating with the opioid distributors and manufacturers in a group known as the "multi-state." But states like Ohio grew impatient with the slow pace of settlement talks.
So in May, Dewine sued Purdue Pharma, Endo Health Solutions, Allergan, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Johnson and Johnson. Eleven other states filed suit after Ohio. Purdue recently tried to persuade Dewine to drop Ohio's lawsuit and go back to the negotiating table.
"There's a lot at stake for them, so they have been very aggressive," Dewine said. "They've lawyered up. They've hired lobbyists."
It's a high-stakes, behind the scenes campaign to try and reduce potential damages. Donations from drug companies to political associations for state attorneys general have risen in the past three years, totaling almost $700,000 to Democrats and $1.7 million to Republicans. The contributions are legal, but they allow companies to gain access to the attorneys general at exclusive meetings, golf outings and high-end dinners where they can urge them not to sue.
Paul Nolette is a state government expert and a professor at Marquette University.
"Those under investigation are trying to influence the investigators by giving large amounts of money. They are not doing so out of the goodness of their heart," Nolette said.
Opioid manufacturers and distributors spent more than $100,000 to partially sponsor one meeting in San Francisco of attorneys general from western states. Last year, at a dinner at a Georgia resort, top corporate donors got "preferred seating" with attorneys general.
At a meeting last spring in Portland, Oregon, representatives from two opioid companies that had given the Democratic Attorneys General Association a combined $65,000 -- Mallinckrodt, which had given $50,000 and McKesson, which gave $15,000 -- got to speak on a panel, telling a group that they were not responsible for the opioid crisis, according to several attendees.
While there are nationwide rules for Congressional lobbyists, there are none when it comes to lobbying state attorneys general. Those lobbyists don't have to say how much they're being paid or with whom they meet.
"There's going to be real questions about whether that money ended up influencing how the AGs conducted their settlement," Nolette said.
Purdue Pharma declined our request for an on-camera interview, but released a statement saying:
"We are deeply troubled by the prescription and illicit opioid abuse crisis, and we are committed to working collaboratively with industry, policy makers and all other stakeholders to help solve this public health challenge. Although our medicines account for approximately 2% of total opioid prescriptions, for more than 15 years this company has led industry efforts to fight prescription drug abuse which includes collaborating with law enforcement, funding state prescription drug monitoring programs, and distributing the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain. In addition, we've recently announced educational initiatives aimed at teenagers warning of the dangers of opioids and continue to fund grants to law enforcement to help with accessing naloxone."
We were given a statement from the Republican Attorneys General Association saying:
"Elected leaders have an obligation to the people they serve to hear from all sides. This means meeting with key stakeholders in industry, grassroots organizations, law enforcement, advocacy groups and of course - their bosses - voters. Republican attorneys general follow all required legal guidelines to have these conversations, and they will continue to have them because they are committed to advancing solutions that make our communities and states safer and stronger."
The Democratic Attorneys General Association said:
"It's important to keep in mind that over the past year and half as DAGA has grown from a part-time committee to a full-time professional team, we have seen an uptick in contributions across the board including unions, advocacy groups, industry, and business. Our fundraising has doubled in that time.
The powers of state AGs vary not only by state, but also in breadth, depth, and scope-and the challenges Democratic AGs face are complex, especially under this current Administration. That is one of the many reasons DAGA 2.0 is facilitating panels and conversations with not only just members, but also with policy experts, advocacy groups, and key constituencies to make sure different opinions and perspective are shared-and that our AGs are hearing from a wide variety of voices on the intricate issues facing their states. "
-
Md. may join suits against opioid companies
Jan 26, 2018 | Star Democrat (MD)
By Denae Spiering
Maryland may be joining dozens of other states and hundreds of cities across the country that have filed lawsuits against the opioid industry.
Gov. Larry Hogan, in a Tuesday press release, said he had authorized Attorney General Brian Frosh “to file suit against select opioid manufacturers and distributors on the grounds that they have misled the public and helped to create the addiction crisis gripping Maryland and the nation.”
“As the first governor in the country to declare a true state of emergency in response to the opioid epidemic, I am committed to doing everything in our power to bring those responsible for this scourge to justice and prevent future victims,” Hogan said.
In his directive to Frosh authorizing the possible suit, the governor stipulated 100 percent of any proceeds recovered in the suit must be directed toward innovative and new opioid treatment, prevention and education programs.
Following Hogan’s press release, Frosh released a statement indicating he and his staff have laid the groundwork for such action.
“The Consumer Protection Division is already involved in ongoing investigations and actions against manufacturers and distributors of opioids. We have multiple attorneys working tirelessly to advance these efforts,” Frosh said. “Our Criminal Division has prioritized combatting the heroin epidemic by focusing on dismantling the most dangerous drug organizations across the state.”
Hogan’s action shortly follows Delaware Attorney General Matt Denn’s actions on Friday, Jan. 19, when he filed suit against the nation’s largest manufacturers, distributors and retailers of prescription opioid drugs, alleging that their failures to meet their legal obligations have fueled an opioid addiction epidemic that is devastating individuals, families and communities across Delaware.
“Opioid manufacturers misrepresented the addictive nature of their products. They, along with national opioid distributors and national pharmacies, knew that they were shipping quantities of opioids around the country so enormous that they could not possibly all be for legitimate medical purposes, but they failed to take basic steps to ensure that those drugs were going only to legitimate patients,” Denn said. “These companies ignored red flags that opioids were being diverted from legitimate channels of distribution and use to illicit channels. The failure of these corporate defendants to meet their legal obligations has had a devastating impact on Delawareans.”
Denn’s suit joins many other neighboring states such as Ohio, who filed suit last May along with three counties in Pennsylvania that filed in October. Across the country, from New York to Alaska, lawsuits against some of the biggest names in opioid manufacturing, including Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Johnson and Johnson, are being sued.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that each day, 91 Americans die from overdosing on opioids, and in 2015, drug overdoses accounted for 52,404 deaths in the United States, 63.1 percent of which involved an opioid.
According to the Maryland Department of Health, in 2016, there were 418 opioid-related intoxication deaths, and by June 2017, there were 211.
But opioids are only the beginning of the road when it comes to the country’s drug epidemic. The National Institute on Drug Abuse said 75 percent of people who enter treatment for a heroin addiction took their first opioid legally from a prescription.
In Maryland, heroin-related deaths are on the rise, as well, with 1,212 deaths reported in 2016, compared to 748 in 2015.
Death tolls are not the only driving force behind the lawsuits; the growing amount of money and services being used to fight the addiction are a major factor.
Mentioned in Hogan’s press release was the budgetary actions the state plans to take to combat the opioid crisis.
“In addition to $159 million dedicated to non-Medicaid substance use disorder and addiction programs, it includes $13.7 million in new funding for the state’s response to the heroin and opioid epidemic,” the press release stated. “The budget also includes $3 million in grant funding for local boards of education to implement prevention and education programs, and provides $1.2 million to expand treatment programs and job readiness training for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Corrections’ pre-release population, as well as 15 new positions at the Maryland Department of Health to assist inmates in applying for Medicaid eligibility prior to release.”
The lawsuits across the country are resembling those of the large tobacco settlement in 1998, known as the Master Settlement Agreement.
In the 1990s, 46 states sued the major cigarette manufacturers, including Philip Morris USA, R. J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson and Lorillard, to recover Medicaid and other costs the states incurred in treating sick and dying cigarette smokers. On Nov. 23, 1998, the cigarette manufacturers, along with the litigating states and six other U.S. jurisdictions, entered into what is called the Master Settlement Agreement, the largest civil litigation settlement in U.S. history.
According to the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium, in the settlement, the “Participating Manufacturers” agreed to make annual payments in perpetuity to the Settling States to compensate them for taxpayer money spent for health care costs connected to tobacco-related illness.
The MSA also sets standards, and imposes restrictions on, the sale and marketing of cigarettes by participating cigarette manufacturers, and includes other requirements and restrictions regarding tobacco company conduct.
The MSA sets up initial, annual and “strategic contribution” payments for states totaling billions of dollars. For the initial payments, “Participating Manufacturers” were ordered to make upfront payments totaling $12.75 billion. Under annual payments, the “base amounts” of these annual payments gradually increase, beginning at $4.5 billion in 2000, $6.5 billion from 2002 to 2003, $8.14 billion from 2008 to 2017, and $9 billion in 2018 and each subsequent year in perpetuity.
The strategic contribution payments serve as “bonus payments” for states that invested time and finances into the litigation that led to the MSA, with the Strategic Contribution Payment amount being $861 million each year from 2008 to 2017.
-
Prince George’s Files Lawsuit Against Opioid Manufacturers
Jan 26, 2018 | The Washington Infomen (DC)
By William J. Ford
Prince George’s County has filed a lawsuit against 26 opioid manufacturers that the county said have created a crisis and addiction among residents.
The suit, announced Wednesday at a press conference at the District Heights Fire Station, alleges these companies knew about the dangers of selling opioids and not being transparent about the risk they could cause.
For instance, fire Chief Benjamin Barksdale said the department has experienced a 260 percent increase since 2014 in its administering of Narcan, a prescribed drug used to reverse opioid overdoses. In addition, he said fire and EMS crews now dispense Narcan nearly three times a day, as opposed to about once a day three years ago.
County Executive Rushern L. Baker III said the suit seeks money to not only relieve resources used by the county public safety and health departments, but also treat those addicted.
“We are talking about an epidemic that is affecting Prince George’s County, the state and the nation,” he said. “What we’ve found in the research is a lot of the pharmaceutical companies misled people. Misled them in the addictive nature of what they were prescribing and overprescribing.”
The county hired Napoli Shkolnik PLLC, a New York City law firm familiar with pharmaceutical cases.
The county doesn’t have as serious an opioid problem as other jurisdictions in Maryland such as Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Opioids include the illegal drug heroin and prescribed painkillers such as oxycodone and morphine.
Douglas Mayo, who oversees the emergency departments in three hospitals in the county, said in an interview in October the two main drugs abused in the county are synthetic marijuana and PCP, also known as angel dust, that causes people to hallucinate and alter the awareness of a person’s surroundings.
According to the suit, opioid-related deaths in Prince George’s increased from 50 in the first six months of 2016 to 63 in the first six months last year. In comparison, Baltimore City increased from 271 to 358 in the same timeframe.
Prince George’s officials said opioids are still a problem.
Pamela Creekmur, health officer for the county, said its health department needed a couple million dollars for treatment services to combat opioids.
“There are certain counties across the state where the numbers are much larger, but we are seeing double increases in the last year alone,” she said. “It doesn’t change the need and impact we have here.”
According to the Maryland Department of Health, more than 1,000 opioid-related deaths occurred last year between January and June.
Prince George’s had the fourth-highest total in opioid-related deaths behind Baltimore City and Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties.The county’s suit claims the drug companies jeopardized lives for the sake of monetary gain.
“This case is about one thing: corporate greed,” the suit said. “Defendants put their desire for profits above the health and well-being of Prince George’s County consumers at the cost of plaintiff.”
-
Charlton joins lawsuit against opioid makers
Jan 25, 2018 | Telegram & Gazette (MA)
By Brian Lee
A Central Massachusetts town has voted to join Greenfield in suing big pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors for their alleged roles in opioid addiction leading to a crisis, and other communities are considering joining as well.
Charlton’s Board of Selectmen recently approved of filing a mass tort lawsuit, according to Town Administrator Robin L. Craver.
Meanwhile, officials from other communities, including Worcester, Southbridge and Webster, say they are also mulling lawsuits, after Sweeney Merrigan Law of Boston filed on behalf of Greenfield in U.S. District Court in Springfield in December.
Greenfield had joined other communities throughout the nation in suing for compensation for past and future costs of addressing the opioid crisis, the creation of an abatement fund and punitive damages.
The defendants are Teva Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Purdue Pharma and wholesale drug distributors.
The lawsuit alleges negligence, deceptive trade practices, civil conspiracy and fraud.
Richard Sandman of Malden is one of the lawyers involved in the statewide effort, which is called Massachusetts Opioid Litigation Attorneys, or MOLA.
Charlton was familiar with Mr. Sandman from another case about a decade ago, when he represented 80 Massachusetts municipalities whose public water supplies had been contaminated by the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether. That was a factor in joining the opioid suit, Mrs. Craver said. The earlier case led to $2 million for Charlton, the administrator said.
Now, Mrs. Craver said, the town is examining the extent of damages and expenditures of fighting the opioid crisis. That review would include police and health services, “any issues with our children,” accidents, rescues, and injuries to staff.
Charlton had three opioid-related overdose deaths in 2016, according to the state Department of Public Health.
In Southbridge, which had seven opioid-related overdose deaths in 2016, the proposal sue the companies was presented to the Town Council’s general government subcommittee Wednesday. The subcommittee approved the measure and advanced it to the full council for a vote at Monday night’s meeting.
Lawyers from Sweeney Merrigan of the MOLA consortium made the presentation to the Southbridge subcommittee. The firm did not return a phone message Thursday asking to identify other communities that had joined the lawsuit.
If Southbridge joins the lawsuit, it would would use another member of the consortium, lawyers Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Rafferty & Proctor, to represent the town.
KP Law of Boston is also part of the consortium. The firm is counsel for Webster, which had five opioid-related overdose deaths in 2016. Town Administrator Douglas C. Willardson said he recently received an email from KP Law asking if the town wanted to join the lawsuit. Mr. Willardson said the offer is being considered, and at first glance, the town would likely join.
Worcester, which had 56 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2016, has been reviewing proposals from several law firms and a decision is expected to be made about joining the lawsuit within the next week, a city spokesman said.
Southbridge Town Manager Ronald San Angelo said joining the lawsuit wouldn’t be an expense to the town, and if the case is settled, the lawyers would receive 25 percent of the money, and up to another 25 percent for costs associated with hiring consultants and doctors to present the case. The remaining 50 percent would go to the cities and towns.
“I completely believe that the opioid manufacturers and distributors have, in the name of profits, done damage to our entire country and towns throughout Massachusetts, specifically Southbridge, by causing a lot of this opioid epidemic,” Mr. San Angelo said.
“There’s been an over-prescription by doctors, mostly as a result of manufacturers and distributors who market these products to doctors,” he continued. “We’re talking about multibillion-dollar corporations who are making a fortune, and frankly, the results of them making this money resulted in a tremendous amount of overdose deaths as it relates to addiction.”
Speaking to the need to better regulate the industry, the Southbridge official said, “In some ways, they are more dangerous than drug dealers on the street. I hate to say it this way, but it’s true. They are causing as much of a problem in our society as drug dealers on the street corners.”
Connecticut-based defendant Purdue Pharma responded in a statement Thursday:
“We are deeply troubled by the prescription and illicit opioid abuse crisis, and are dedicated to being part of the solution. As a company grounded in science, we must balance patient access to FDA-approved medicines, while working collaboratively to solve this public health challenge. Although our products account for approximately 2 percent of the total opioid prescriptions, as a company, we’ve distributed the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, developed three of the first four FDA-approved opioid medications with abuse-deterrent properties and partner with law enforcement to ensure access to naloxone. We vigorously deny these allegations and look forward to the opportunity to present our defense.”
-
Johnston joins 13 municipalities in legal action against opioid distributers, manufacturers
Jan 25, 2018 | Johnston Sunrise (RI)
By Staff
Johnston has joined 13 municipalities in a lawsuit against pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and drug distributors that they allege have made the opioid epidemic possible.
“It’s going to be national lawsuit in which Rhode Island will participate, and it files a lawsuit against the drug companies for the opioid overdoses,” said Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena. “Being a person who has done cpr on my own brother who I found with a drug and alcohol overdose, this is something that is important to me. Our youth and our citizenship is being destroyed by this epidemic, and I believe this is an epidemic.”
Lt. Governor Dan McKee announced Monday that he is leading the fight against the prescription opioid epidemic by holding accountable the companies responsible for fueling the epidemic across Rhode Island. According to a press release, McKee organized 14 municipalities to file a public nuisance lawsuit against the pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and wholesale drug distributors that made the opioid epidemic possible.
The following communities will be filing suit against five of the largest manufacturers of prescription opioids and their related companies and against the country’s three largest wholesale drug distributors: Barrington, Bristol, Burrillville, Central Falls, Coventry, Cumberland, East Providence, Johnston, North Providence, Pawtucket, Richmond, Warwick, West Greenwich and West Warwick. McKee expects additional communities to join the effort in coming weeks.
McKee alleges that the manufacturing companies pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction, while the distributors breached their legal duties to monitor, detect, investigate, refuse and report suspicious orders of prescription opioids.
Because prescription opioids are a highly addictive substance, in 1970 Congress designed a system to control the volume of opioid pills being distributed in this country. It let only a select few wholesalers gain the right to deliver opioids. In exchange, those companies agreed to halt suspicious orders and control against the diversion of dangerous drugs to illegitimate uses. But in recent years they failed to do that, the suit states, and today communities across Rhode Island are paying the price.
McKee and municipal leaders are working with a consortium of law firms to “hold pharmaceutical wholesale distributors accountable for failing to do what they were charged with doing under the federal Controlled Substances Act” – monitor, identify and report suspicious activity in the size and frequency of opioid shipments to pharmacies and hospitals.
“As lieutenant governor and a former municipal leader, I am determined to do everything in my power to stop this epidemic from further destroying the lives of the people of Rhode Island. Ending this crisis is going to take a major collective effort that involves municipal, state and federal leaders, lawmakers, doctors, law enforcement and health officials coming together to find workable solutions,” Lt. Governor McKee said. “But until we address the source of this epidemic and force drug makers and distributors to follow the law, our cities and towns will continue to face an uphill battle.”
Rhode Islanders continue to bear the burden of the cost of the epidemic, as the costs of treatment for addiction, education and law enforcement have continued to rise. In 2016, 336 Rhode Islanders died from drug overdose deaths, the majority of which involved opioids.
“As municipal leaders, our job is to look out for the safety and wellbeing of the people who call our communities home,” said North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi. “While we bear the burden of this epidemic, multi-billion dollar companies are turning a profit and ignoring the crisis they caused. On behalf of all North Providence residents, I will do everything I can to hold these companies accountable.”
“In the last three years alone, 80 residents in my community lost their lives to overdoses. That’s 80 of our friends, neighbors and co-workers. It’s heartbreaking and it’s unacceptable,” said Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian. “As Mayor, it’s my job to fight for the safety of every citizen.”
The wholesale drug distributors listed as defendants in the lawsuit include McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen Drug. The manufacturers listed as defendants in the lawsuit include Perdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and its subsidiary Cephalon, Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Endo Health Solutions, Allergan, Activis and Watson Pharmaceuticals
Municipal leaders have hired expert law firms, experienced in holding the powerful pharmaceutical industry accountable. Those firms include: the local law firm of Hamel, Waxler, Allen & Collins; Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Rafferty & Proctor; Baron & Budd; Greene Ketchum Bailey Farrell & Tweel; Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler; and McHugh Fuller Law Group.
According to Mayor Polisena, the suit will not present any costs to the taxpayers of the town, and should a settlement be achieved he plans to use any funds for the town’s schools.
-
Commissioners agree to join lawsuit over opioid epidemic
Jan 26, 2018 | Indiana Gazette (IN)
By Chauncey Ross
Indiana County has joined hundreds of other counties, towns and cities in a lawsuit that accuses three major U.S. drugmakers with creating the nation’s opioid crisis.
The lawsuit seeks recovery of what could be billions of dollars that local governments have spent in response to opioid abuse, addiction and treatment and on the side effects of the epidemic gripping the country.
The county board of commissioners named Marcus & Mack, of Indiana, and six out-of-town law firms that have taken on public sector plaintiffs in several states for a suit being filed in the federal court system. The county will pay no legal fees; the attorneys will work on contingency and collect a share of the settlement when the case is resolved.
The commissioners on Wednesday unanimously voted to join the litigation during the commissioners’ semimonthly business meeting. An attorney connected with the suit predicted the case may take as long as five years to resolve.
“America has offered refuge to the largest drug cartel in history for too long,” Commissioner Rodney Ruddock said as he read a resolution that declares the opioid problem “a serious public health and safety crisis” and asserts the county’s authority to take legal action to recover public funds spent in response to such a crisis.
STATE OF EMERGENCY
Ruddock said that when Gov. Tom Wolf declared a state of emergency because of the opioid crisis in Pennsylvania, counties gained the authority to respond through the lawsuit to recoup disaster-related expenses.
Commissioner Chairman Michael Baker postponed all other business that the commissioners would have dealt with on Wednesday and dedicated the meeting to the opioid crisis alone. He called on a half-dozen other county government officials and local leaders to testify about the impact of the epidemic on Indiana County.
They told of the uncounted millions of dollars spent locally on medical treatment of addicts, and prosecution and punishment for the crimes committed by people to support their opioid addiction.
They also told of the virtually inestimable human toll of the opioid crisis.
People have died. People have lost jobs and thrown away careers because of addiction.
Overdose victims have saddled the emergency medical system. There are more addicts than the rehabilitation system can treat.
The human services people who deal with addicts are overworked.
“In addition to the heartache, grief, stress and monetary losses that families have had to endure over the past many years … there is a toll that it takes on communities,” Commissioner Sherene Hess said. “That toll is psychological and monetary.”
RISING COSTS
Hess said the crisis is to blame for 20 percent to 25 percent of the property taxes in Indiana County, plus out-of-pocket costs paid by people going through the justice system.
“We don’t know the numbers, but we do know it has affected the economy of our county, our state and our nation, and it’s not getting better. There are parties who are responsible for this scourge, through action or omission.”
Where taxes don’t cover the rising costs connected with opioid abuse, Hess said, money has been shifted from other vital programs.
Families have been divided. The county’s foster care system has been stretched thin with the growing placement of children whose addicted parents can’t care for them.
Indiana County Children and Youth Services’ budget has jumped 44 percent and the county’s share has increased 46 percent since drug addiction began to spiral upward, said Sarah Ross, director of the agency.
“The agency has spent millions of dollars on the opioid epidemic already,” Ross said. “Our adoption dollars are up from 2012 to 2017 more than 59 percent. Those costs continue until children reach age 18 or 21. So in addition to the millions of dollars already spent, we as a county are now obligated to continue those payments for years to come.”
Along with expenses already documented, the lawsuit will demand compensation for Indiana County for future costs attributable to the opioid epidemic.
“Taxpayers have been subjected to increased costs of education, prevention, treatment, interdiction, prosecution and incarceration,” Baker said. “The costs already incurred may very well pale in comparison to those we might be forced to bear in coming years as the full impact of the epidemic emerges.
“Indiana County must more than just respond to the day-to-day fallout of this destructive crisis. The costs we are forced to bear in terms of human suffering are incalculable. But those we bear financially should be recoverable. It’s time we take a more offensive and aggressive posture against those who have perpetrated this on our system.
“They must be forced not only to answer for their actions but to bear financial consequences for the unnecessary and unsustainable burdens that have been imposed upon us all,” Baker said.
HOW IT BEGAN
District Attorney Patrick Dougherty cited figures illustrating the scale and pervasiveness of opioid-based painkilling drugs in America. The U.S. has 2 percent of the world population but uses 90 percent of the opioids produced globally, he said.
In his big-picture assessment of the crisis, Dougherty used 2008 as the benchmark year for the parallel spread of the prescription-painkiller crisis and the spiraling popularity of heroin.
It followed the liberation of Afghanistan, when the military vanquished the Taliban, which was intolerant of opium poppy production. Afghans began cultivating poppy fields again and heroin soon was being channeled in increasing amounts through Canada and Mexico into the United States, Dougherty said. Heroin became the cheap, alternative street drug of choice for rising numbers of Americans whose reliance on opioids continued after their medical prescriptions for pain meds ran out.
And the acceptance and use of opioid-based pills has never been so widespread, Dougherty said.
“Today you can watch TV and see commercials for medications to relieve opioid-induced constipation.” he said.
He placed the reason, and the blame, for the society-wide epidemic on the drug manufacturers.
“We talk about addicts being from ‘the other side of the tracks.’ That’s garbage; it’s hogwash,” Dougherty said. “It’s the most non-discriminatory plague on our society. Its grips are endless. And it’s because doctors were told by pharmaceutical companies ‘these drugs are not addictive. Give them out, give them out, give them out.’”
In the past 10 years, Dougherty said, heroin and prescription opioids “have brought absolute devastation to our community.”
EFFECTS ON JUSTICE SYSTEM
Dougherty said 80 percent of incarcerated inmates have issues with opioid use or addiction.
“The cost borne by law enforcement community has been dramatic,” he said. “The resources and time spent in investigating, and fighting this epidemic … we’re talking millions of dollars.”
Dougherty said that the state attorney general’s office, ironically, has reduced the county’s grant for Drug Task Force operations from $100,000 in 2007 to about $63,000 this year.
“It’s crazy. We’ve had to make up for that from other areas. … That obviously is one area that I would be interested in, to be able to recoup those dollars that we’ve spent and get dollars prospectively to fight this epidemic from the legal perspective.
“And this is not a problem that we can arrest our way out of. That just doesn’t work.”
At the county jail, Warden Sam Buzzinotti said the trend of opioid abuse, addiction and incarceration for related crimes has been matched by more daring challenges to jail security.
Once, the problem was halting people from bringing tobacco products and lighters or matches into the jail.
“Now, they try to smuggle heroin, needles, suboxone strips and more into the jail. They try to bring knives, guns, razors and cellphones,” he said. “Contraband is a major problem.”
The county jail recently paid $105,000 for a new full-body scanner that helps officers discover what jail visitors and incoming inmates are hiding.
“It’s a cost to the county because of the drug epidemic,” he said.
Janice Baun, assistant to the chief probation officer at the county probation department, estimated 70 percent to 80 percent of criminal defendants coming through the office have substance abuse issues.
“Our probation officers now are armed. They carry firearms and vests, and they have Narcan,” Baun said. “We are repeatedly sending clients for drug and alcohol assessments. This has become a burden on our department and the court system.”
EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
Indiana County Sheriff Robert Fyock said he and the deputies have been called upon more often to include drug education in the department’s outreach efforts in schools and with community groups.
The deputies’ duties to transport prisoners from both the county jail and SCI Pine Grove brings them into more frequent contact with addicted inmates.
“We’re trying to help them, but a lot don’t want to be helped,” Fyock said.
As with the jail and probation office, the sheriff’s office has invested more in safety and security measures to protect the deputies.
More often now, Fyock said, the office faces costly legal challenges from addicts who face charges or confiscation of drugs and paraphernalia when deputies respond with paramedics on overdose calls in their homes.
“We must protect their rights,” Fyock said.
He also told the commissioners that deputies are seizing more drugs that people try to bring through the security checkpoint at the entrance to the courthouse. Often, he said, defendants are caught with drugs when they report for probation hearings.
“It’s not going to go away,” Fyock said.
TOLL ON FIRST RESPONDERS
Citizens’ Ambulance Service CEO Bruno Pino Jr. told the commissioners that the company responded to just 2.5 heroin-related calls per month in 2015. The number spiked to 209 last year — about 17.5 calls a month.
The crisis has turned homes into prisons, where opioid addicts’ family members have to be vigilant for possible overdoses, Pino said.
“There is great compassion in our communities, but it does not come without frustration. (Citizens’) has responded two, even three times a day to the same individual (for treatment of an overdose). When they’re asked why, there’s no answer.”
Pino said actual drug overdose rates may be higher and are harder to calculate because people other than paramedics — such as police, fire departments and civilians — carry and administer Narcan to OD victims.
Alex Jennings, a counselor on the staff of the Spirit Life inpatient rehabilitation center near Penn Run, said the program has treated more than 1,800 people since October 2015 when it opened.
Jennings identified himself as “Client No. 80” and told of his long-term recovery effort. He told the commissioners that Spirit Life is looking to expand its 48-bed capacity.
That’s a step toward a goal that Dougherty had earlier said the county needs to reach.
“We need better treatment for the people suffering from these addictions. The 28-day stays just simply do not work,” he said. “We need long-term treatment for these individuals who want the help. We know that long-term treatment in excess of 90 days works, coupled with a halfway house stay of three to six months. Those results are so much better than what we deal with on a 21- or 28-day stay.”
CURBING ADDICTION
Treatment and law enforcement are two parts of a three-prong program needed to fight opioid addiction, according to Dougherty.
The third, he said, “is to hold people responsible. The people flying under the radar to this point are the producers of pharmaceutical drugs. The people that produce Oxycontin and Vicodin and the pills that have flooded our country.”
Archie Lamb Jr., an attorney with a law firm in Pensacola, Fla., said the suit names AmerisourceBergen Corp., of Chesterbook, Chester County; McKesson Corp., of San Francisco; and Cardinal Healthcare, of Dublin, Ohio, as defendants.
“They are responsible for distributing 85 to 90 percent of these dangerous drugs,” Lamb said. “Those are the primary targets. We also have manufacturers who have an obligation under the federal law to monitor suspicious shipments. And the shipments were so excessive in nature, and that’s why you have this roiling epidemic throughout America.
Formally, they are charged with violating the federal Controlled Substance Act and operating in a conspiracy in violation of the Racketeer Influences and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, and state level offenses of public nuisance and other tort allegations.
“But primarily the RICO Act is compelling because we believe there’s an illegal diversion of these drugs that has been perpetrated by the manufacturers first and then the distributors.”
He said attorneys began filing the consolidated cases about a year ago in the Northern District of Ohio and now have 500 cities, towns and counties as plaintiffs.
Unlike a class-action lawsuit, where the plaintiffs share a lump sum settlement agreed to by the defendants, this mass tort action represents claims “that are prosecuted specifically for the damages in Indiana County retrospectively and going forward,” Lamb said. “We have a hearing on Jan. 31 to begin the prospects of accelerating it.”
JOINING THE LAWSUIT
Attorney Jonathan Mack, of Marcus & Mack, said he had learned about the suits being filed by other counties, contacted the commissioners about the cases, and agreed to contact the lead law firms to bring Indiana County into the litigation.
“Each individual county has its own damages and claims,” Lamb explained. “We will work with the defendants to determine what that will be. Then we will meet with each city and county to be sure it’s fine with the terms and conditions in the settlement.
“The defendants would have a choice. They could decide to settle with 90 percent of the cities and towns, or they may say ‘we want 95.’ it’s really up to the people that are paying the money how much of a closure they want.”
Lamb predicted the case could have more than 1,000 plaintiffs by the end of this year.
“It’s a terrible problem that permeates every aspect of our public and private sector,” Lamb said. “It is going to be extremely complex because it involves health care which is so fragmented in so many different places. I would be surprised if this would be resolved in the next three to five years.”
Other law firms accepted to represent the county are Baron & Budd PC, of Dallas; Greene, Ketchum, Farrell, Bailey & Tweel LLP, of Huntington, W.Va.; Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler PLLC, of Charleston, W.Va.; McHugh Fuller Law Group, of Hattiesburg, Miss.; and Powell & Majestro PLLC, of Charleston, W.Va.
-
Clay County Commission files suit against several pharmaceutical companies
Jan 25, 2018 | WV News (WV)
By Matt Samples
Clay County Commission has filed lawsuit against a number of large drug manufacturers.
Troy Law Firm filed the lawsuit Wednesday against the companies on behalf of the commission.
The complaint says that Clay County is on the front lines of the opioid crisis, and over the past 20 years an unreasonable amount of Clay citizens had become addicted to opioids like Percocet and OxyContin.
It also mentions that Clay County has suffered from the large quantities of pills coming into the county, saying it destroys lives and the local economy.
The lawsuit claims that these companies allowed unreasonable amounts of opioids to come into the county despite knowing the dangers of becoming addicted to these types of medications. The suit also said that crime in Clay County is worse due to the influence of opioids.
The suit claims the companies are responsible for the issues they have had in recent years involving drugs and for causing an increase in illegal activity.
The commission said that from 2007 to 2012, around 253,100 doses of oxycodone and 1,826,900 doses of hydrocodone were distributed to Clay County pharmacies, which it says is significant considering the population of the county.
The population fluctuated from around 10,080 citizens in 2007 to around 9,262 in 2012, not growing above the 2007 figure during that period of time, the commission said.
Companies named in the suit are: Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Cephalon, Inc., Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Noramco, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Mallinckrodt LLC, Endo Health Solutions, Rite Aid of Maryland, Allergan, Actavis, Watson Pharmaceuticals, McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, and the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy.
-
Forsyth County to sue opioid manufacturers, distributors
Jan 26, 2018 | Winston - Salem Journal (NC)
By Fran Daniel
Forsyth County plans to sue manufacturers, distributors and other parties involved in the manufacture and distribution of opioid medications.
“It is apparent that part of the pharmaceutical industry, we believe, engaged in practices that were responsible for the excessive amounts of those drugs being used and that the impact of that has been an incredible detriment and cost to the EMS system, the child welfare system, to the law enforcement community,” said Forsyth County Manager Dudley Watts.
“The sense is that those folks ought to be held accountable for it.”
Watts said that specifics of the proposed lawsuit will be determined once the lawyers are under contract.
“We believe we are spending substantial resources related to the opioid crisis that we’re finding ourselves in,” he said.
The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners is expected to vote next Thursday to choose the law firms of Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC, Crueger Dickinson LLC and von Briesen & Roper s.c. to provide legal services to Forsyth County in relation to the investigation and prosecution of certain claims against these parties.
The county plans to file its own lawsuit under the multi-district litigation process, rather than participate in a class-action lawsuit.
Forsyth County Attorney Davida Martin said that lawsuits under multi-district litigation will be filed separately, but the federal court will oversee all of them under one umbrella.
County commissioners Dave Plyler and Fleming El-Amin said they will vote in favor of hiring the lawyers.
“The impact is becoming even more pronounced,” El-Amin said of the opioid problems in the community.
Plyler, who is also chairman of the board of commissioners, said that Forsyth County has spent a lot of money on ambulance services, for example, because of the opioid crisis.
“All we’re trying to do is recapture some of the money that we’ve had to spend on opioid-related cases,” Plyler said.
The state of North Carolina, as well as Surry and Yadkin counties, have filed similar lawsuits.
-
Washington County Pursuing Opioid Lawsuit
Jan 26, 2018 | My Panhandle
By Staff
The Washington County Commission has hired the Perry & Young law firm to represent the county in the Opioid Multi-District Litigation.
The firm is partnered with DeGaris & Rogers has serves on numerous federal multidistrict litigation panels.
"For nearly ten years Perry & Young has pursued cases against doctors, clinics and pharmacies for
over prescribing and mis-prescribing opioids which led to the wrongful deaths of several residents in Bay, Washington, Jackson, Gulf and Holmes counties," officials wrote in a news release. "The firms intend on filing a lawsuit within the next two weeks against the drug manufactures and multinational distributors."
Washington County has the highest per capita rate of opioid prescriptions in the State of Florida.
"The citizens of Washington County have paid an “opioid tax” of nearly a million dollars this past year alone for increase in governmental services in police, emergency medical services, court services and community clinics which impact is directly related to the increase in opioid use in the area," officials added.
-
Boonville files lawsuit against opioid manufacturers, distributors
Jan 25, 2018 | 14 News (KY)
By Sean Edmondson & Brittany Harry
The City of Boonville has filed a lawsuit against some opioid manufacturers and distributors.
According to Mayor Charlie Wyatt, “the lawsuit will seek to recover funds to address the financial burden the opioid crisis has placed on the city.”
Purdue Pharma, Cephalon, Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson are some of the defendants in this case.
City officials say the lawsuit will allege the manufacturers deceptively marketed the appropriate uses, risks, and safety of opioids.
Brittany Harry will have more on this story tonight on 14 News.
-
There Is More Than One Opioid Crisis
Jan 16, 2018 | Five Thirty Eight
By Katryn Casteel
Sarah Hargrove didn’t expect to be on the front lines of a national emergency after getting a master’s degree in forensic science. But the opioid crisis has put her there. A Chicago native, she moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 2012 to work as an autopsy technician in the office of the state’s chief medical examiner. She prepared bodies for examination and assisted doctors with death investigations. She loved doing the hands-on work and helping to answer questions about what caused a person’s death. “I’ve always been very interested in puzzles,” she told me recently.
In the past few years, Hargrove has been given a puzzle that officials across the country are finding difficult to solve. Her work has been overwhelmed by Kentucky’s opioid epidemic, to the point that she is now helping a state-backed research institute try to find a solution. By the end of her time as an autopsy technician, Hargrove said, it wasn’t abnormal to see one or two overdose deaths each day. “Every single death we see is terrible,” Hargrove said. “But the drug overdose cases, you just got so immune to seeing them — it was just over and over and over again.”
You may think of politicians, first responders and physicians as the people best-equipped to stop the opioid crisis. And they do have an important role to play. But so do coroners and medical examiners. The government and media generally quantify the nation’s opioid problem on only one dimension: how many people have died. Hargrove and Kentucky are working to provide an additional dimension: exactly which drugs — either prescription opioids or illicit ones like heroin and synthetic fentanyl — led to a death. Armed with even that one extra bit of data, a state can fight its opioid crisis in a new way.
The opioid epidemic continues to ravage the country. Official numbers from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that overdoses from drugs — legally prescribed or otherwise, including opioids, hallucinogens and other narcotics such as cocaine — killed about 63,600 people nationwide in 2016, a 21 percent increase from the year before. Of those, over 42,000 — roughly 66 percent of the total — involved some kind of opioid.Because overdose deaths often involve multiple drugs, pinning down which directly contributed to a death can be difficult. In some areas, coroners are overwhelmed by how many people are dying, and morgues are running out of space.
Kentucky has been hit particularly hard. There were 1,419 reported overdose deaths in 2016 — 33.5 per 100,000 people, according to the CDC. Of those deaths, 989 — 23.6 per 100,000 people — involved some type of opioid. Those are some of the highest rates in the country. Over the past year, first responders have seen significant overdose spikes throughout the state.
The Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center is one of the organizations trying to put the puzzle pieces together. A partnership between the state Public Health Department and the University of Kentucky College of Public Health, the center is investigating the causes of the state’s drug overdoses to help policymakers make more educated decisions about how to tackle the crisis. That means improving the accuracy of death certificates and other available data and encouraging law enforcement groups, public health officials and other state agencies to communicate with one another better. The center started working with drug overdose mortality data in 2011 and quickly realized how limited death certificate information on how someone died and what killed them was.
The efforts that KIPRC and the state have made to improve this data have led to crucial findings, including that Kentucky’s crisis isn’t one crisis, but many. Different parts of the state are afflicted with different drugs. Northern Kentucky, for example, has a high prevalence of heroin and fentanyl — a synthetic opioid that is more deadly than heroin and other types of opioids — while in the eastern part of the state, prescription opioids are still the main concern.
To better understand what drugs were killing people and where, the center built a “drug overdose fatality surveillance system” (which goes by DOFSS) that combines several data sources, including death certificate information, post-mortem toxicology analysis and the prescription drug history of victims. “We’re not doing this for the sake of research,” said Svetla Slavova, a biostatistician working with KIPRC. “We provide actionable data for policymaking, treatment and prevention. We’re trying to be responsive and provide data that will help make these decisions.”
Van Ingram, executive director of the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, said he was able to push major legislation changes with the help of KIPRC’s research. In 2015, the governor signed into law a bill that increased the availability of naloxone, a drug used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, and supplied funding for treatment programs. “Armed with the information we received early around fentanyl, we were able to get funds to supply Narcan [the brand name for naloxone] across the state,” Ingram said.
This means it matters what goes into KIPRC’s databases. National statistics on drug overdoses come from death certificates. But because the death investigation process is typically done on a local level, the cause and manner of a death may be recorded in different ways, which can affect how deaths are classified. For example, a single drug may be listed on a death certificate when multiple substances were actually involved in an overdose.
When Hargrove became a data management analyst for KIPRC, she started pointing out discrepancies on death certificates. Even the smallest differences in language can leave overdose deaths uncounted. At first, Hargrove was confused by how many overdose cases weren’t making it into the DOFSS database. Eventually, she figured out that some deaths that involved more than one drug were being left out because they were being listed as “polysubstance intoxication” or “multiple substance overdose,” without giving the specific name of the drugs involved. Also, the word “substance” was triggering the classification of these deaths into another category altogether. Hargrove communicated this issue to the chief medical examiner and county coroners, pushing for this type of death to be listed as a “multi-drug overdose” instead.
Prompted in part by experiences like that, Hargrove is now trying to rally all 120 coroners across the state to collect death-certificate information more uniformly. The center is also forming collaborations with the state’s police forensics lab and local emergency medical services that will help them better track the opioid epidemic across the state.
This is the type of work that President Trump’s commission on the opioid crisis recommended bolstering in its November report. Specifically, it mentioned improving how overdose death investigations are conducted, including how drug testing is done. The country does not have “sufficiently accurate and systematic data from medical examiners around the country to determine overdose deaths, both in their cause and the actual number of deaths,” the report said.
That’s in part because the people we’re relying on to generate our data around opioid overdoses have limited resources and funding to work with.
There are two main professions that are recording information for death data: coroners and medical examiners.
In Kentucky, each county elects a coroner, who performs death investigations to record the cause and manner of death on death certificates. Many of them have little, if any, medical experience. Death investigations can involve forensic work, examinations of evidence that is found at the scene of a death, and exploration into the lives of the deceased for context such as medical history.
“Some of [Kentucky’s] coroners just a couple of years ago didn’t have a computer in their office,” Hargrove said. “Some of them are still working out of their house or out of their businesses. Some of them have two full-time jobs on top of being a coroner. … My favorite message one of the coroners has [on the office answering machine] is, ‘I’m sorry my county does not have any funding for me to have a secretary, so you’re just going to have to keep calling back.’”
Danny Finley has been the coroner for Clay County, a rural area in the southeastern part of the state, since 2011. But that’s not his primary job. He’s an insurance broker working primarily in health care and a licensed funeral director, although he’s not currently active in that role.
At the time he was elected, Finley said, Clay County was in the midst of a serious drug problem. According to KIPRC, the county of roughly 22,000 people had 25 drug overdose deaths that year. But it wasn’t clear which drugs were responsible, so Finley couldn’t tell whether the county’s drug problem was the same or different from those in other parts of the state.
The medical complexities of overdose deaths and the rise of new drug derivatives mean coroners need more help now than ever. In Kentucky, that’s where medical examiners come in — they assist coroners when a death is unusual or sudden by performing autopsies. Kentucky has four regional medical examiner offices staffed with forensic pathologists, doctors who examine bodies after death, but the annual caseload is overwhelming the system. “The medical examiners are on call pretty much 24/7,” Hargrove said.
The chief medical examiner’s office in Kentucky operates as a central information center to collect reports from coroners. In 2012, Kentucky tried to standardize part of the process for recording which drugs were involved in a death by requiring coroners to seek a post-mortem toxicology screening for every death suspected of being a drug overdose. The screening tests all overdose cases on the same standard panel of drugs, including several prescription opiates, heroin and fentanyl. The state’s chief medical examiner reads through every toxicology report submitted, and that information feeds into the KIPRC database.
Because national data on drug overdose deaths is derived solely from death certificates, it adds a public health component to a coroner’s job. But there is no national agency regulating the quality of death investigations or ensuring that cases are conducted in a standardized way. It’s up to states or counties to establish a clear standard for investigating deaths and recording information on death certificates.
Across the country, the roles of coroners and medical examiners vary based on the jurisdiction they’re serving under. And those variations make monitoring trends for drug overdoses complicated. Death certificates often don’t list a specific drug or drugs involved, particularly in states with decentralized coroner systems such as Louisiana, for example. Of all the drug intoxication deaths that the state reported to the CDC in 2016, only 53 percent listed the specific drug or drugs involved.
“If you don’t know the substances that are responsible for killing people, that really inhibits a response,” said Matthew Gladden, a behavioral scientist on the CDC’s prescription drug overdose surveillance team. “Is it a prescription, diverted, non-diverted, illicit, is it potent, is it heroin — what’s going on? That information is critical.”
In Kentucky, more thorough death investigations and better cause-of-death data allowed Finley and other officials to respond to the specific problems in Clay County. Finley was able to determine that prescription medications were the root of the drug problem in his county. “Most of the media reporting was on meth labs,” Finley said. “I would look at my data, and although meth labs were serious problems, they were not the problems I was having in Clay County.”
Since then, Finley said, there has been a collaborative effort among hospital emergency department practitioners to better educate county residents on the dangers of misusing prescriptions and to stop overprescribing opioids and benzodiazepines, a class of drugs typically used for anxiety or panic disorders.
KIPRC has already seen some success with its method of combining multiple sources of data to get more accurate information on the scope and specifics of Kentucky’s opioid crisis. Using the state’s DOFSS system, the researchers were able to determine the specific drugs that were involved in 97 percent of drug overdose fatalities in 2016; that’s compared with 82 percent using deaths certificates alone.
Additionally, the researchers used DOFSS to find which drugs were most commonly involved in deaths linked to a combination of substances, as well as which drugs were involved in overdose deaths among people of different age groups and genders. For instance, according to the findings, gabapentin — a prescription anticonvulsant (not an opioid) that is often prescribed for nerve pain or epilepsy and reportedly is being misused — was the drug most frequently detected in women who had died from drug overdoses and among victims over the age of 44.
One of the additional collaborations that KIPRC is forming will allow state police to match their drug-related data — police seizures and undercover buys, for example — with drug overdose mortality data, to help identify areas of the state at increased risk of overdose outbreaks.
“It’s only in the last year that we’ve all been really talking to each other,” said Jeremy Triplett, the drug chemistry lab supervisor for the Kentucky state police department. “We have always talked to the state Office of Drug Control Policy, but it’s the first time we’ve really talked to the public health side.”
Researchers said the overlay of public safety and overdose death data can help public health officials further track drug trends as they move across the state. “The issues with heroin and fentanyl are huge in northern Kentucky,” Hargrove said. “What we’re seeing now, though, is that it’s trickling down the highway systems. The state police are very concerned about that and very aware of it.” That tracking ability means communities that are in a drug’s path can be better prepared for its arrival, by ensuring that treatment options are available, for example.
Michael Singleton, senior data management specialist with KIPRC, said the agency is also exploring whether ambulance services could be another source of overdose data — one that could deliver information on non-fatal overdoses in more or less real time. “We know down to the point of where the response took place and what kind of scene the EMS responded to,” Singleton said. “We can map those out and look for patterns in where incidents are occurring, which can help us to target particular parts of a city that may need more attention.”
Aside from data management, an important element of Hargrove’s job is to help county coroners across the state discover their roles as public health officials. Hargrove nodded to Finley as an official who has effectively helped rally a local community to fight the epidemic. According to a KIPRC report released in August, Clay County had only five overdose fatalities in 2016, a notable drop from the 25 it had five years earlier.
Sheriff Kevin Johnson said the drop was due to several factors: statewide limits on how doctors can prescribe opioids, Finley’s helping law enforcement officials better identify trends, and improved enforcement efforts by officers. “It wasn’t one magic thing that happened — everybody kind of got together and understood the problem to figure it out,” Johnson said. To solve a puzzle this big, you need as many people working on it as possible.
-
Everything That Could Go Wrong for This Drugmaker Did
Jan 26, 2018 | Bloomberg Businessweek
By Cynthia Koons & Jef Feeley
Opioids. Vaginal mesh. Testosterone. These have become some of the ugliest words in the pharmaceutical industry, telegraphing medical treatments gone awry, in some cases leaving behind disabled customers, epic legal battles, and vast capital destruction. Some of the industry’s largest companies have been mired in lawsuits and government probes over these issues. But no company has been haunted by the drug industry’s worst nightmares as mercilessly as Endo International Plc.
Just about everything that can go wrong in the world of pharma has gone wrong at Endo, which makes both branded and generic drugs. Through a dealmaking spree largely led by its former chief executive officer, the company amassed debt of more than $8 billion—five times its market capitalization. That might be tolerable for a high-growth company, but Endo faces cratering prices for generic medicines even as it must deal with a slew of litigation involving its products.
The new leadership says the Dublin, Ireland-based company can fix all this; it will just take time. “It’s very important to know that we’re not running or hiding from our challenges,” says CEO Paul Campanelli. “We’re well-equipped to handle these types of issues.”
That includes writing massive checks to get beyond some of Endo’s legal woes. As of November 2017 company officials have agreed to pay more than $3.5 billion in settlements in more than 46,000 suits over its vaginal mesh inserts alone. Endo may have to shell out more to resolve all the mesh cases, according to its U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Analysts say that should largely contain the problems over the vaginal device, but it will still drain much-needed cash.
“This is not a growth story,” Gabelli & Co.analyst Kevin Kedra says. “There’s significant pressures, mostly stemming from the debt load, and they’re probably not going to be able to make a significant dent in that until 2019.”
Campanelli has been slashing costs to help keep Endo’s finances in check. The company now operates with a staff of around 2,700, down from about 6,000 before he took the job in September 2016. It also stopped marketing its opioid pain drugs at the end of 2016.
Litigation related to Endo’s marketing of opioids remains the biggest wild card. The drugmaker faces at least 125 cases filed by U.S. state attorneys general, counties, and municipalities,alleging its salespeople downplayed the health risks of the extended-release version of its painkiller Opana while overstating its benefits, according to SEC filings. Other opioid makers, such as Johnson & Johnsonand Purdue Pharma LP, face identical claims. The companies have denied the allegations.
The states and local governments have hired lawyers who helped negotiate the tobacco industry’s $246 billion master settlement in the late 1990s to handle the opioid suits. There’s no exact figure for the damages sought, and estimates of potential damages vary widely. Bloomberg Intelligence litigation analyst Holly Froum figures the total liability for all opioid makers, including Endo, could be as little as $5 billion or as high as $50 billion. “It’s obviously in a very early stage, and these things typically take years to resolve,” Campanelli says.
The company has shown it can be proactive when the need arises. Its extended version of Opana became the subject of controversy: The drug has been linked to outbreaks of viral infections like HIV as people abusing it spread diseases by sharing needles. U.S. regulators took the unprecedented step last June of asking the company to take the drug off the market. Endo could have appealed that decision, but Campanelli opted to comply—cutting off a drug that racked up around $533 million in sales in a three-year period starting in 2014.
Campanelli is busy putting out fires that were years in the making. In 2013 the drugmaker hired Rajiv De Silva, an ex-Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. executive and former McKinsey & Co. consultant. At the time, Valeant was blazing a new trail for Big Pharma expansion: buying up other companies, cutting research, and jacking up drug prices. With De Silva as CEO, Endo became a prolific dealmaker, acquiring companies and drug rights—from acquisitions in the hundreds of millions of dollars to vying for assets in the $10 billion-plus range against Valeant. De Silva insisted at the time that Endo wasn’t another Valeant, which ran into massive financial and legal troubles, and said he was doing deals to build a company that didn’t need to rely on deals to grow. He declined to comment for this story.
De Silva’s biggest acquisition was the $8.05 billion purchase of Par Pharmaceutical in May 2015, which gave Endo a large foothold in the generics business. Endo, which assumed Par’s debt, financed the deal with borrowings and proceeds from a $2.3 billion equity offering. The Par buyout came at the height of the company’s run: Endo’s stock price peaked around $96 in April 2015. That was more than triple the level when De Silva took over. But concerns over litigation and debt, as well as post-Valeant angst over specialty drugmakers, conspired to drive the stock down over the following year. Ultimately, Campanelli replaced De Silva. “We said from Day One, we’re not fixing this in 12 months,” Campanelli says.
Another hangover from the De Silva era is Endo’s testosterone litigation. The company faces about 1,300 patient suits claiming its testosterone-boosting gels caused fatal heart attacks in some users. How those suits might fare remains uncertain. Two federal court juries in Chicago last year held AbbVie Inc. responsible for injuries suffered by men taking its AndroGel testosterone booster—a product similar to Endo’s—and awarded a total of $290 million in damages. But one of those verdicts was later thrown out by a judge. In November, Endo’s Auxilium unit won the first case to come to trial over its Testim testosterone gel.
Still, Endo’s problems could get worse. The company is likely to face many more Opana suits before any settlement is reached, says Richard Ausness, a University of Kentucky law professor, and Endo may be forced to take extreme measures to pay them out. It could adopt the playbook used by companies sued for selling asbestos-laced products in the 1980s and 1990s by setting up a bankruptcy trust to resolve opioid cases, according to Ausness. That would allow the company to hold down settlement amounts, he says.
“Their debt numbers look terrible. And when you factor in the thousands of opioid suits they may wind up facing, they may have no choice but to ask the bankruptcy courts to help them dispose of those cases,” he says.
Campanelli has heard the B-word before. “The use of the word ‘bankruptcy’—it’s not something that we’re contemplating at this point in time,” he says. “We’re looking to collaborate to deal with the opioid situation. If we ever got to that process, and I’m not saying that we’re thinking of it, it would be years and years before we would be addressing it.”
It’s also possible that any opioid manufacturer settlement could be structured in such a way that Endo doesn’t end up underwater. “There could be some giant master settlement—it would just make life that much more difficult for Endo, but I don’t think these state AGs are going to make Endo go out of business,” says Gabelli’s Kedra.
Despite the financial and legal clouds, Endo officials say they’re concentrating on expanding the business and working on new injectable drugs. The company is also developing one of its key products, Xiaflex, which is used to treat a hand deformity and curvature of the penis, for new uses such as improving the appearance of cellulite. Cosmetic drugs, such as Allergan Plc’s Botox, have turned into powerhouses for pharma companies, and Campanelli has been praising Xiaflex’s prospects. “It fits the model of the new Endo,” he says. Campanelli, however, still has plenty of problems from the old Endo to fix first.
BOTTOM LINE - Generic drugmaker Endo has agreed to pay billions of dollars in settlements for vaginal mesh suits—and possibly faces much more for testosterone and opioid claims.
-
Judge Polster thrust into spotlight with opioid lawsuits
Jan 25, 2018 | Cleveland Jewish News (OH)
By Alyssa Schmitt
Multi-district litigation has gradually taken a front role in creating law and policy. The tactic was used when handling multiple cases filed against tobacco companies and is being adapted to handle the opioid epidemic.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster is presiding over 200 lawsuits filed in federal courts nationwide that accuse drug manufacturers and distributors of heavily contribution to the opioid epidemic. He was selected to fill the role by the panel on multidistrict litigation, which is composed of federal judges across the county.
The result of these cases has great significance in future policy changes, said Lee Fisher, dean and professor of law at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.
“What can happen in these particular drug cases is likely going to result in public policy changes on the federal and state levels,” he said. “It has a much greater level of importance and implication than your average case.”
Polster’s reputation throughout Cleveland and the nation made him a logical pick to preside over the lawsuits, Fisher said.
“He is thoughtful, is fair and pushes the parties to reach an equitable settlement,” said Lewis Katz, professor of law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland.
While being fair and thoughtful, he’s also able to see the effect his decision can have.
“What they look for are people who can see the forest, not just the trees, and who can see the larger landscape and what the potential public policy implications are,” Fisher said. “Judge Polster has that ability to do that and I’m sure it wasn’t by accident that they singled him out for this very prestigious role.”
Fisher said he thinks this is just the beginning of multi-district litigation taking on nationwide issues and will have more precedential value for similar cases in the future.
The Cleveland Jewish News reached Polster, a member of Congregation Shaarey Tikvah in Beachwood and Park Synagogue in Cleveland Heights and Pepper Pike by telephone, but he was unable to comment on ongoing litigation.
-
New York City Sues Big Pharma For Opioid Epidemic, But Does The Lawsuit Make Sense? (EDITORIAL)
Jan 26, 2018 | Market Exclusive
By Matt Winkler
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is suing 8 pharmaceutical companies for $500 million for abetting the opioid epidemic. He and the city claim it constitutes a public nuisance, making these companies liable for damages payable to New York City.
At first glance, the statistics are on de Blasio’s side. Opioids played a role in over 42,000 deaths in the United States in 2016, up nearly 50% since 2014. Beyond that snapshot data point, however, the case falls apart.
The city alleges that these 8 pharmaceutical companies, which include Allergan Plc (NYSE:AGN), Endo International Plc (NASDAQ:ENDP), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Purdue Pharma LP Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, (NYSE:TEVA) AmerisourceBergen Corp (NYSE:ABC), Cardinal Health Inc (NYSE:CAH) and McKesson Corp (NYSE:MCK), “deliberately misled consumers” into believing that these drugs carried minimal risk of addiction. OK, so let’s take a look at the warning labels of just the top three bestselling prescription opioids in the United States.
The first is Vicodin, with over 127 million prescriptions filled in 2014. The global supply of Vicodin is almost entirely consumed by Americans. A cursory glance at Vicodin’s warning label shows 39 mentions of the word “warning,” 27 mentions of the word “addiction,” and 34 mentions of the word “abuse”. The clearest and most concise warning comes from the very first paragraph of the very first page:
HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE AND ACETAMINOPHEN TABLETS EXPOSE PATIENTS AND OTHER USERS TO THE RISKS OF OPIOID ADDICTION, ABUSE, AND MISUSE, WHICH CAN LEAD TO OVERDOSE AND DEATH. ASSESS EACH PATIENT’S RISK PRIOR TO PRESCRIBING HYDROCODONE BITARTRATE AND ACETAMINOPHEN TABLETS, AND MONITOR ALL PATIENTS REGULARLY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THESE BEHAVIORS AND CONDITIONS.
The runner up by prescription, Endo International’s Percocet, has a warning label with 26 mentions of the word “addiction” and 41 mentions of the word “abuse”. It has virtually the same beginning as the quote above from Vicodin’s warning label.
The second runner up is Purdue Pharmaceuticals’ Oxycontin and generic equivalents, which accounted for about 22 million prescriptions in 2014. Oxycontin’s warning label contains 34 mentions of the word “addiction”, 21 mentions of “death,” and 60 mentions of “abuse”.
To claim that these companies misled consumers into thinking that these drugs carried minimal risk of addiction is perplexing, to say the least. But leaving that aside, pharmaceutical companies cannot mislead consumer directly at all anyway, since consumers cannot purchase these drugs directly of course. It was the Food and Drug Administration that approved all of these drugs to be sold in the first place with their warning labels, and physicians are ultimately responsible for prescribing them as a second line of defense against abuse.
The most these pharma companies could have done to mislead consumers is to mislead the FDA into approving and physicians into prescribing these drugs to their patients. If so, then perhaps the FDA and individual doctors should be sued instead for negligence, since they have enabled this epidemic by approving and prescribing these drugs in such high numbers.
Speaking of numbers, the numbers themselves don’t work out either. According to the CDC, deaths from natural opioids have been more or less steady since 2012. It is heroin deaths that have skyrocketed from about 3,500 in 2012 to nearly 13,000 in 2015. You can’t sue anyone for heroin deaths. Deaths from Insys Therapeutics’ (NASDAQ:INSY) Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have also skyrocketed since 2014, but Fentanyl prescriptions are only about 3% of just the top three best selling opioids, and Insys is not even included in the list of 8 companies that New York City is suing in the first place.
All said, very little of this lawsuit makes much sense, and considering that pharmaceuticals are the second most heavily regulated industry behind banks, it is unlikely that New York City or de Blasio will win this one.
-
How the FDA helped pave the way for an opioid epidemic (EDITORIAL)
Jan 26, 2018 | Clarion Ledger
By Jerry Mitchell
The FDA played a key role in the greatest medical disaster in U.S. history — the opioid epidemic that has fueled so many drug overdose deaths they now top all the nation’s deaths in world wars.
“I believe we wouldn’t have an opioid epidemic if the FDA had done its job properly,” said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, co-director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandeis University.
FDA officials would not comment on whether they had made mistakes regarding the approval and promotion of OxyContin, the opioid that jump-started the epidemic.
But Dr. David Kessler, FDA commissioner when OxyContin got the agency’s green light, acknowledged, “No doubt it was a mistake. It was certainly one of the worst medical mistakes, a major mistake.”
Until the 1990s, doctors had generally avoided prescribing opioids for chronic (long-term), non-cancer pain, such as lower back pain, because of concerns about addiction.
In 1995, Dr. Curtis Wright, the team medical review officer for the FDA, recommended approval of Purdue Pharma’s OxyContin for “moderate to severe pain.”
Two years later, he began working for the drugmaker. He now works as a consultant.
In his Oct. 16, 1995, report for the FDA, Wright wrote about OxyContin, cautioning that “care should be taken to limit competitive production. This product has been shown to be as good as current therapy, but has not been shown to have a significant advantage beyond reduction in frequency of dosing.”
The FDA label suggested Purdue Pharma had created a superior product in OxyContin, declaring that its “delayed absorption” was “believed to reduce” the opioid’s abuse.
It was the first opioid to win that stamp of approval from the FDA, despite the fact there was no testing to back up that conclusion, nor was there any proof for the label’s conclusion that “ ‘addiction’ to opioids legitimately used in the management of pain is very rare.”
Kessler said it was understandable why the FDA made that decision.
“There was a belief, based on the data, that if you controlled the release, you would not get the highs and lows associated with addiction,” he said. “There was a kernel of truth in that, but it ended up not being used in that way.”'I Got My Life Back,' Purdue promotional video claimed
In the 1990s, many pain specialists began to tell doctors that opioids were not being prescribed enough for pain.
“That was not something generated by Purdue — that was not a secret plan, that was not a plot, that was not a clever marketing ploy,” Wright recently told Esquire. “Chronic pain is horrible. In the right circumstances, opioid therapy is nothing short of miraculous; you give people their lives back.”
“I Got My Life Back” was, in fact, the title of Purdue’s promotional video, which featured people suffering from chronic pain. They said OxyContin had given them their lives back.
n 2012, the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel tracked down the seven. Two of them were still abusing opioids when they died. A third person who became addicted lost her job, her house and more before getting off OxyContin. Three said the drug helped them, and another would not answer questions.
Purdue sent the promotional video to about 15,000 doctors, who were told OxyContin was “less than 1 percent addictive” — a figure subsequent studies proved false.
The Purdue video included a chart that showed OxyContin appearing to stay at steady levels in the blood for 12 hours.
Most charts use a linear scale, but the chart in this case used a logarithmic scale.
On a linear scale, the value between two consecutive points on the line doesn’t change (like a 12-inch ruler). But the value does change on a logarithmic scale, which means it shouldn’t be read like a linear scale.
If patients and health care professionals had been able to view the more common linear version, they would have seen that the 80-mg OxyContin faded hours before the 12-hour period ended.
In response to promotions, health care professionals began prescribing the powerful opioid for all sorts of chronic pain, including arthritis, migraines, lower back pain and dental pain.
FDA officials later complained that Purdue officials had failed to submit this promotional video as required by FDA regulations.
Dr. Art Van Zee, an internist in Virginia coal country who wrote a medical journal article analyzing OxyContin’s release, said one of the FDA’s biggest problems was its limited staff — only 39 staffers to review 34,000 pieces of promotional materials in 2002 alone.
In the end, OxyContin, with its timed-release mechanism, became more attractive to addicts and abusers because it contained higher doses of the semisynthetic opioid oxycodone, producing a heroin-like high.
“No doubt (the opioid epidemic) began there,” Kessler said.
The FDA approved 40-mg pills, then 80-mg and eventually 160-mg.
“If you look at how much drug was available in each tablet, that contributed mightily to the problem,” said Kessler, who left the FDA in 1997 to become dean of the Yale School of Medicine. “There is very little pharmaceutical use for an 80-mg OxyContin. There’s way too much drug in that tablet.”
OxyContin’s prescriptions for chronic, non-cancer pain shot up tenfold from about 670,000 in 1997 to 6.2 million in 2002.
Kessler said the mistake that became evident over time was the more opioids prescribed, “the more abuse there will be.”
Between 1999 and 2014, the prescriptions of opioid painkillers nearly quadrupled. So did the overdose deaths from those drugs.
“The problem was these drugs were too dangerous to be promoted as part of the traditional way that Pharma promoted drugs,” Kessler said. “These drugs should have never been promoted at all.”
Kolodny questioned the promotion of these opioids.
Under FDA law, drugmakers can promote only a product that has been proved safe and effective, and the product’s benefits must also outweigh the risks, he said.
There have been no long-term studies to show opioids are safe and effective, he said.
“If FDA had done its job properly, it would have told Purdue and other opioid manufacturers, we’re going to let you promote opioids for palliative (serious illness, such as cancer) care, period,” he said.
If that had happened, Purdue wouldn’t have been able to promote OxyContin to primary care doctors and family care doctors for non-palliative care, he said.Previous Purdue drug provided hints of abuse
FDA officials said they had no clue an opioid epidemic would result: “There was no evidence to suggest at the time that crushing the controlled-release capsule followed by oral ingestion or snorting would become widespread and lead to a high level of abuse.”
They based their decisions on OxyContin on the history of Purdue’s previous drug, MS (morphine sulfate) Contin, which they said had been “used in the medical community since 1987 without significant reports of abuse and misuse.”
Actually, MS Contin had been abused some in the same way.
In 1990, the community health board in Cincinnati told the Cancer journal that MS Contin had surpassed hydromorphone as "the most desired and abused prescription opioid in this area."
Addicts crushed the pill, thus defeating the timed-release mechanism, and injected all the morphine meant for the bloodstream over a 12-hour period.
There were other hints as well. The new drug application for OxyContin noted that 68 percent of the oxycodone could be extracted from a crushed OxyContin tablet, and the FDA label warned that crushing and ingesting the pill could bring a fatal overdose.FDA tweaks OxyContin label, adds 'black box' warning
Purdue and FDA officials said they first learned in 2000 that OxyContin was being abused beyond what was expected.
On April 23, 2001, FDA officials met with Purdue officials to discuss the increasing abuse of OxyContin, and a week later Purdue suspended marketing of the 160-mg pill. They worked together on a risk management plan to help prevent abuse of OxyContin, which included medical education programs for health care professionals, the retraining of sales professionals and the development of a national model for a state prescription monitoring program to prevent "doctor shopping."
Two months later, the FDA tweaked the label for OxyContin, deleting the delayed absorption statement. The agency also added a “black box” warning on addiction.
In January 2002, the FDA held an advisory committee meeting on the opioid crisis, inviting outside experts for advice. Those present said opioids were essential to pain management and that there was too much stigma attached to prescribing these narcotics.
“The FDA asked the right questions at that meeting, but the people they asked were people with financial conflicts of interest who were leading the campaign for more prescribing, and they told the FDA, ‘No, no, don’t change a thing,’ ” Kolodny said. “Had the FDA at least responded in 2002 when it was obvious that OxyContin had become a serious problem and that opioids were being overprescribed, I don’t think the epidemic would have ever gotten as bad as it did.”
Other drug companies began selling their opioids, too, and soon the market was flooded, he said.
Dr. John Jenkins, then-director of the Office of New Drugs Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA, defended the agency in a 2002 congressional hearing, saying the FDA approved OxyContin to treat “moderate to severe pain” based on two clinical trials demonstrating it was safe and effective for this use.
“The abuse potential for OxyContin was considered by the FDA to be no greater than for other Schedule II opioid analgesics that were already marketed in the U.S.,” he said.Purdue makes changes after execs plead guilty
In 2003, the FDA sent a warning letter to Purdue about its ads, accusing the company of minimizing safety risks associated with OxyContin and failing to warn about abuse. (The FDA had sent previous letters to Purdue regarding its promotion of MS Contin.)
Four years later, Purdue’s holding company and three executives pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of “misbranding” OxyContin, admitting that sales reps “with intent to defraud or mislead” had promoted the drug as less addictive and less likely to be abused than other opioid painkillers. Together, they paid a nearly $635 million fine, but none of the executives did prison time.
Purdue officials told USA TODAY NETWORK that the company has “accepted responsibility for the actions some of its employees took more than 15 years ago. Since then, we’ve led the industry in developing medications with abuse-deterrent properties, advocating for the use of prescription drug monitoring programs, and partnering with law enforcement to expand the use of naloxone, a medication that rapidly reverses opioid overdose — all important components of a comprehensive approach toward combating prescription drug abuse.”
In 2010, the FDA approved Purdue’s new version of OxyContin, which has proved much more difficult to abuse. Purdue now makes three of the top abuse-deterrent drugs in the U.S., and the company distributes millions in grants toward prescription drug monitoring programs, which seek to block “doctor shopping.”
Despite these changes, Purdue and other opioid makers have become targets of lawsuits, alleging these drug companies used deceptive practices so they could rake in huge profits from these narcotics while deceiving the public about the risk for addiction. Most of the nation’s attorneys general have subpoenaed the opioid makers’ marketing documents.
The companies have responded that the FDA approved their actions.
Purdue officials said, “OxyContin accounts for less than 2 percent of all opioid pain prescriptions nationally and focusing on only one aspect of the issue ensures we will not adequately solve it. Addressing the opioid crisis is one of the company’s top priorities, and we will continue to work to find comprehensive solutions to complement ongoing efforts.”
USA TODAY NETWORK asked FDA officials if they made mistakes regarding the approval and promotion of OxyContin.
In declining to answer, FDA officials released this statement instead: “The public health crisis of opioid addiction and overdose is a tragic situation that has evolved over a number of years and has been the result of a confluence of factors. However, the agency is focused on making sure to learn from the lessons of the past to inform the actions we take moving forward, including a shift in the agency’s policy efforts to consider how opioids are used not just by appropriate patients but also by people who are using them for non-medical reasons and identifying creative solutions within the FDA’s authority to address the epidemic.”
In June, the FDA requested the removal of the opioid Opana ER from the market, based on concerns about misuse. Endo did so on July 6.
The FDA is taking aim at immediate-release opioids, children’s opioid cough suppressants and even drug packaging in an attempt to fight the opioid epidemic.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb has noted that many of those who became addicted to opioids first experienced them through a legal prescription.
“The crisis of opioid addiction is a public health tragedy of enormous proportions,” he said. “Our hope is that we can help prevent new patients from becoming addicted, and keep some individuals from experiencing the serious adverse effects associated with these medications.”Grieving mother takes fight to D.C.
Each year, Emily Walden of Louisville, Kentucky — whose son, T.J., started his drug abuse with OxyContin and overdosed in 2012 on Opana — travels to the nation’s capital to try and get Washington to do something about the opioid epidemic.
Many in Congress receive campaign contributions from drugmakers, she said. “My only hope is this administration, the FDA.”
Earlier this year, she talked by phone with Gottlieb, who reassured her that the agency was taking steps to battle the epidemic, she said. “Until that happens, this will never end.”
-
Fighting the opioid epidemic will require more court battles (EDITORIAL)
Jan 26, 2018 | Fox News
By Rick Van Warner
New York City’s decision to file a lawsuit this week against eight big pharmaceutical corporations and distributors that ignited the nation’s raging opioid epidemic cannot bring back the hundreds of thousands of loved ones who have perished during this crisis.
But for families like my own that have suffered, it raises some hope that Big Pharma companies may yet be held responsible for their actions.
Unfortunately, accountability has been quite elusive since pill makers began flooding the market with prescription painkillers more than two decades ago.
As far back as 2001, Connecticut’s then-Attorney General (and now U.S. Senator) Richard Blumenthal sounded the warning cry about Oxycontin abuse, publicly urging manufacturer Purdue Pharma to take action to warn about the potential for addiction connected to the drug, which it aggressively marketed as “non-addictive.”
Three years later West Virginia became the first state to sue Purdue in a case that never went to trial and resulted in a $10 million settlement.
In 2007, Purdue finally pleaded guilty to misleading doctors and the public about Oxycontin’s potential for addiction and abuse, paying $600 million in fines and payments to settle the Justice Department case against the company.
By this time addictive pain pills, often snagged from unused bottles in family medicine cabinets, were as readily available as candy in the halls of the high school where my 16-year-old son Tommy, like many teens, was wrestling with his identity.
By 2010, pharmacies in Florida, where we were living, were selling more than 650 million oxycodone pills per year, with 93 of the top opioid-dispensing doctors in the U.S. operating in the state. (Oxycodone is the active ingredient in Oxycontin and is also an ingredient of other pain pills).
Then completely unaware of the word “opioid” or the deadly dagger Tommy was flirting with, my wife and I proceeded through our normal routine one Friday until our son didn’t come home after school.
When Tommy’s cellphone went straight to voicemail, we began a frantic and agonizing four-day search for him. We finally found him in a decrepit, abandoned building on the brink of overdose death. His drug of choice? Oxycontin.
Some 13 overdoses and nine years later, we’ve learned far more about the opioid crisis that we ever could have fathomed. About how easy it is to become addicted even after short-term use. How opioids rewire a person’s brain chemistry in ways that make overcoming the drug nearly impossible.
We also learned about how the stigma carried by the word “heroin” kept this growing problem in the shadows for so long, causing families to suffer in silence for fear of what their neighbors might think, and causing many Americans to mistakenly brush off opioid addiction as a skid row problem and not something that would affect them.
As our son continued to struggle through the vicious cycle of relapse, detox, recovery and repeat, we began to understand the scope of the problem. We count ourselves among the lucky ones, because Tommy has survived and is now doing well.
But we have no illusions that this will ever be over, because as any person who has overcome addiction can attest, it is a lifelong “one day at a time” challenge.
Today’s opioid epidemic can reach any family. It is an equal opportunity destroyer that strikes rural, suburban and urban communities, poor, middle-class and wealthy families – with no regard for race, age or gender.
Last year alone the opioid epidemic claimed more American lives than we lost during the Vietnam War. Nearly 100 people die every single day from either heroin or prescription pill overdose. And that’s just the statistics that are reported. The real toll is certainly higher.
Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies continue to profit from this national tragedy. Since its record settlement in 2007, Purdue has continued to rake in billions of dollars from the sale of its homerun drug Oxycontin, vaulting the company’s family owners onto the Forbes Wealthiest Families in America list.
For those of us who are battle weary from the front lines of the crisis, it is small solace that some prominent Big Pharma actors might once again be found liable.
New York City joins a growing list of cities, counties and states that are suing to bring drug companies to justice in a move reminiscent of Big Tobacco lawsuits years ago. But the politics of greed that have allowed this infection to fester for so many years already make us skeptical that this time will be different.
Since Purdue’s huge settlement, Big Pharma has fought back in a big way, significantly increasing their lobbying efforts at the federal and state levels. According to The Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity, Purdue, other pain pill producers, and their related nonprofit associations spent nearly $900 million on lobbying and political contributions between 2006 and 20015.
The amount spent by the industry’s influence machine is eight times more than the powerful gun lobby spent during the same time period. If anyone wonders how the opioid train rolled down the tracks for so long while politicians or regulatory officials looked the other way, the answers can be found in political spending records.
Similar to the speeches and press conferences that promise to end the opioid crisis, the pledges to make “Big Pharma pay for what they’ve done” will do little to change realities on the ground, at least for years to come. Even if settlements or further restrictions are achieved, it will be too little and too late for most American families coping with opioid addiction.
At least awareness has been heightened by the spate of new lawsuits. Anything we can do to further drag the problem out of the shadows and into the light is an important first step toward education and prevention. It’s hard to battle something that so many don’t even understand.
Sadly, the talk continues to far outpace the walk on the issue of opioid addiction. Most of our public leaders and government officials simply continue to scratch their heads about what to do next.
Until we can go move beyond the headline-grabbing promises to fight this epidemic and pursue the legitimate actions and resources needed to make a dent in it, don’t expect much to change.
-
Beshear correct to sue drug company in opioid fight (EDITORIAL)
Jan 26, 2018 | Bowling Green Daily News
By Staff
Years ago, it was common to open this newspaper and read about methamphetamine busts and, in some cases, deaths related to meth overdoses or explosions from a meth cook that occurred in houses where children were living.
Thankfully, we don’t hear quite as often about meth arrests anymore. A large reason for that is because Kentucky got tough on meth by passing laws to make it harder to obtain the products needed to produce it. But as locally produced meth is replaced by meth coming from Mexico, there is increasing concern about other hard drugs.
Heroin and other opioids have hit Kentucky hard in recent years, claiming many lives during that time. This drug problem is especially bad in northern and eastern Kentucky. Some have argued that these drugs became more popular after the state passed Kentucky All-Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting. KASPER, to its credit, did a good job hampering meth, but its indirect effect has been the rise of other drugs.
It has been obvious for some time now that we must do more to curtail the availability of heroin and other opioids because too many lives are being taken. Some law enforcement officials refer to this as an epidemic and we would agree with their assessment.
More than 1,400 people died in Kentucky from drug overdoses in 2017, a 39 percent increase in just three years. The biggest culprit in these deaths was opioids, including prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl, a synthetic form of the drug that is more potent. It’s also worth mentioning that Kentucky ranks fourth lowest of the 50 states for workforce participation. This could be attributed to the fact that the opioid epidemic is becoming the human capital crisis of our time.
These numbers show definitively that we have a serious problem on our hands that will take a long time to overcome. One person we believe is doing his part to help combat these deaths is Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear.
Beshear is suing McKesson Corp., a San Francisco-based pharmaceutical distributor, in state court, accusing the company of using misleading business practices to flood the state with dangerous and highly addictive prescription drugs and failing to report suspiciously large volumes of opioid shipments to state and federal authorities.
Beshear cites Floyd County as just an example. There are just more than 38,000 people living in Floyd County, located in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. Yet between 2010 and 2016, McKesson shipped more than 18 million doses of opioid painkillers there, enough for each person to have 477 pills each. Beshear says that was illegal. Beshear made a very good point when he said, “These numbers are glaringly obvious. No responsible company would have seen these numbers and think: ‘All is well.’ ... Our lawsuit alleges they knew exactly what they were doing. They knew they were flooding these communities with dangerous and addictive drugs, and we’ve paid the price.”
Beshear’s lawsuit in Franklin Circuit Court says McKesson is supposed to “monitor, identify, halt and, perhaps most importantly, report suspicious orders of controlled substances.” He says this did not happen, pointing to outsized supplies of opioids shipped to five eastern Kentucky counties. Altogether, those counties received more than 53 million doses of prescription opioids. Those counties have a combined population of 120,381.
McKesson spokeswoman Kristin Hunter Chasen said the company is just one link in the pharmaceutical supply chain, and that it distributes opioids only to pharmacies that are licensed with the state and registered with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. She pointed to a statement on the company’s website saying allegations that McKesson fueled opioid abuse are unfounded.
It appears that more safeguards need to be put in place by McKesson to monitor the amounts of opioids it is shipping to these counties. We don’t know their policies, so we won’t say they aren’t doing this already. Perhaps doctors in these counties who overprescribed share some responsibility as well? They are, after all, the final link in that supply chain. Don’t they need to act as monitors and make responsible decisions on how many opioids they prescribe? We certainly believe so.
Obviously, only time will tell if Beshear and the state will prevail in this lawsuit, but we are glad he is bringing the issue to the forefront in an effort to fight this epidemic.
-
Legislating Addiction (EDITORIAL)
Jan 26, 2018 | California Lawyer (CA)
By Karina Saranovic
In an era plagued by addiction and self-interest, it has become more critical than ever for legislators and community leaders to address epidemics in an honest way. It is no secret that economics have historically motivated human and corporate behavior, but when the repercussions of this approach start to affect a major segment of the population, it’s time to start paying attention and allocate much-needed resources accordingly.
OPIOID CRISIS
The opioid crisis has bulldozed through our nation and mercilessly crushed millions along the way. According to The National Institute on Drug Abuse, an estimated 2 million people in the United States suffered from substance use disorders related to prescription opioid pain relievers and more than 33,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2015. The crisis has only ballooned since President Trump’s declaration of a public health emergency late last year.
As rehabilitation centers spawn, the realities behind the operation of some rehab facilities merits a discussion. Along the coast of sunny California, rehabilitation centers (and the recent spinoffs known as “sober living homes”) line the Pacific Ocean in a stretch known as the “Rehab Riviera.” With an estimated treatment cost ranging anywhere from $5,000-$25,000 for a 30-day program, this territory has also become big business.
Although these centers have built a reputation for housing celebrities in glitzy surroundings, they have received far different media coverage in recent years. With the promise of effective treatment and a better tomorrow, an avalanche of addicts has cascaded into California from every corner of the United States.
How these most vulnerable members of our society are treated once hooked and displaced raises major red flags. Many end up homeless after getting “curbed” the instant their insurance coverage runs dry, while others have even ended up dead.
According to press reports, one such death occurred in March 2016 at Pacific Coast Detox in Costa Mesa. News reports told of a 21-year old detox patient who died, and of video footage that revealed staffers had falsified medical records to reflect routine checks that had never been made. A year earlier, an Orange County jury returned a verdict against rehab centers Morningside Recovery and First House LLC in connection with the death of a young man who had an eating disorder. The jury found that the centers’ negligence led to the boy’s cardiac arrest.
Despite the increasing number of tragedies tainting the industry, legislators have failed to respond in kind. According to The Orange County Register, there are only 16 Sacramento inspectors in charge of supervising over 2,000 centers statewide, and although dozens of reform bills have been proposed, most have failed to receive meaningful review or have lingered in committee.
This reality proves far graver as a growing group of “sober living homes” operate with minimal oversight. These “drug and alcohol-free residences” have sprouted up in residential neighborhoods under a cloak of protection from state and federal disability and discrimination laws. These homes are regulated by the state’s Department of Health Care Services (see http://www.dhcs.ca.gov/provgovpart/Pages/FacilityLicensing.aspx), but the DHCS may find itself struggling to keep up with the ever increasing number of facilities. Importantly, these centers do not require any state medical licenses to operate, and neither do their owners, managers, or staff members.
Although cities like Newport Beach have passed local ordinances to impose quiet hours and contain the boundaries of these sober living homes, the current measures have done little to stifle their expansion. Moreover, although AB285 is currently in the legislative pipeline to tighten California regulation, the bill has already encountered sharp criticism and undergone extensive markups in its infancy. Among other things, AB285 would add section 11834.19 to the California Health & Safety Code to define a “drug and alcohol free residence” as a residential property that operates as a cooperative living arrangement to provide an alcohol and drug free environment for persons recovering from alcoholism or drug abuse, or both, who seek a living environment that supports personal recovery.
Opioid addicts need help, but our system does too. How did big pharma penetrate so many households and why is it taking us so long to respond to the repercussions?
TECHNOLOGY IS ADDICTIVE TOO
There’s another industry ripe for legislation and addiction treatment: technology. The National Institute of Health (NIH) recently announced its funding of a study on Internet and addiction. Absent a classification, any problematic behavior does not formally qualify as a mental health disorder in the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Without this, insurance companies also refuse to cover any treatment.
Although the NIH study focuses on online gaming, other Internet-related studies will surely follow and with them, so will new legislation. In fact, some private entities have already taken the issue into their own hands. According to The Wall Street Journal, the world’s largest online gaming company Tencent Holdings Ltd. implemented a system to limit the total time Chinese children could access games throughout the day, citing addiction concerns. In early January 2018, two Apple shareholders publicly urged the tech giant to provide parents with better monitoring strategies for their minor’s phone use due to similar looming concerns.
At least for the time being, a company’s direct interference in child rearing would likely prove unpopular over individual parental discretion in the United States. However, society may slowly become receptive to other institutions like schools’ interventions with students if the problem persists.
Aside from gaming’s effects on children’s concentration and grades, research links the use of social media sites like Instagram and Snapchat to lower self-esteem and stunted empathy. Sadly, excessive use has also contributed to cyberbullying and tragedies both on and off-campus.
Even absent a formal classification, legislators have already directed attention toward responsible Internet usage. Cal. Educ. Code § 18030.5 currently mandates for public libraries and public schools to tailor special policies regarding minors’ access to the Internet. Since computers have woven into coursework, California’s Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SOPIPA) has also addressed the privacy rights of students’ data including the sale of their information to third-party advertisers since 2016. See Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 22584.
According to Bloomberg, some countries have even attempted to eradicate gadget use altogether with France proposing a complete ban on smartphones in its primary and middle schools. Not surprisingly, schools may start instituting far stricter policies on recreational (or even curriculum-based) technology in years to come.
ADDICTION VICTIMS ARE NOT HOMOGENOUS—NOR ARE LEGAL SOLUTIONS
We need to remain wary of those aids capable of warping into crutches if misused. Although this proves no easy feat in a society overloaded with substances and gadgets, better foresight and proactive legislation can hopefully assist our “pharmaceutical” and “digital” first generation with aging gracefully from here on out.
-
CBS Evening News / This Morning
Jan 26, 2018 | CBS
By National Programming
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32249311?token=3d530066-89da-4c52-9816-c9eb32b99c82
Rough Transcript: delaware is one of the states that recently filed a lawsuit against pharmaceutical -- against the pharmaceutical industry, joining 13 others. the state's attorney general is targeting the entire opioid supply chain from manufacturers 7:32 AMto distributors to chain drugstores, but now the industry is pushing back. julianna goldman is in washington. julianna, good morning. >> good morning. more than 30 states attorneys general are negotiating and trying to reach a settlement over the opioid settlement, but a number of ags have lost patience and have left the group to sue opioidmanufacturers directly, and now there's a high-stakes campaign to get them to drop their cases and make sure more states don't sue so they can contain potential damages. >> i can enjoy every day that i live. i can really enjoy myself. >> that with us the message to >> that with us the message to 15,000 dockers to her voice, right? >> diane king hall at the new t 19 199r p 199 1 pharmap pharmacy that maph v>t r p>> it's mess le. >>> they palette guilty to miss branding in tow 7. but they said the company 7:33 AMcontinues deceptive marketing through 2014. >> if you go back 20 years in ohio, you can see the number of pain meds prescribed in ohio start going up like that. >> last may dewine sued purdue and four other manufacturers. >> i would love for purdue pharma and these other drug companies to follow me around just one day. give me one day. i'll shoal you what you have done to people in the state of ohio. >>> purdue recently tried to persuade dewine to drop the ohio lawsuit and negotiate instead writing litigation takes years and the costs for both sides are significant. >> there's a lot at stake for them, and so they've been very aggressive. they've lawyered up, they have hired lobbyists. >> and they've opened their war chest. donations from drug companies to political associations for state ags have risen in the past three years totally almost $700,000 to 7:34 AMdemocrats and $1.7 million to republicans. >> so you have some of the very companies that have manufactured opioids are either under active investigation or potentially under investigation donating tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars to these ag organizations. >> the republican ag association told us they have an obligation to the people to hear from all sides. their democratic counterpart said they also hear from a wide variety of voices. the contributions are legal but they allow them to gain access to the ags at exclusive meetings, golf outings, and high end dinners. they spent over $100,000 to partially sponsor this meeting in san francisco. >> well, that was really something else, the opening dinner last night. >> at a meeting in may, two companies who had given them a combined $65,000 got to speak on a panel at this hotel in oregon and told the group they were not responsible for the crisis according to several attendees. >> there aren't any when it comes to lobbying state ags. those lobbyists don't have to say how much they're being paid or who they meet with. gayle, purdue denied our request and said they're committed to working collaboratively to help solve it.
-
Jan 26, 2018 | WFIE (NBC)
By Evansville, IN
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32249094?token=3d530066-89da-4c52-9816-c9eb32b99c82
Rough Transcript: there's a new effort in boonville to curb the drug epidemic. the city has joined a class-action lawsuit against several opioid manufacturers, and distributors. according to the law firm representing the city of boonville, the opioid prescription rate has peaked at 101 opioid prescriptions for every 100 residents in the county. city officials say the lawsuit will allege the manufacturers deceptively marketed the uses, risks, and safety of opioids. boonville mayor charlie wyatt: "we've got an issue, there is no doubt. we do have an issue so we are treating it and trying to help people but this is just a way that we are able to recoup some of our costs on that. it's an extremely costly thing to keep sending ambulances and police out on these runs." some of the defendants include johnson & johnson and watson pharmaceuticals. wyatt says because this is a class action lawsuit, residents will not have to pay a thing.
-
Jan 26, 2018 | WEVVDT2 (Fox)
By Evansville, IN
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32249110?token=3d530066-89da-4c52-9816-c9eb32b99c82
Rough Transcript: boonville is the latest city to join the fight against opioid abuse.. city leaders have signed on to a class action lawsuit with other hoosier cities -- like indianapolis and bloomington... the suit takes aim at big pharmaceutical companies.... they claim - too many city resources go to police and fire runs - related to opioid overdoses.. the boonville mayor charlie wyatt says - he would like some of that money back - so the city can help those most at risk.... charlie says: "hopefully maybe it's like the tobacco suit where there's actually maybe there's some counseling maybe there's some kind of treatment for people." by entering the class action lawsuit -- mayor wyatt says - there should be no cost to the tax payers..
-
Jan 26, 2018 | WGHP (FOX)
By Greensboro, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32249104?token=3d530066-89da-4c52-9816-c9eb32b99c82
Rough Transcript: forsyth county plans to sue manufacturers.. distributors.. and all other parties involved in opioid medications. the county says these groups were responsible for the amount of drugs being used and the effects it had on systems throughout the county like law enforcement.. child services.. and e-m-s. the details of the suit will be worked out, once the lawyers are under contract. the board of commissioners is expected to vote next thursday on a law firm.
-
Jan 26, 2018 | WCCB (CW)
By Charlotte, NC
Video Link:http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32249133?token=3d530066-89da-4c52-9816-c9eb32b99c82
Rough Transcript: mecklenburg county is working with three national law firms as it prepares to sue opioid manufacturers. but county commissioners say taxpayer money will not be used for the lawsuit. the attorneys will be paid from any damages that the county receives. the rest of the money would be used for treatment programs, rehab and education.
CBS Evening News
Northeast (MD, MA, RI)
Midwest (IN, WV)
Southeast (NC, FL, KY)
Commentary and FYIs
Broadcast Media Coverage
Add recipients
Suggested