Preview Newsletter
Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report - 2/6/18
-
Cities, counties ask Big Pharma to limit opioids production
Feb 5, 2018 | CBS News
By Laura Strickler
In Cleveland, last week more than 125 attorneys packed into a federal courtroom to begin the process of hammering out a global opioid settlement. -
‘A very long day’ in Opioid MDL (EDITORIAL)
Feb 6, 2018 | Law.com
By Amanda Bronstad
Well, they didn’t exactly reach the settlement the court has been pressing for, but lawyers in the opioid litigation had “a very long day” of presentations and meetings with U.S. District Judge Dan Polster on Wednesday. -
Travis County files lawsuit against makers of pharmaceutical opioids
Feb 5, 2018 | KXAN (TX)
By Andy Jechow & Brittany Glas
Travis County has filed a lawsuit against the makers, distributors and marketers of pharmaceutical opioids for damages and penalties, describing the legal action as essential to protecting the interests of the county and its citizens. The county is seeking up to $100 million. -
Travis County files suit against pharmaceutical opioid manufacturers, distributors and marketers
Feb 6, 2018 | Community Impact News (TX)
By Luz Moreno - Lozano
Travis County filed suit against manufacturers, distributors and marketers of pharmaceutical opioids for damages and penalties and for all other relief available by law, a Feb. 5 press release stated. -
Travis County files lawsuit over opioid abuse
Feb 6, 2018 | Statesman (TX)
By Staff
Travis County has filed its lawsuit against the pharmaceutical industry over prescription drug opioids, joining hundreds of other cities and counties seeking damages for the toll that opioid addiction has taken on their communities. -
Sturbridge, Dudley join opioid lawsuit against pharmaceutical makers
Feb 5, 2018 | Telegram & Gazette
By Craig S. Semon & Debbie LaPlaca
Sturbridge and Dudley are the latest Central Massachusetts towns to vote to sign on to litigation against pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors over the opioid crisis. -
Marblehead joins national opioid lawsuit
Feb 5, 2018 | Wicked Local Marblehead (MA)
By Chris Stevens
A legal consortium takes aim at recouping expenses from manufacturers tied to the epidemic -
Westchester alleges Big Pharma key to deadly opioid crisis that cost tax dollars to fight
Feb 6, 2018 | Lohud (NY)
By David Robinson
Westchester County is set to sue pharmaceutical companies for misleading the public during an opioid and heroin crisis that has drained tax dollars and killed hundreds in the county. -
Indiana county files opioid epidemic lawsuit against 20+ drugmakers, distributors
Feb 5, 2018 | Becker's Hospital Review
By Brian Zimmerman
Indianapolis-based attorneys retained by Marshal County, Ind., recently filed a 165-page lawsuit against more than 20 drugmakers and distributors for the companies' alleged roles in facilitating the overuse of opioids, according to a report published Sunday by the South Bend Tribune. -
Litigation may be just what the doctor ordered for opioid crisis
Feb 6, 2018 | WNDU 16
By Mark Peterson
We’ve heard a lot about the victims of the opioid crisis but are there villains to the story as well? -
Osceola County first in state to file suit against 21 pharmaceutical companies for opioid crisis
Feb 6, 2018 | WFTV 9 ABC (FL)
By Jeff Deal
Osceola County is the first in Florida to move forward with a lawsuit against 21 pharmaceutical companies. -
Alachua County Sues Pharmaceutical Companies Over Opioid Epidemic
Feb 6, 2018 | WUFT (FL)
By Meredith Sheldon
Alachua County is one of the first Florida counties to sue pharmaceutical makers and distributors as a result of the opioid epidemic. -
Columbus Co. makes decision on law group to represent county in fight against opioids
Feb 6, 2018 | WECT (NC)
By Kailey Tracy
The Columbus County Board of Commissioners chose a law group to represent the county in the fight against opioids at Monday night’s meeting. -
Caldwell joins opioid lawsuit
Feb 5, 2018 | News Topic (NC)
By Virginia Annable
Caldwell County is the latest North Carolina county to join a national lawsuit against opioid drug companies. -
Williamsburg County to enter into opioid litigation
Feb 6, 2018 | South Carolina Now (SC)
By Shamira McCray
The Williamsburg County Council voted Monday evening to enter into opioid litigation with the Law Offices of Cezar McKnight and others. Lead counsel in the litigation is Mark Bern. -
Hamlin, West Hamlin sue pill companies
Feb 6, 2018 | The Lincoln Journal (WV)
By Sean O'Donoghue
Lincoln County’s two municipalities last week joined a long list of counties and cities in the region who are suing pain pill manufacturers and distributors. Attorney Truman Chafin filed the actions in the office of Lincoln County Circuit Clerk Charles Brumfield, shortly before 10 a.m., Wednesday morning, January 31, 2018. -
Beshear, Bevin Each Claim Stonewalling On Opioid Litigation
Feb 5, 2018 | Kentucky Public Radio (KY)
By Lisa Gillespie
After months of back and forth between Gov. Matt Bevin and Attorney General Andy Beshear on how to move forward with lawsuits against opioid distributors and manufacturers, both sides are accusing the other of stalling the process. -
County lawsuits on opioids reminiscent of tobacco lawsuits
Feb 6, 2018 | Maryland Reporter (MD)
By Jo martin
Five Maryland counties, Baltimore City, and possibly the state, are suing manufacturers and distributors of addictive painkillers for their roles in creating the opioid epidemic that has hit Maryland particularly hard. Other jurisdictions are likely to follow. -
An opioid settlement presents some concerns (EDITORIAL)
Feb 6, 2018 | HeraldNet (WA)
By Editorial Board
A federal judge in Cleveland, Ohio, who is presiding over the lawsuit by some 200 cities, counties and states against the makers and distributors of prescription opioids — including the city of Everett’s suit against OxyContin maker Perdue Pharma — is asking all sides to broker a settlement and avoid a long and costly trial. -
Drug dealers among us: Look for those wearing lab coats or pinstripe suits (EDITORIAL)
Feb 6, 2018 | The Hill
By Jonathan Caulkins & Keith Humphrey's
In his State of the Union speech, President Trump cited the 64,000 drug overdose deaths that occurred in 2016 and enjoined, “We must get much tougher on drug dealers and pushers.” -
Despite opioid 'emergency,' drug office dwindles under Trump (EDITORIAL)
Feb 6, 2018 | New York Daily News
By Christopher Brennan
President Trump’s drug control office has dwindled and could be crushed further by a lack of funding despite the administration's pledges to combat the opioid epidemic. -
Kellyanne Conway’s 'opioid cabinet' sidelines drug czar’s experts
Feb 6, 2018 | Politico
By Brianna Ehley & Sarah Karlin-Smith
President Donald Trump’s war on opioids is beginning to look more like a war on his drug policy office. Audio Link: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/06/kellyanne-conway-opioid-drug-czar-325457 -
Sanders wants pharma CEOs to testify on opioid crisis
Feb 5, 2018 | The Hill
By Nathaniel Weixel
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wants the top executives of pharmaceutical companies to testify before Congress about their role in the country’s opioid epidemic. -
A Reaction to DEA's Efforts to Target Pharmacies with 'Unusual' Opioid Prescription Rates (EDITORIAL)
Feb 5, 2018 | Pharmacy Times
By Jeffrey Fudin, Stephen Ziegler & Terri Lewis
In response to “Sessions: DEA to Target Pharmacies, Prescribers in Crackdown”1 as published in The Hill, it should be obvious to responsible medical clinicians that Sessions and colleagues are naïve to the complex and biopsychosocial, medical, and pharmaceutical paradigms that are actually driving the opioid epidemic. -
Capital News
Feb 6, 2018 | KWKT (Fox)
By Waco, TX
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32492199?token=93039183-51d3-4bed-a3f2-7869f9903374 -
News 13 Now
Feb 6, 2018 | WBTW (CBS)
By Myrtle Beach, SC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32492211?token=93039183-51d3-4bed-a3f2-7869f9903374 -
Fox 45 Morning News
Feb 6, 2018 | WBFF (Fox)
By Baltimore, MD
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32492221?token=93039183-51d3-4bed-a3f2-7869f9903374 -
WECT News, Carolina in the Morning
Feb 6, 2018 | WECT (NBC)
By Wilmington, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32492249?token=93039183-51d3-4bed-a3f2-7869f9903374 -
Good Morning Kentuckiana
Feb 6, 2018 | WHAS (ABC)
By Louisville, KY
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32492384?token=93039183-51d3-4bed-a3f2-7869f9903374 -
Spectrum News All Evening
Feb 6, 2018 | SPNWSAU (Spectrum News)
By Austin, TX
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32492463?token=93039183-51d3-4bed-a3f2-7869f9903374
MDL
Southwest (TX)
Northeast (MA, NY)
Midwest (IN)
Southeast (FL, NC, SC, WV)
Commentary and FYIs
Broadcast Media Coverage
-
Cities, counties ask Big Pharma to limit opioids production
Feb 5, 2018 | CBS News
By Laura Strickler
In Cleveland, last week more than 125 attorneys packed into a federal courtroomto begin the process of hammering out a global opioid settlement.
The group included representatives from the country's largest opioid manufacturers and distributors as well as lawyers for over 200 cities and counties who are suing them. The local governments are seeking damages from the drug companies that they say caused the opioid epidemic. Also in the room were representatives from various state attorneys general offices who are suing and negotiating with the companies.
Speaking to federal district Judge Daniel Polster, lawyers for the counties and cities proposed that ultra-high-dosage opioids be permanently taken off the market, CBS News has learned. The products have long been criticized by public health experts.
One of the ultra-high-dosage products made by drugmaker Purdue Pharma is often prescribed to patients as a pill to be taken both morning and night for a total of 160 mg of OxyContin per day. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends doctors should avoid giving patients more than 90 milligrams per day.
Purdue Pharma did not respond to a request for comment about the meeting.
In court documents, Polster called the first meeting "productive" and noted that the next meeting will be on March 6, 2018 in Cleveland. Multiple states are still pursuing lawsuits against the companies and their participation in the settlement talks is voluntary.
According to preliminary numbers from the CDC, the number of deaths from opioids from June 2016 to June 2017 totaled 66,817, an increase of 16 percent.
-
‘A very long day’ in Opioid MDL (EDITORIAL)
Feb 6, 2018 | Law.com
By Amanda Bronstad
Well, they didn’t exactly reach the settlement the court has been pressing for, but lawyers in the opioid litigation had “a very long day” of presentations and meetings with U.S. District Judge Dan Polster on Wednesday.
That’s according to Paul Hanly, co-lead plaintiffs counsel in the multidistrict litigation pending in Cleveland. Hanly, of Simmons Hanly Conroy, told me there were at least eight state attorneys general at the hearing.
“There were no decisions of any kind made other than the judge is going to have a session in early March,” he said. “He doesn’t want any motions to be filed, he’s not going to decide anything. He’s very committed as he was in earlier hearings to exploring all avenues of potential resolution.”
Here’s who didn’t go: On the same day of the hearing, a coalition of “firms and civil rights leaders” including the Rev. Al Sharpton announced that they planned to create an “alternative track” for cities and counties that wanted to avoid the federal opioid MDL. In this opinion piece, Sharpton referenced attorneys Jay Edelson and Tom Girardi as being part of the coalition.
Then he threw this zinger: That the MDL is “largely rural, white communities being represented by rural, white lawyers,” which “leaves out the significant and rapidly growing number of African Americans suffering from this modern plague.”
Hanly’s response? “Frankly, I find it incomprehensible.”
-
Travis County files lawsuit against makers of pharmaceutical opioids
Feb 5, 2018 | KXAN (TX)
By Andy Jechow & Brittany Glas
Travis County has filed a lawsuit against the makers, distributors and marketers of pharmaceutical opioids for damages and penalties, describing the legal action as essential to protecting the interests of the county and its citizens. The county is seeking up to $100 million.
“Aggressive marketing for the overuse and consequent addiction to pharmaceutical opioids has caused real harm in our community and among our families,” said County Judge Sarah Eckhardt. “This legal action is necessary to stop the harvesting of profits from human suffering.”
The county says there is no doubt the nationwide opioid epidemic is impacting Travis County significantly. The Commissioners Court voted to take this first step in pursuing claims on behalf of the county.
Purdue Pharma Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Inc., Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Allergan, Actavis, McKesson and Cardinal Health are among the plaintiffs listed in the 59-page suit.
One woman, who lost her son a year ago, says the money may not be enough. Cash Owen was just 22 years old when he died from an overdose of heroin laced with the powerful opioid fentanyl. “It went straight from pills to heroin. He never talked about fentanyl. He never asked to get fentanyl,” his mother, Jacy Planta, said.
She says the lawsuit is a good start but emphasizes there’s more at play. “They’re dying from death dealers that are putting it into other substances and pressing it into pills,” she said.
Travis County Attorney David Escamilla, District Attorney Margaret Moore and outside counsel will be working together to recover damages and help mitigate the impact of the endemic on the community, the county said in a statement Monday.
“As elected officials, it is our responsibility to protect constituents from those who wish to take advantage of their pain to make a quick dollar,” added Eckhardt. “The filing of this lawsuit is a first step to recovery.”
Mark Kinzly, co-founder of the Texas Overdose Naloxone Initiative said the problem started with over-prescribing — four out of five people with opioid use disorders started with prescription pain medications. “The long-term outlook from the pharmaceutical companies certainly did not indicate that that’s where we were gonna end up,” Kinzly said. “Our tactics around treating symptoms needs to be changed.”
To give you an idea of how many of these drugs are being prescribed we checked with the Texas State Board of Pharmacy. For just fentanyl, pharmacies dispensed nearly 19,000 prescriptions in Travis County last year. Across Texas, they handed out almost 340,000 prescriptions of the drug.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioids killed more than 42,000 people in 2016, more than any year on record.
-
Travis County files suit against pharmaceutical opioid manufacturers, distributors and marketers
Feb 6, 2018 | Community Impact News (TX)
By Luz Moreno - Lozano
Travis County filed suit against manufacturers, distributors and marketers of pharmaceutical opioids for damages and penalties and for all other relief available by law, a Feb. 5 press release stated.
The National Institute on Drug Use defines opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and pain relievers available by prescription such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine and more.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated opioids killed more than 42,000 people in 2016, more than any year on record. In 2015, 1,186 of the 33,000 nationwide opioid-related deaths were in Texas. A Travis County Medical Examiners office 2016 annual report states heroin is likely detected in 43 examined decedents with hydrocodone and oxycodone at 39 and 24 examined descendants, respectively. Methadone and fentanyl are commonly found in examined Travis County descendants as well, the reported states.
According to court documents, the economic burden caused by opioid abuse in the United States is at least $78.5 billion, including lost productivity and increased social services, health insurance costs, increased criminal justice presence and strain on judicial resources and substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation.
“Aggressive marketing for the overuse and consequent addiction to pharmaceutical opioids has caused real harm in our community and among our families,” County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said. “This legal action is necessary to stop the harvesting of profits from human suffering.”
The commissioners court voted to take this first step in pursuing claims on behalf of Travis County during a December meeting. Travis County attorneys and outside counsel will work together to recover damages to help mitigate the impact that the opioid epidemic has had on the Travis County community.
“As elected officials, it is our responsibility to protect constituents from those who wish to take advantage of their pain to make a quick dollar,” Eckhardt said. “The filing of this lawsuit is a first step to recovery.”
County officials were not yet able to comment on the dollar amount that could be recovered through this effort.
-
Travis County files lawsuit over opioid abuse
Feb 6, 2018 | Statesman (TX)
By Staff
Travis County has filed its lawsuit against the pharmaceutical industry over prescription drug opioids, joining hundreds of other cities and counties seeking damages for the toll that opioid addiction has taken on their communities.
Travis officials announced the filing of the lawsuit Monday, nearly two months after Travis commissioners voted to pursue legal action against the companies that produce, distribute and develop advertising for the prescription painkillers.
“As elected officials, it is our responsibility to protect constituents from those who wish to take advantage of their pain to make a quick dollar,” Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said in a statement Monday. “The filing of this lawsuit is a first step to recovery.”
Travis County’s lawsuit joined the fray shortly after settlement talks began last week on more than 250 federal lawsuits filed against pharmaceutical companies and distributors over the nation’s opioid epidemic. The attorneys general of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia were in court last week for the start of negotiations.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland has been assigned to oversee what many plaintiffs hope will be a global settlement with the pharmaceutical industry that would also encompass lawsuits filed in state courts. Comparisons are being made to the 1998 lawsuit settlement against tobacco companies that resulted in an agreement to pay $206 billion to 46 states over a 25-year period.
It was not immediately clear Monday whether Travis County’s lawsuit would be incorporated into those settlement talks or handled separately. Travis County Attorney David Escamilla, Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore and outside counsel will work on the case.
Communities across the country have been ravaged by an epidemic that involves highly addictive painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin, their generic equivalents and deadly street drugs like fentanyl and heroin. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said 42,000 people died of opioid overdoses in 2016, a number that’s expected to climb even higher once 2017 deaths are tallied later this year.
-
Sturbridge, Dudley join opioid lawsuit against pharmaceutical makers
Feb 5, 2018 | Telegram & Gazette
By Craig S. Semon & Debbie LaPlaca
Sturbridge and Dudley are the latest Central Massachusetts towns to vote to sign on to litigation against pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors over the opioid crisis.
Charlton and Southbridge officials already have agreed to join a mass tort lawsuit targeting the pharmaceutical industry. Monday, Sturbridge and Dudley selectmen followed suit.
In Sturbridge, the vote was 5-0.
“I would personally like to join the opioid litigation,” Sturbridge Selectman Mary B. Dowling said during Monday’s meeting. “I read it over and I think it’s just a win-win for the town. I don’t see any drawback to it.”
“I agree,” Selectman Priscilla C. Gimas said.
“It looks like a very positive thing for the town,” Selectman Michael G. Suprenant added. “I’m glad the other towns are supporting it.”
Meanwhile, during the meeting of the Dudley Board of Selectmen on Monday, Town Administrator Greg L. Balukonis said the town need not bear the cost of litigation. The lawyers, he said, would take 25 percent of any recovered monetary damages.
The mass tort litigation is being filed through the Massachusetts Opioid Litigation Attorneys, a consortium of lawyers suing large pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors on behalf of the taxpayers of individual municipalities. The civil cases are being brought throughout the country, on the claim that the pharmaceutical industry minimized the dangers of opioids when it flooded the market.
If the effort is unsuccessful, then the town of Sturbridge would owe nothing, Sturbridge Town Administrator Leon A. Gaumond Jr. stated in a memo to selectmen.
The MOLA consortium involves, on a local basis, the firms of Rodman, Rodman & Sandman of Malden and Sweeney Merrigan of Greenfield and Boston, according to Lauren F. Goldberg of KP Law, the firm that serves as Sturbridge town counsel.
“The opioid epidemic has reached a crisis level. Every municipality in Massachusetts is in some manner addressing the devastating impacts of this problem, from education to treatment, with costs being incurred by police, fire, public health, and school departments, among others. While this is a national issue, it is most definitely a local problem,” according to an online update from KP Law.
The damages sought on behalf of individual cities and towns are for past costs including law enforcement, needle exchanges, Narcan, ambulance services, treatment services and the like, as well as future mitigation or abatement costs for the foreseeable expenditures of taxpayer dollars toward treatment, education and prevention.
-
Marblehead joins national opioid lawsuit
Feb 5, 2018 | Wicked Local Marblehead (MA)
By Chris Stevens
A legal consortium takes aim at recouping expenses from manufacturers tied to the epidemic
Marblehead has joined a number of other cities and towns by signing onto a lawsuit aimed at trying to help communities recoup some of the expenses tied to the opioid crisis.
“We’re at no risk,” Town Administrator John McGinn told the Board of Selectmen during a recent meeting. “This is all done on a contingency basis.”
McGinn said Town Counsel was approached about joining in a series of lawsuits where legal teams are going after opioid manufacturers. However, the lawsuits are not focused on the individual and often heartbreaking stories and families tied to the epidemic. This suit is concerned about the communities that are suffering financially under the same burden.
“In addition to the devastation caused to families, this crisis has placed enormous economic burdens on already limited public resources,” said Attorney Richard Sandman, of Rodman, Rodman & Sandman out of Malden.
The increase in opioid use and abuse has resulted in communities paying out-of-pocket for things like NARCAN, police task forces, education programs and first responder training, Sandman explained.
NARCAN is an FDA approved nasal spray that when applied, counteracts the effects of an opioid overdose. It’s a prime element in helping those with opioid addiction. Unfortunately, it’s very expensive and cities and towns are paying for it on their own.
Marblehead Police Chief Robert Picariello said his department keeps NARCAN on hand for when they visit homes, post overdose. They will offer to leave some. He said when he last purchased it it cost about $70 per pack, which consisted of two-4mg doses. He said he hasn’t seen the need impact his budget yet, “but it may in future years.”
McGinn said he couldn’t begin to to estimate what the financial costs have been for the community. Sandman’s firm will work with town officials to identify costs, McGinn said before adding, “This is nothing unique to Marblehead. It’s clearly been a problem for us just as it is for, well, I would say every community.”
Currently there are about 30 cities and towns that have signed the lawsuit and Sandman is expecting more to come.
The legal team, according to Sandman, is a consortium of six national and two local law firms.
“Our local team, known as MOLA (Massachusetts Opioid Litigation Attorneys), consists of Sweeney Merrigan Law and my firm, Rodman, Rodman & Sandman, which has represented municipalities in contamination cases for many years,” he said.
Communities all over the country have been submitting complaints on behalf of manufacturers and distributors of opioids. According to Sandman, often times doctors will treat opioid addiction with more opioids.
“Distributors and manufacturers are required by the Controlled Substance Act (CSA), to report suspicious orders of opioids,” he added. “Although many haven’t been reporting it. That’s a crime.”
The lawsuit will hold the manufacturers and distributors of three major corporations accountable, Sandman said.
Sandman also noted this is a lawsuit, not a class action suit.
“That’s misconception,” he said. “It’s a litigation.”
Sandman said they are filing cases in the federal courts in Massachusetts which are then being consolidated nationally in a Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) for pretrial, discovery, and possible settlement discussions.
“We believe the MDL offers Massachusetts cities and towns the best opportunity to achieve the greatest results while lessening the litigation burdens placed upon them,” he said.
This lawsuit seeks to help with past and future damages, meaning to provide funds for future problems while trying to fix past ones, Sandman said.
They are only going after the manufacturers and distributors to hold them accountable for the harm that they’ve caused, he added. The lawsuit will be sent to Ohio to be reviewed and if a settlement is not reached, then the lawsuit will return to Massachusetts for trial.
“Frankly, I don’t think anyone is looking at this as way to get a windfall,” McGinn said.
Selectman Judy Jacobi asked if there were any time frame for the suit, but McGinn shook his head.
“We really don’t know,” he said. “It could go on for awhile.”
-
Westchester alleges Big Pharma key to deadly opioid crisis that cost tax dollars to fight
Feb 6, 2018 | Lohud (NY)
By David Robinson
Westchester County is set to sue pharmaceutical companies for misleading the public during an opioid and heroin crisis that has drained tax dollars and killed hundreds in the county.
County officials recently announced that the lawsuit is being filed in state Supreme Court in Westchester. It joins the list of more than 200 cases across the country making similar claims that Big Pharma was key to the historic drug crisis underway.
The lawsuit will target more than 30 companies that manufactured and distributed drugs, and claim they intentionally misled the public about the dangers of opioids, county officials said.
Westchester is seeking unspecified damages. County officials alleged pharma companies' illicit behavior led to significant spikes in budgets for law enforcement, emergency care, opioid-antidote training, and addiction prevention and treatment programs.
Opioid litigation, which started as a trickle, reached a flood last year when about 250 cities, counties and states sued opioid makers, wholesalers, distributors and marketers, USA Today Network reported.
Opioid Lawsuits Filed By Governments List and Map
The lawsuits accuse the companies of misleading health care professionals and the public by marketing opioids as rarely addictive and a safe substitute for non-addictive pain medications, such as ibuprofen.
The companies deny the claims and say litigation should be halted until the Food and Drug Administration-ordered studies on the long-term risks and benefits of opioids are completed.
Experts say the sheer number of opioid lawsuits could lead some companies to settle.
"The litigation costs must be killing them," said Richard Ausness, a professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law. "The problem is that a settlement with some plaintiffs will only cause more plaintiffs to sue."
The pharma lawsuits come after pain-pill prescriptions dropped in New York from 2012 to 2016, while many doctors and lawmakers focused on cutting off the supply of opioids.
Nationally, the total number of prescriptions peaked in 2012 at about 255 million and a rate of 81 prescriptions per 100 persons.
Then in 2016, the national prescribing rate fell to 66.5 prescriptions per 100 people, the lowest it had been in more than a decade, federal data showed.
New York State’s rate was even lower at 42.7 prescriptions per 100 people in 2016. That same year, Westchester and Rockland counties had prescribing rates of 35 and 34.6, respectively.
The decline in opioid prescribing rates, however, didn’t translate into fewer deaths. Many struggling with addiction turned to the cheaper and deadlier illicit heroin and fentanyl being smuggled into the U.S. in record amounts by Mexican drug cartels.
The number of fatal overdoses increased in Westchester and Rockland to 143 in 2016, up from 110 in 2015, The Journal News/lohud reported.
-
Indiana county files opioid epidemic lawsuit against 20+ drugmakers, distributors
Feb 5, 2018 | Becker's Hospital Review
By Brian Zimmerman
Indianapolis-based attorneys retained by Marshal County, Ind., recently filed a 165-page lawsuit against more than 20 drugmakers and distributors for the companies' alleged roles in facilitating the overuse of opioids, according to a report published Sunday by the South Bend Tribune.
The lawsuit alleges the companies created a false perception among providers and patients about the safety of opioid use to generate "blockbuster profits."
"Manufacturer defendants knew that to increase their profits from the sale of opioids they would need to convince doctors and patients that long-term opioid therapy was safe and effective," the lawsuit says, according to the report.
The lawsuit seeks to recoup county funds expended responding to the crisis. The county saw one opioid-related fatal overdose in 2015, 13 such overdoses in 2016 and 16 in 2017.
-
Litigation may be just what the doctor ordered for opioid crisis
Feb 6, 2018 | WNDU 16
By Mark Peterson
We’ve heard a lot about the victims of the opioid crisis but are there villains to the story as well?
On Tuesday morning, the St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners will meet behind closed doors to talk about taking legal action that would attempt to put some of the blame for the opioid crisis on drug makers and distributors.
Last fall, the City of Indianapolis filed suit against big pharma, and two weeks ago, a similar suit was filed on behalf of Marshall County.
On Tuesday, St. Joseph County officials will talk about the possibility of following suit.
“Just some of the tragedies that we've seen over the last couple of years, with the Savage boys and other similar type of things where just the overabundance of opioids and the ease in which they're being able to be gotten is just leading to some really dire situations for us,” said Bd. of Commissioners President Andrew Kostielney.
The dire situation in Marshall County is already documented in a civil suit filed against a couple dozen drug makers and distributors on January 25th.
The suit contends that the number of prescription drug overdose deaths in Marshall County went from one in 2015, to 16 last year.
The suit further calculates an opioid prescription rate for Marshall County that in 2013 equaled 102 prescriptions for every 100 residents.
“And then the distributors who have a duty under the controlled substance act to stop and report suspicious orders of opioids and they didn't do that so now you have counties in Indiana that have 150, 200 opioid prescriptions per 100 people in the county. I mean the numbers are just shocking,” said Attorney Lynn A. Toops with Cohen and Malad, LLP in Indianapolis.
It’s the kind of ‘shocking stuff’ that more and more lawsuits seem to be made of.
“We're looking to kind of join what a lot of other entities have done across the state, to maybe try and hold accountable some of the individuals who, some of the corporations who may be responsible for this,” said Commissioner Kostielney.
The Marshall County suit contends a deceptive marketing campaign was used to minimize the risks and encourage the use of opioids to treat long-term chronic pain.
“The prescription manufacturers are responsible for creating this false notion that opioids weren’t addictive and can be used for long term chronic pain when prior to that message being spread by them that certainly was not the case,” said Attorney Toops.
The suit brought by Marshall County does not request a specific amount of damages other than those necessary to reimburse the county for increased drug treatment, law enforcement, family counseling, and public assistance costs.
-
Osceola County first in state to file suit against 21 pharmaceutical companies for opioid crisis
Feb 6, 2018 | WFTV 9 ABC (FL)
By Jeff Deal
Osceola County is the first in Florida to move forward with a lawsuit against 21 pharmaceutical companies.
Leaders say ads by these companies were inducing consumers to buy addictive drugs.
Those behind the lawsuit said this is all a case of corporate greed, where the companies care more about profit more than the well-being of consumers.
Among the companies being sued is Purdue Pharmaceuticals, the maker of OxyContin.
Purdue Pharmaceuticals released the following statement:
“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% of the total opioid prescriptions, as a company, we’ve distributed the CDC Guideline for Prescribing the 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.”
The county claims in the lawsuit the opioid crisis is costing taxpayers money.
On the streets of Osceola County, the grip of opioid addiction is strong.
“Coming off it, you get very sick, bone aches, diarrhea, nausea. It’s a horrible, horrible drug,” said Dr. Tom Griffin.
Griffin runs the Transition House, a treatment facility based in St. Cloud.
He believes the opioid problem is worse than crack cocaine ever was, with some people moving from pain pills to heroin and even fentanyl.
“As you mix heroin with fentanyl it’s a lethal concoction,” said Griffin.
County officials call it a crisis and argues drug companies put their desires for making money above the health and well-being of customers by using a deceptive and unfair marketing campaign to get doctors and patients to use the powerful pain pulls to treat chronic pain long term, rather than just short term as was originally intended.
The county said the opioid problem has resulted in increased costs for healthcare, law enforcement, courts and emergency crews, which now carry the drug Narcan to fight overdoses.
It hopes the lawsuit will force the drugmakers to cover those costs and change the way they do business.
Teva Pharmaceuticals, also named in the lawsuit, released the following statement:
"Teva is committed to the appropriate use of opioid medicines, and we recognize the critical public health issues impacting communities across the U.S. as a result of illegal drug use as well as the misuse and abuse of opioids that are available legally by prescription. To that end, we take a multi-faceted approach to this complex issue; we work to educate communities and healthcare providers on appropriate medicine use and prescribing, we comply closely with all relevant federal and state regulations regarding these medicines, and, through our R&D pipeline, we are developing non-opioid treatments that have the potential to bring relief to patients in chronic pain. Teva also collaborates closely with other stakeholders, including providers and prescribers, regulators, public health officials and patient advocates, to understand how to prevent prescription drug abuse without sacrificing patients’ needed access to pain medicine."
Another company named in the lawsuit, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, said they believe the claims against the company "are both legally and factually unfounded."
"Janssen has acted in the best interests of patients and physicians with regard to its opioid pain medicines, which are FDA-approved and carry FDA-mandated warnings about possible risks on every product label," wrote Jessica Castles Smith, a company spokeswoman.
"According to independent surveillance data, Janssen opioid pain medicines consistently have some of the lowest rates of abuse among these medications, and since 2008 the volume of Janssen opioid products always has amounted to less than one percent of the total prescriptions written per year for opioid medications, including generics. Addressing opioid abuse will require collaboration among many stakeholders and we will continue to work with federal, state and local officials to support solutions."
-
Alachua County Sues Pharmaceutical Companies Over Opioid Epidemic
Feb 6, 2018 | WUFT (FL)
By Meredith Sheldon
Alachua County is one of the first Florida counties to sue pharmaceutical makers and distributors as a result of the opioid epidemic.
The county filed a complaint last week in circuit civil court naming more than a dozen defendants, from manufacturers to individual doctors. It alleges the defendants spent millions of dollars falsely marketing opioids as long-term, safe and non-addictive drugs.
Osceola County has also filed suit at the state level. Joseph Ciaccio, an attorney with the law firm Napoli Shkolnik, signed professional service contracts with both Alachua and Osceola counties. His firm represents about 100 other counties nationwide in state-level litigation.
From the Panhandle to South Florida, at least nine other counties are considering filing a lawsuit but have not yet done so.
Ciaccio said Alachua County’s legal action is a step in ending the opioid epidemic.
“I think it would be very hard to find anywhere in Florida that hasn’t been severely affected by the flooding of opioid prescriptions,” he said. “Across the country, there is enough for basically every American to have a prescription.”
At its Dec. 12 meeting, Alachua County commissioners discussed how it wanted to approach the epidemic and lawsuit.
The State Attorney General’s Office has not yet jumped into the litigation, but Alachua County Attorney Sylvia Torres said getting ahead of the state may give the county a leg up.
“If we wait, [the state] will settle for us and not let us get involved,” she said. “Getting involved before the state gives us a chance to be at the table.”
If the county were to lose in court, taxpayers would not be on the hook; the contract calls for the county to pay 25 percent of the fees if it earns a settlement or judgment.
Ciaccio said he can’t disclose how much money his firm and the county are looking to extract from the defendants. But millions of dollars, he said, “would be a safe assumption.”Why Alachua County?
According to the most recent Medical Examiners Commission Drug Report, about 200,000 people died from opioids in Florida in 2016.
The District 8 medical examiner’s office, headquartered in Gainesville and covering six counties, saw a total of 96 deaths from opioids like heroin, fentanyl, methadone and others in 2016, according to the report.
“We have not had the spikes some of the other counties have had,” Torres said. “We have not been hit in the way some of the communities have been hit.”
Still, the county is taking precautionary action.
“If it’s not here, it’s going to be here,” county commissioner Charles Chestnut said. “Just like any other drugs that were across the state of Florida eventually wind up in Gainesville. It’s coming.”A repeat of big tobacco?
The tobacco industry took more than a $200 billion hit in the late 1990s when 46 states successfully sued for false advertising campaigns and health-care costs.
Is the same happening with opioids?
Ciaccio said there are similarities to the cases, but from his perspective the opioid epidemic is more dramatic and severe.
“The damage caused by opioids in terms of overdoses just doesn’t exist with tobacco,” he said. “You don’t have people overdosing and dying the first time they use tobacco.”
Counties are dealing with some of the largest corporations in the country, some of which have paid massive fines to the federal government and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Ciaccio said.
For example, Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, paid $600 million in fines in 2007 for misinforming doctors and regulators about risks, according to the New York Times.
McKesson agreed in 2017 to pay a $150 million settlement for suspicious orders of drugs, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
“There’s no one smoking gun,” Ciaccio said. “Even the company isn’t denying the damage they caused.”
For its part, Endo, one of the dozen or so companies named in Alachua County’s suit, has pushed back. Its chief legal officer, Matthew Maletta, wrote to the Ohio attorney general in November: “Your letter’s assertion that the pharmaceutical industry caused this epidemic is – at best – a stunning oversimplification.”The lawsuit’s timeline
Ciaccio said Alachua and other counties pursuing litigation are seeking recovery for resources to end opioid addictions.
Along with costs to local healthcare and law enforcement, Ciaccio said programs for substance abuse, child services, and education are needed.
According to a Jan. 31 Bloomberg story, Judge Daniel Poster in Cleveland is monitoring all cases on the federal and state levels in hopes of solving what’s likely to be a complicated legal battle.
Ciaccio said he hopes for a speedy resolution, but also expects “this could be a battle that’s going to take several years.”
-
Columbus Co. makes decision on law group to represent county in fight against opioids
Feb 6, 2018 | WECT (NC)
By Kailey Tracy
The Columbus County Board of Commissioners chose a law group to represent the county in the fight against opioids at Monday night’s meeting.
The McHugh Fuller Law Group was selected. Mike Fuller of the McHugh Fuller firm gave a presentation to the board in January, saying his group would file a complaint on behalf of the county against opioid manufacturers and wholesale distributors for their role in the manufacturing, distribution and promotion of opioids.
Terry Hutchens of the Hutchens Law Firm was scheduled to present to the board Monday night, but the firm said before the meeting it was withdrawing its request.
Board Chairman Amon McKenzie said the top priority in this decision is fighting the crisis head on.
“We want to make sure that everything is fair and equitable," McKenzie said. "We know that the opioid situation the way it is has caused some harm in our communities and we want to make sure that we are well represented so that we can reap the benefits for our people."
According to McKenzie, the county has had a seminar on the opioid crisis, and will hold three more meetings in the next few months. The sheriff’s office, health department, county leaders, members of the public and healthcare agencies came to the first meeting and are invited to the others as well, McKenzie said.
The meetings are necessary to hear suggestions about how to fight the crisis and inform the public, according to McKenzie.
“I do believe that we’re headed in the right direction," he said. "We have the ear of the people, and once you have the ear of the people, then you’re able to educate them. The next thing is to take action and of course, take necessary actions to rid ourselves of this problem.
“I’m not that naïve to believe that it will totally go away overnight. It took time to get it in place and it’s going to take time to rid us of it but we’ll be more educated, armed with information, to move us forward.”
-
Feb 5, 2018 | News Topic (NC)
By Virginia Annable
Caldwell County is the latest North Carolina county to join a national lawsuit against opioid drug companies.
The Caldwell County Board of Commissioners voted Monday to declare the opioid crisis a public nuisance, which gives them authority to take action against it. That action comes in the form of a lawsuit against drug manufacturers and distributors, which the commissioners voted to join.
The remainder of this article is under paywall at: http://www.newstopicnews.com/news/local/caldwell-joins-opioid-lawsuit/article_4ad0995c-0adc-11e8-9e0f-bfe6b5fe74d9.html
-
Williamsburg County to enter into opioid litigation
Feb 6, 2018 | South Carolina Now (SC)
By Shamira McCray
The Williamsburg County Council voted Monday evening to enter into opioid litigation with the Law Offices of Cezar McKnight and others. Lead counsel in the litigation is Mark Bern.
McKnight, a state senator, had spoken last month to the council at a meeting. At that time, the council voted to enter into the litigation with McKnight, pending recommendation from its attorney W. E. Jenkinson.
But the council entertained a presentation Monday evening from Charles Whetstone of Whetstone, Perkins and Fulda LLC, a separate firm that was interested in the council joining its litigation.
McKnight spoke again to the council Monday, in addition to other members of his group.
The approach of McKnight’s group is to file in state court with the hopes of having county citizens decide whether anybody needs to be held accountable for the opioid crisis. Whetstone has a multi-district litigation approach.
Litigation has been sparked by the nation’s current opioid issue. According to Whetstone, South Carolina is one of the highest opioid-prescribing states in the nation. He said there were three opioid-related deaths in Williamsburg County in 2016.
Attorney Ben Shelton of Hilton Head Island, who is part of McKnight’s group, said in 2016, there were 23 or 25 Narcan injections in Williamsburg County. The drug is used to treat narcotic overdose.
“There’s no doubt that Williamsburg County has a problem. Now, it’s not just Williamsburg County,” Shelton said. “There’s nothing wrong with Williamsburg County. As you good and well know, every single county in the state has a problem. So you as public servants have to decide how to deal with that problem and how best to deal with that problem.”
Shelton said 20 defendants are named in the group’s more-than-220-page complaint, which will be filed this morning in Beaufort County. Within the group are lawyers such as Vincent Sheheen and Ronnie Maxwell of Aiken, Shelton said.
“So far, all of Orangeburg, also Barnwell, Beaufort and Allendale have signed for us to pursue litigation,” Shelton said. “Again, we’re bringing this on a county level. That means we’re doing a good amount of work with local players to make sure that our complaint includes specific damages and specific facts for each county.”
Shelton said the group is doing everything it can to avoid multi-district litigation.
McKnight said any settlement agreement that is reached with the county has to be approved by the plaintiffs, which includes Williamsburg County.
“Like I’ve explained to you before, the financial liability for the county for this representation is zero. All costs are paid for,” McKnight said. “It’s a contingency basis, meaning we don’t get money unless we get money for the county."
-
Hamlin, West Hamlin sue pill companies
Feb 6, 2018 | The Lincoln Journal (WV)
By Sean O'Donoghue
Lincoln County’s two municipalities last week joined a long list of counties and cities in the region who are suing pain pill manufacturers and distributors. Attorney Truman Chafin filed the actions in the office of Lincoln County Circuit Clerk Charles Brumfield, shortly before 10 a.m., Wednesday morning, January 31, 2018.
County Commission last year. Since then, that suit has been subject to jurisdictional tussles, with lawyers and courts arguing on whether the case should be removed to federal court or remain in state court. The original county commission filing sought to have the case tried before a Lincoln County jury.
As well as the Williamson-based Chafin law Firm, the two municipalities are being represented by Mark Troy of the The Troy Law Firm, Harry F. Bell of The Bell Law Firm, and the Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group.
In a statement to The Lincoln Journal last week, Chafin said the lawsuit would seek to recover damages for what he described as the "economic burden” shouldered by the two towns, which he said were "ground zero of the opioid epidemic.” He noted that West Virginia has the highest drug overdose rate in the nation, leads the nation in fatal drug overdoses, and is the most medicated state. In addition, Chafin said 35 percent of newborns are drug addicted, and 90 percent of circuit court criminal cases involve drug abuse.
According to Chafin, the defendants named in the actions by the two towns distributed 2,543,400 doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone in Lincoln County from 2007 to 2012. He added that the defendants made hundreds of billions of dollars in profits, 17 billion of which were revenues made by shipping over 432,000,000 doses of pain medication to West Virginia during the same years. The two towns are to seek not only compensatory but also punitive damages from the drug companies for what Chafin said were "intentional and reckless acts.”
The two cases have been assigned to Lincoln County Chief Circuit Judge Jay Hoke. The Town of Hamlin case, 18-C-9, is brought by David Adkins in his capacity as mayor. The West Hamlin case, 18-C-8, is brought by Farris Burton in his capacity as mayor. Both lawsuits seek trials by jury.
Named as defendants in the lawsuits filed the two towns are the following corporate entities, a state agency, and an individual who previously operated a pharmacy in the county seat:
Purdue
Teva
Cephalon
Janssen
Ortho-McNeil-Janssen
Noramco
Johnson & Johnson
Mallinckrodt
Endo
Insta
Allergen
Watson
Activists
McKesson
Cardinal Health
AmerisourceBergen
Miami-Luken
Rite Aid of Maryland
WV Board of Pharmacy
Chip RX
City Center Pharmacy
George W. Chapman, III -
Beshear, Bevin Each Claim Stonewalling On Opioid Litigation
Feb 5, 2018 | Kentucky Public Radio (KY)
By Lisa Gillespie
After months of back and forth between Gov. Matt Bevin and Attorney General Andy Beshear on how to move forward with lawsuits against opioid distributors and manufacturers, both sides are accusing the other of stalling the process.
It began last summer when Beshear announced he would sue Endo Pharmaceuticals and McKesson Corporation for their role in the opioid epidemic.
Typically the attorney general’s office hires outside law firms to do the leg work in such cases, and requests the approval of the administration to pay the firms if the suits are successful. Bevin’s administration denied those requests, and in January, the attorney general’s office filed for a temporary injunction to allow Beshear to move forward on hiring the outside attorneys.
A Franklin Circuit Court judge in January ordered Bevin’s administration and the attorney general’s office to attempt to negotiate and come up with an agreement before moving forward in the courts. One of those negotiations happened Monday morning. But during the meeting, Bevin’s office issued a letter stating that the governor would sue opioid distributors.
“Any future actions against opioid manufacturers or distributors will be filed on behalf of both the Governor’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office,” Stephen Pitt, general counsel for the Commonwealth of Kentucky wrote. “The Governor’s Office and Attorney General’s Office will each exercise veto power over questions of legal strategy in all actions against opioid manufacturers.”
Terry Sebastian, spokesman for the attorney’s general office, said the letter from the state was sent out at the same time attorneys from both sides were meeting to negotiate how to contract outside law firms for the opioid suits.
“This is another thinly veiled power grab, where the governor claims he wants cooperation, but demands veto power over the attorney general’s lawsuits. At this point, we are used to the governor’s antics,” Sebastian wrote in an email. “General Beshear is recognized as a national leader in this effort, and he will continue to do his job.”
Last week, Deputy Attorney General Michael Brown sent Pitt a letter detailing a proposed compromise. It included an agreement to seek any damages the Bevin administration suggested, and to meet regularly with the governor’s office to discuss legal strategy. Brown asked in return that the governor not file competing litigation against opioid companies, not deny funds to hire outside law firms, and aid in gathering evidence.
The letter also stated that Bevin’s administration had begun looking for information on McKesson Corporation and other companies manufacturing and dispensing of opioids to potentially build a lawsuit. The Attorney General’s office said it could provide that information.
“Which would prevent the taxpayers … from bearing any expense of such an assessment and foreclose the possibility of conflicting litigation,” Brown wrote in the letter.
Sebastian from the attorney general’s office said their attorneys are still reviewing the letter released on Monday.
-
County lawsuits on opioids reminiscent of tobacco lawsuits
Feb 6, 2018 | Maryland Reporter (MD)
By Jo martin
Five Maryland counties, Baltimore City, and possibly the state, are suing manufacturers and distributors of addictive painkillers for their roles in creating the opioid epidemic that has hit Maryland particularly hard. Other jurisdictions are likely to follow.
Legal action is at the top of Gov. Larry Hogan’s 2018 tactics for getting a handle on the crisis. He directed Attorney General Brian Frosh to initiate a lawsuit, but in a continuation of their public tiff, Frosh said he was planning to do so but cannot proceed because the governor denied funding for additional staff.
Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Cecil, Harford, and Montgomery counties claim the pharmaceutical industry expedited the epidemic by hiding or minimizing addiction risks yet aggressively marketed their products to the public and medical professionals. The counties are requesting financial relief for their costs of responding.
As many as 200 U.S. cities and counties have filed or plan to file so far.
The David versus Goliath tactic is reminiscent of the 1990s when every state joined a suit against the tobacco industry. The $246 billion settlement against 13 corporations was reached after four years of maneuvering. The payout, which will continue as long as cigarettes are sold in this country, is divided according to a complex formula. Maryland has received roughly $160 million annually for a total of $2.5 billion thus far.
As with the tobacco settlement, jurisdictions filing opioid-related suits use staff or local attorneys to work with national firms experienced in high-stakes class actions. Generally, there are no fees unless a settlement is reached, at which point the outside firms take up to 48% of the award.
Local actions
Here is a rundown of local actions so far. In parenthesis are third quarter 2017 opioid-related intoxication deaths from the Maryland Behavioral Health Administration.
Anne Arundel County (145 deaths) went first when it filed on Jan. 3 in county circuit court. The suit names some of the largest addictive painkiller producers as well as local physicians and practices but does not request specific damages. The Washington, D.C., office of California-based Motley Rice has been retained. The firm’s co-founder, Joe Rice, worked on the tobacco settlement.
Baltimore City (523 deaths) filed its suit Jan. 31 in Baltimore Circuit Court. It names five drug makers, three distributors, and two physicians running pain clinics in Towson and Owings MIlls. City Solicitor Andre Davis, a former federal judge, will be active throughout the litigation. The city asks the court to order defendants to change the way they do business. Davis said any financial award will go toward the mounting costs of policing and health care.
Baltimore County (238) Jan. 8 announced its intention to file in federal district court and will seek consolidation for trial. The counsel of record is Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, which represents cities and counties in Michigan, Florida, and Arizona in opioid suits. Robbins Geller also is retained by Montgomery County.
The firm calls itself “Gladiators of the Courtroom” and posts images of the Roman Coliseum on its web site. Local counsel is Silverman, Thompson, Slutkin & White. The county council was scheduled to vote on the suit Monday night.
Cecil County (43 deaths) filed in federal court on Jan. 5. Primary counsel is the Dallas-based firm Baron & Budd, known for aggressive class action litigation. The suit names 20 manufacturers and three distributors and invokes the federal Violations of Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) for failing to maintain controls against diverting drugs for illegal use.
On Jan. 9, Harford County executive Barry Glassman instructed the legal department to draw up requests for proposals for outside counsel. A county spokesperson said Harford will not join a class action suit.
Montgomery County announced its selection of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd on December 12. Next steps have not been announced.
The Columbia Flier/Baltimore Sun reported Monday that Howard County is interviewing lawyers to pursue its own lawsuit.
Big guns, big money, and a big oversight
In 1994, a colleague dared Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore to take on the tobacco industry. Detractors called it a suicide mission, but he couldn’t resist. As attorney general, Moore advanced the unprecedented strategy to hold multi-billion companies, like Philip Morris and R. J. Reynolds, liable for the large-scale damage their products cause.
Mississippi was the first state to file. Other attorneys general were encouraged, and Moore eventually was the organizer and primary negotiator in the suit that involved every state and enough big guns and consultants to fill a corporate business center.
Afterward, Mike Moore left public service and formed a private practice in Jackson, Miss.
The fact that he has met with at least 30 attorneys general in the last year and is forming another legal team, including pals from the tobacco suit and experts familiar with the pharmaceutical industry, is perhaps the clearest indication that something big is coming.
Moore has said, “Litigation is a blunt instrument; it’s not a surgical tool. But it provokes interest quicker than anything I’ve ever seen.”
He acknowledges that a flaw in the tobacco settlement is shaping the opioid litigations. In 1998, the plan was for states to share payouts with local jurisdictions, but that did not happen. The money went into state coffers, and that’s where it stayed.
This time around, plaintiffs primarily are cities and counties who want to engage directly with manufacturers and distributors. And Moore’s group is not the only class action option. Others are forming by court mandate and aggressive marketing.
Chicago, NYC, West Virginia and others
The city of Chicago filed the first opioid-related suit in 2014, and it continues to move forward slowly, thanks to lengthy challenges by defendants. New York City filed the latest suit at the end of January, asking for $500 million.
Two years ago, West Virginia reached a $40 million settlement with 14 drug distributors for flooding rural areas with addictive painkillers. Other jurisdictions there are preparing their own legal actions.
Arkansas counties are moving forward after county judges voted unanimously to support litigation. In the mix are 37 counties in Kentucky; 29 in Wisconsin; Salt Lake County, Utah; York County, Pa.; and Seattle, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati.
From January through September 2017, Maryland’s Behavioral Health Administration recorded 1,501 opioid-related deaths, compared to 1,344 for the same period the year before. Total overdose fatalities in 2016 were 2,089.
Federal statistics show about 80% of people who abuse opioid painkillers switch to cheaper and more available street drugs, particularly heroin.
While this pattern seems to be leveling, fentanyl and carfentanil alone or in combinations are seen more frequently than at any other time. The annual cost to the nation is close to $500 billion, according the federal statistics released in November.
-
An opioid settlement presents some concerns (EDITORIAL)
Feb 6, 2018 | HeraldNet (WA)
By Editorial Board
A federal judge in Cleveland, Ohio, who is presiding over the lawsuit by some 200 cities, counties and states against the makers and distributors of prescription opioids — including the city of Everett’s suit against OxyContin maker Perdue Pharma — is asking all sides to broker a settlement and avoid a long and costly trial.
The city of Everett, the state of Washington and scores of others have alleged that the makers and distributors of opioid prescriptions promoted opioids to medical professionals as a safe and effective painkiller with a low risk for addiction and then too often turned a blind eye toward pill mills and doctors who were prescribing opioids at indefensible rates in order to rake in sales and generate profits.
More than just determining the size of a payout, Judge Dan Polster, serving on the bench since 1998, said he’s seeking the settlement to rein in the nation’s opioid epidemic and reduce the number of prescription opioids that are being misused and are creating and feeding addictions.
Such a settlement could go a long way toward beginning to reverse the opioid crisis, especially at a time when the Trump administration has declared the crisis a “national emergency” but has identified little in the way of resources that could help communities respond to the emergency.
One problem with a settlement: It would have to be massive to produce any effective outcome.
A Harvard Medical School health economist, Anupam Jena, estimates it would take $250 billion annually to make a meaningful dent in the crisis, providing support for treatment, support of law enforcement and compensation to victim’s families, Bloomberg reported last week.
Even a more modest estimate by Matrix Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based economic policy consulting firm, put the annual national cost of the opioid epidemic at $55 billion. In Washington state, which had the third-highest opioid abuse rate among states in 2010-11, Matrix estimated the annual costs at $977 million, or $138 for every man, woman and child in the state.
Compare those figures against the 1998 settlement in the lawsuit between the attorneys general of 46 states and the four largest U.S. tobacco companies. Big Tobacco agreed to pay a minimum of $206 billion over the first 25 years of the settlement. That 25-year amount, a record by any standard, wouldn’t cover the first four years of costs for the opioid crisis.
The tobacco settlement does offer some guidance on how to structure any payout. While a significant portion of funds were intended for cessation and prevention programs and enforcement of state laws on tobacco use, too little of that amount now goes to those programs in Washington state. Of the $563 million that the state will receive in 2018 from the settlement and its $3.02-a-pack tax on cigarettes, it has budgeted only $1.4 million for youth prevention and cessation programs.
Judge Polster should give some attention to how any settlement funds are allocated, assuring that — after the attorneys get their cut — most goes to support treatment and prevention programs and compensation to victims and the cities and counties that have borne extreme costs in fighting the consequences of the opioid crisis.
As much good as such an agreement among the opioid industry and plaintiffs could do, such settlements typically involve a condition that can leave nagging questions unanswered. Perdue Pharma and others, including fellow makers Johnson & Johnson, Endo International and distributors McKesson Corp. and Cardinal Health, in agreeing to a settlement are likely to require they be allowed to admit no wrong-doing in the epidemic.
The judge needs to painstakingly weigh such a statement of no-fault against the good that an agreement could provide.
Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who filed suit on behalf of the state in September, last month was successful in unsealing court documents that go toward showing Perdue’s complicity in the crisis. Among the information in court documents that involved Everett doctors:
Perdue was aware as early as 2008 that an Everett doctor had written more than 1,000 OxyContin prescriptions in a six-month period, but did not report the doctor to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency until 2011. The doctor, Delbert Whetstone, pleaded guilty to unlawful distribution of controlled substances in 2012.
Perdue increased its sales contacts with another Everett doctor, who between 2007 and 2016 wrote more than 10,000 prescriptions for opioids, 26 times more than the average among Everett prescribers. Further, Perdue recruited the doctor, Donald Dillinger, to encourage his peers to prescribe more opioids. Dillinger was disciplined by the state Medical Quality Assurance Commission in 2017.
Everett will not be shown to be an isolated case. What happened here happened across the country.
For Perdue and the others to begin to atone for the harm suffered throughout the nation and right here in Everett, a settlement that allows the makers and distributors of prescription opioids to avoid admitting their part in this crisis will have to come with a very high price tag.
-
Drug dealers among us: Look for those wearing lab coats or pinstripe suits (EDITORIAL)
Feb 6, 2018 | The Hill
By Jonathan Caulkins & Keith Humphrey's
In his State of the Union speech, President Trump cited the 64,000 drug overdose deaths that occurred in 2016 and enjoined, “We must get much tougher on drug dealers and pushers.”
Members of Congress applauded, but neither the president nor Congress appears to notice that the biggest drug dealers wear white lab coats or pinstripe suits, not hoodies or the gang garb of street-level dealers. The majority of those 64,000 victims first became addicted while using drugs that were produced by pharmaceutical companies and prescribed by doctors.
In the 1990s, U.S. opioid manufacturers successfully convinced a generation of doctors that opioids could be safely prescribed in ways they never had been before. Before that time, opioids were used primarily to treat acute pain, cancer pain and the terminally ill. Then the health care system began giving these highly addictive drugs to people with chronic conditions, prescribing daily doses for indefinite periods. Sales rose to nearly a quarter of a billion prescriptions per year, equivalent to one for every American adult, and an epidemic of addiction and overdose followed.
The authors of this disaster have never really been held responsible. Purdue Pharma did pay a $600 million federal fine for overstating the benefits and understating the risks of OxyContin. But that is less than 2 percent of the estimated $35 billion in revenue earned from the drug to date. While several company executives were held criminally liable, they didn’t spend a day in jail. By contrast, selling $35,000 worth of heroin — just one millionth as much — triggers a five-year federal mandatory minimum sentence.
That is not because prescription opioids have done less damage than heroin. Every year, more heroin purchases are made than opioid prescriptions are written, but until dealers began adulterating heroin with fentanyl, prescription opioids killed more people.
Political economy and political blind spots work together to prevent action.
Trump decrying “bad hombres” and planning to “build a wall” fits with a long history of blaming U.S. drug problems on people from other countries, and resonates with ugly nativist sentiments. Mexican gangs (and others) do deal drugs, but as Sam Quinones documents in his book “Dreamland,” heroin dealers expanded their distribution networks after prescription pills greatly swelled the pool of opioid-addicted people. Those pills didn’t come from Mexico; they came from Connecticut.
The pharmaceutical industry’s political influence, maintained through lobbyists and eye-popping campaign contributions, gives it protection that Mexican drug traffickers could only dream of. As the Washington Post and 60 Minutes have reported, when the Drug Enforcement Administration tried to stop companies that distribute opioids from shipping millions of pills to small towns in opioid-wracked regions of the country, Congress blocked those efforts by unanimously passing legislation stripping the DEA of authority to protect those communities. The effort was led in the House by Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.), who not incidentally was President Trump’s nominee for drug czar before the scandal forced him to withdraw his name.
Finally, there is a strange convergence between Trump’s worldview and that of a subset of the generally anti-Trump elites who retreat to the Swiss Alps once a year. Trump is an uncritical booster of American business. That can blind him to the predations of corporations that enriched themselves by spreading opioid addiction. Some of the Davos set, exemplified by the well-heeled Global Commission on Drug Policy, are equally uncomfortable with acknowledging the evils of the legal drug industry, because it would reveal the folly of thinking that the only problem with heroin is that we haven’t legalized its sale and manufacture.
To their credit, some former proponents of legalized heroin production have recanted in light of evidence that when you let free-market capitalism peddle opioids you get hundreds of thousands of premature deaths, not a libertarian Eden. But others refuse to face up to the abundant, tragic evidence that letting legal corporations sell heroin as if it were bubble gum would be a public health disaster.
To be clear, we have no sympathy for transnational criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl. But Americans don’t wake up one day and suddenly decide to seek out such a deadly drug. They typically reach that state after first becoming addicted to opioids that are legally manufactured, distributed and prescribed by a doctor. Until our national political leaders show the courage to hold the pharmaceutical industry to account, pounding the table about street corner heroin dealers will be an exercise in hypocrisy.
Jonathan P. Caulkins is the H. Guyford Stever University Professor of Operations Research and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College. His research includes modeling the effectiveness of interventions related to drugs, crime, violence, delinquency and prevention.
Keith Humphreys, Ph.D., is the Esther Ting Memorial Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. He researches interventions for substance abuse and psychiatric disorders.
-
Despite opioid 'emergency,' drug office dwindles under Trump (EDITORIAL)
Feb 6, 2018 | New York Daily News
By Christopher Brennan
President Trump’s drug control office has dwindled and could be crushed further by a lack of funding despite the administration's pledges to combat the opioid epidemic.
A group that included nine political appointees a year ago has been cut to a third of that size, according to a Political report that said the White House's drug initiatives “look more like a war on his drug policy office.”
Trump declared opioids a “health emergency” in October as figures revealed the drugs kill 175 people by overdose each day, though the President has been criticized for showing little leadership or concrete action on the crisis.
He signed a bill last month to give better opioid screening technology to agents at the country’s borders, which have been a frequent focus of Trump’s drug rhetoric as well as his stances on immigration.
The White House also announced last month that Taylor Weyeneth, who was deputy chief of staff at the Office of National Drug Control Policy, would leave after reports that the recent St. John's University graduate had no relevant experience and falsely indicated that he had a master’s degree.
Beyond the scandal surrounding someone in their early 20s receiving a key role in fighting the widespread abuse of prescription drugs, sources told Politico that the ONDCP’s acting director has also been excluded from meetings about the crisis held by Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.
Trump is also expected to propose large cuts to the office's budget, which comes as the cabinet led by Conway is taking on the ONDCP’s traditional role of coordinating policy between agencies — a duty it has carried out since the late 1980s.
Conway’s group has been criticized for a lack of expertise on drug policy and a lack of action, and Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia — whose states are both struggling from opioid abuse — told Politico Conway's group has yet to start coordinating programs.
Trump proposed a similar cut to ONDCP funds last year before backing off the plan amid opposition.
-
Kellyanne Conway’s 'opioid cabinet' sidelines drug czar’s experts
Feb 6, 2018 | Politico
By Brianna Ehley & Sarah Karlin-Smith
President Donald Trump’s war on opioids is beginning to look more like a war on his drug policy office.
Audio Link: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/06/kellyanne-conway-opioid-drug-czar-325457
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has taken control of the opioids agenda, quietly freezing out drug policy professionals and relying instead on political staff to address a lethal crisis claiming about 175 lives a day. The main response so far has been to call for a border wall and to promise a "just say no” campaign.
Trump is expected to propose massive cuts this month to the “drug czar” office, just as he attempted in last year’s budget before backing off. He hasn’t named a permanent director for the office, and the chief of staff was sacked in December. For months, the office’s top political appointee was a 24-year-old Trump campaign staffer with no relevant qualifications. Its senior leadership consists of a skeleton crew of three political appointees, down from nine a year ago.
"It’s fair to say the ONDCP has pretty much been systematically excluded from key decisions about opioids and the strategy moving forward,” said a former Trump administration staffer, using shorthand for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which has steered federal drug policy since the Reagan years.
The office’s acting director, Rich Baum, who had served in the office for decades before Trump tapped him as the temporary leader, has not been invited to Conway’s opioid cabinet meetings, according to his close associates. His schedule, obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request, included no mention of the meetings. Two political appointees from Baum’s office, neither of whom are drug policy experts, attend on the office’s behalf, alongside officials from across the federal government, from HHS to Defense. A White House spokesperson declined to disclose who attends the meetings, and Baum did not respond to a request for comment, although the White House later forwarded an email in which Baum stressed the office's central role in developing national drug strategy.
The upheaval in the drug policy office illustrates the Trump administration’s inconsistency in creating a real vision on the opioids crisis. Trump declared a public health emergency at a televised White House event and talked frequently about the devastating human toll of overdoses and addiction. But critics say he hasn’t followed through with a consistent, comprehensive response.
He has endorsed anti-drug messaging and tougher law enforcement. But he ignored many of the recommendations from former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential commission about public health approaches to addiction, access to treatment, and education for doctors who prescribe opioids. And he hasn’t maintained a public focus. In Ohio just this week, it was first lady Melania Trump who attended an opioid event at a children’s hospital. The president toured a manufacturing plant and gave a speech on tax cuts.
Much of the White House messaging bolsters the president’s call for a border wall, depicting the opioid epidemic as an imported crisis, not one that is largely home-grown and complex, fueled by both legal but addictive painkillers and lethal street drugs like heroin and fentanyl.
“I don’t know what the agency is doing. I really don’t,” said Regina LaBelle, who was the drug office’s chief of staff in the Obama administration. “They aren’t at the level of visibility you’d think they’d be at by now.”
Conway touts her opioids effort as policy-driven, telling POLITICO recently that her circle of advisers help “formalize and centralize strategy, coordinate policy, scheduling and public awareness” across government agencies.
That’s exactly what the drug czar has traditionally done.
Conway’s role has also caused confusion on the Hill. For instance, the Senate HELP Committee’s staff has been in touch with both Conway and the White House domestic policy officials, according to chairman Lamar Alexander’s office. But lawmakers who have been leaders on opioid policy and who are accustomed to working with the drug czar office, haven’t seen outreach from Conway or her cabinet.
“I haven’t talked to Kellyanne at all and I’m from the worst state for this,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, which has the country’s highest overdose death rate. “I’m uncertain of her role.” The office of Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio,) another leader on opioid policy, echoed that – although Portman’s wife, Jane, and Conway were both at the event with Melania Trump this week.
Some drug abuse experts and Hill allies find a silver lining, noting that Conway’s high-rank brings White House muscle and attention.
“If I want technical advice, I’m going to work with Baum,” said Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ), a co-chair of the Bipartisan Heroin Task Force. “If I want to get a message to the president, Kellyanne is somebody that I know I can talk to.”
"It’s a really good sign that one of the president’s top advisers has been assigned to such an important topic,” said Jessica Hulsey Nickel, president and CEO of the Addiction Policy Forum.
Baum's email called the drug office the "lead Federal entity in charge of crafting, publishing and overseeing the implementation of President Trump’s National Drug Control Strategy," which multiple agencies review. He called Conway's opioids cabinet an "interagency coordinating apparatus for public-facing opioids-related initiatives" and said that it was not overseeing national policy. But several administration officials did say her cabinet was indeed focused on a variety of policies.
Whatever Conway’s ties to the president, her career has been in polling and politics, not public health, substance abuse, or law enforcement.
Some of her “cabinet” participants do have a broad, general health policy background. But they don’t match the experience and expertise of the drug office’s professional staff. In her circle is Lance Leggitt, the deputy director of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council who was also chief of staff to former HHS Secretary Tom Price. Another top Price aide, Nina Schaefer, recently returned to the Heritage Foundation. The conservative think tank then touted her as having managed “the development of the HHS response to the opioid abuse crisis,” but when POLITICO recently tried to contact her, she said through a spokesperson she was not an expert on the topic.
Among the people working on the public education campaign that Trump promised is Andrew Giuliani, Rudy Giuliani’s 32-year-old son, who is a White House public liaison and has no background in drug policy, multiple administration sources told POLITICO. Nor has Conway spent her career in the anti-opioid trenches.
“Kellyanne Conway is not an expert in this field,” said Andrew Kessler, the founder of Slingshot Solutions, a consulting group that’s worked on substance abuse with many federal agencies.“She may be a political operative and a good political operative,” he added. “But look. When you appoint a secretary of Labor, you want someone with a labor background. When you appoint a secretary of Defense, you want someone with a defense background. The opioid epidemic needs leadership that ‘speaks’ the language of drug policy.”
The set-up befuddles other experts who’ve worked on substance abuse for prior administrations. Fresh ideas are fine, they say. But the drug office has a purpose.
“The whole reason we created ONDCP in 1988 was to be a coordinating force with power in the government and to bring together 20 agencies, many reluctant to be involved in drug control,” said Bob Weiner, who served in that office in both the George W. Bush and Clinton White Houses. “This is exactly when the agency should get maximum support from the White House,” he added.
An ONDCP spokesperson told POLITICO the office “works closely with other federal agencies and White House offices, including Kellyanne Conway’s office, to combat the opioid crisis” but declined to say whether the office’s career experts have attended any of her “opioids cabinet” sessions. The drug office is still crafting the annual drug control strategy, outside the Conway group, administration officials said.
A senior White House official confirmed that officials considered kicking off the media campaign with a big splash during the Super Bowl, but that fell through. Beyond that, many experts on drug policy and substance abuse say messaging alone won’t solve the problem anyway. People with addiction need treatment, and many people get addicted in the first place to painkillers their doctors have prescribed. An ad campaign won’t solve that.
One big test for the drug office will come when Trump releases his budget Monday, which is expected to slash the office’s budget, turning much of its work over to HHS and the Department of Justice. Both departments are developing their own opioid approaches; in past administrations, the drug czar would have coordinated. Lawmakers are already sounding the alarms over the budget plan.
A bipartisan group of senators last week wrote a letter to White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, urging him to reconsider and maintain the office’s programs that “prevent and fight against the scourge of drug abuse.”
Pushback to a similar proposal last year led the Trump administration to reverse the decision and maintain the office’s budget. Lawmakers hope that there will be a similar outcome this time — along with a smarter utilization of the drug policy office.
“What we haven’t seen is the kind of coordination of critical programs that ONDCP has traditionally done,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire, another state with one of the highest overdose death rates in the country.
Trump officials say it was the Obama administration that began undermining the drug policy office, demoting the director from the Cabinet, shrinking the staff and stressing the health aspects more than a law enforcement-focused “war on drugs.” They say the emergency requires a new approach.
Bob Dupont, who served as the second White House drug czar under President Gerald Ford, before the formal drug policy office was created, and still informally advises the Justice Department on drug policy, believes the White House will eventually realize it needs the expertise that ONDCP has to offer.
The West Wing doesn’t “have the staff or capability” to carry out drug policy work like ONDCP does, Dupont told POLITICO. “I don’t think swashbuckling your approach is going to last very long.”
-
Sanders wants pharma CEOs to testify on opioid crisis
Feb 5, 2018 | The Hill
By Nathaniel Weixel
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wants the top executives of pharmaceutical companies to testify before Congress about their role in the country’s opioid epidemic.
In a letter sent Monday to Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Sanders drew a parallel to a 1994 hearing where seven of the largest tobacco executives testified before a House panel.
“That committee had the courage to demand that the leading executives of the tobacco industry tell the American people what they knew and when they knew that tobacco was addictive,” Sanders wrote.
“Now is the time for Congress to summon that courage again and bring the executives of the pharmaceutical industry before our committee.”
The committee has held a series of hearings about the opioid crisis, with one scheduled for this week addressing the impact the opioid crisis has had on children and families. Sanders noted that while the topics have been important, they haven’t addressed the role of the pharmaceutical industry.
“The public needs to know whether the industry’s marketing practices were complicit in creating this crisis, and given the [Health] Committee jurisdiction, it should be at the forefront of investigating all the causes of this epidemic,” Sanders wrote.
There has been a flood of recent legal activity against opioid manufacturers and distributors. Last year about 250 cities, counties and states sued manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and marketers.
The lawsuits accuse the companies of misleading health professionals and the public by marketing opioids as rarely addictive and a safe substitute for nonaddictive pain medications.
Sanders did not mention any companies by name, but noted he plans to introduce legislation that would prohibit illegal marketing and distribution of opioids, and require companies to reimburse the economic impact of their products.
-
Feb 5, 2018 | Pharmacy Times
By Jeffrey Fudin, Stephen Ziegler & Terri Lewis
In response to “Sessions: DEA to Target Pharmacies, Prescribers in Crackdown”1 as published in The Hill, it should be obvious to responsible medical clinicians that Sessions and colleagues are naïve to the complex and biopsychosocial, medical, and pharmaceutical paradigms that are actually driving the opioid epidemic. The article states that in 2016 there were “at least 66,000 deaths from overdoses reported, including 42,249 deaths from opioids. Opioid overdose deaths now kill more Americans every year than breast cancer, according to the latest statistics from the CDC.”2 What the article does not tell you is what percentage of the 42,240 deaths are from illegally-obtained prescription versus nonprescription opioids. It avoids elucidating that legitimate, written prescriptions have rapidly declined since 2009; that although heroin use has been on the rise since 2002, it has more than doubled since 2013; that many if not most recent heroin deaths included in these stats are not from prescription drugs but are from illegally imported nonpharmaceutical grade nonprescription fentanyl derivatives; that daily morphine equivalent doses have drastically declined by more than 70% between 2010 and 2015 (and most probably have declined more by 2018); that of 351 total opioid deaths in New Hampshire in 2015, 28 died of heroin as a single-drug overdose and that fentanyl derivatives (most probably imports) were a factor in 253 of the overdose deaths.2,3,4
These facts are not likely to appear in any political outlets because they do not serve politicians well, are inconsistent with the narrative, and they do not support law enforcement efforts targeting those legitimately prescribing or dispensing opioids when appropriate. Patients in Pain or a System in Pain?The algorithms in use by the DEA are less than transparent. However, from the data that is observable as disclosed in OIG's analysis of HHS Medicare Part D data, it looks like there are about 90,000 individuals who are outliers in the Medicare Part D Prescriber data.
One might presume these numbers reflect misuse or abuse, but one could just as easily conclude that high dose users are the sickest of the sick and are served by physicians whose practices concentrate on serving this complex population. It also looks like CMS has not enforced the requirement that insurers provide intensive support to complex patients and their physicians through the application of medical necessity criteria as part of drug utilization review (DUR).12,13 As part of the DUR systems, CMS requires plan sponsors to have methods to identify beneficiaries who are potentially overusing specific drugs or groups of drugs, including opioids. If this is the case, these numbers may reflect the failure to close the care coordination loop between CMS, insurers, and physicians rather than mis-prescribing. The Criminalization of American Medicine: What Have We Done?It has often been said that the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result. This is certainly the case with American drug policy, a policy that continues to emphasize a punitive approach to solving a complex societal problem.5 While the regulation of prescription drugs in the United States can result in positive micro and macro health outcomes, the most recent effort by the Justice Department to reduce overdose via data mining without regard to individual patient care, is yet another example of how the cure is worse than the disease itself. According to The Hill article, Sessions said he has "assigned experienced prosecutors in opioid hot spot districts to focus solely on investigating and prosecuting opioid-related health care fraud. I have sent these prosecutors to where they are especially needed—including Kentucky."
One author (JF) has spent a lot of time is Kentucky over the last several weeks and has met many concerned health care providers, most of whom would be better served if money was spent on proper medical education and payment for various opioid and nonopioid medication alternatives that are more costly than immediate-release generic opioids. These providers would benefit from money spent on access to multidisciplinary approaches when treating patients, and provider status for pharmacists to be included in and paid for clinic visits. Consider that abruptly stopping or significantly reducing doses of legitimate prescriptions only serves to fuel a fire that sends patients to the streets for heroin or to suicide. Prescription pain medication, properly prescribed and dispensed, unlike illicit opioids, has and should continue to occupy a place in palliative care. Despite the fact that the majority of overdoses are caused not by prescription opioids but rather the use of illicit drugs such as heroin,6 the DEA has instead decided to focus its efforts on a “nationwide investigation of pharmacies and drug prescribers that are issuing 'unusual or disproportionate' numbers of opioid prescriptions” in an effort to “make more arrests, secure more convictions—and ultimately help us reduce the number of prescription drugs available for Americans to get addicted to or overdose from these dangerous drugs.”
Although it is unclear what constitutes “unusual or disproportionate,” such phrases are particularly disturbing when we realize that the regulation of medical practice is a traditional state function, not a federal one. Further, what continues to get lost in the shuffle is the increasing negative impact that drug enforcement policy is having on the treatment of pain, evidenced by involuntary tapers, patient abandonment, and practitioner flight.7,8,9
Eventually, our nation will recognize that instead of protecting people, we have harmed them, and perhaps one day soon our elected officials will ask themselves the same question that Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson asked himself when he realized that he had harmed his own people by building a bridge on the River Kwai: "What have I done?"10 Reducing harmful drug use and unlawful distribution remains an important goal, but so does the treatment of pain, and solving one problem at the expense of the other will end up harming all of us. President Trump’s vision that “we can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic” is quite presumptuous considering the hundreds of years that various countries have fought political and real opium wars starting with in China in the early 1800s. To really make a difference, we should not be engaging in war on health care providers, instead, money should be spent supporting them and alternatives to prescription opioids that are as safe, effective, and covered by insurance.
In the end, perhaps Sessions should heed the advice of Nelson Mandela that “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,”not political rhetoric and alternative facts to advance a harmful agenda.
This opinion article was written by:
Jeffrey Fudin, PharmD, DAAPM, FCCP, FASHP, FFSMBChief Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer, Remitigate LLCAdjunct Associate Professor, Western New England University College of PharmacyAdjunct Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice & Pain Management, Albany College of Pharmacy & Health SciencesStephen Ziegler, PhD, JDProfessor Emeritus of Public PolicyPurdue University, Fort WayneMayday Pain & Society Fellow and
Terri Lewis, PhD, NCC Adjunct Professor RehabilitationSouthern Illinois University-CarbondaleAssistant Professor RehabilitationNational Changhua University of Education, Taiwan, ROC
-
Feb 6, 2018 | KWKT (Fox)
By Waco, TX
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32492199?token=93039183-51d3-4bed-a3f2-7869f9903374
Rough Transcript: travis county is joing the fight in the opioid crisis. it has filed a 100-million dollar lawsuit against a long list of drug manufacturers and distributers. 2-sally:faced with what they're calling a "public health crisis," travi county says they're suing because the pharmaceutical companies failed to disclose the risk of addiction. buda mother, jacy planta, lost her 22-year-old son to a heroin overdose this time last year. the heroin was laced with the powerful opioid, fentanyl. planta says the lawsuit may not be enough. jacy planta, mother of cash owen, who died after an overdose: "i do think that it's a good start, 03, but we also need to address 9:45 AMthat it has graduated from the pharmaceutical companies."we reached out to the companies named in the lawsuit.they have released previous statements saying they will continue to take action to reduce opioid abuse.john:after years of work, the f-d-a and drug enforcement agency finally agreed to a rescheduling of drugs like vicodin.that resulted in a billion fewer pills dispensed to patients. just weeks ago, the fda said more aggressive action is needed.dr. scott gottlieb/fda: "i think prescribing patterns absolutely have to change. so you really should see most patients getting-- you know, a two or three or four-day prescription, not a 30-day prescription."after that change, the national institutes of health found the number of opioid pre in texas dropped nearly in half.sally:this week, kxan investigators are taking a closer look at a side of the opioid crisis that often starts with your child's pediatrician.children... addicted to high-power painkillers... over-prescribed by their doctors.one family speaks out... with a warning... and which questions parents should ask before leaving the clinic.dad: "i really absolutely am not happy with the possibility of my daughter becoming addicted to an opioid."join
-
Feb 6, 2018 | WBTW (CBS)
By Myrtle Beach, SC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32492211?token=93039183-51d3-4bed-a3f2-7869f9903374
Rough Transcript: horry county council will decide today whether or not it will sue major drug distributors. horry county council chair mark lazarus tells news13.... the action would be similar to the federal lawsuit marion county filed last month. the attorneys in that case would help horry county. patsy lazarus says horry county would pay nothing in legal fees... unless it wins money. patsy the suit filed in marion county... accuses three companies of "letha overshipments" of prescriptio drugs to the county... and claims that helped fuel the opioid epidemic. the marion county suit asks for the companies to pay costs related to the opioid epidemic... including first responder expenses and the cost to fight the problem.
-
Feb 6, 2018 | WBFF (Fox)
By Baltimore, MD
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32492221?token=93039183-51d3-4bed-a3f2-7869f9903374
Rough Transcript: howard county may be joining a suit and extra safety mesh yous in place. here for the your voice is allen kittleman. >> thank you. >> lets talk about this lawsuit. we heard about other lawsuits, other counties in the state going out manufacturers and some are going out distributors on opioid. saying you are to blame pushing the products you knew were extremely, extremely addictive. >> that is exactly right, we are looking into it and we are currently interviewing law forms to represent us as with well. it's our plan to sue the manufacturer and distributors but i'll wait until we get the law firm in place.
-
WECT News, Carolina in the Morning
Feb 6, 2018 | WECT (NBC)
By Wilmington, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32492249?token=93039183-51d3-4bed-a3f2-7869f9903374
Rough Transcript: the decision to fight against the opioid epidemic continues... now with the a team of lawyers. the columbus county board of commissioners have made a decision on which of two law firms will represent the county in the fight against opioids. mchugh fuller law group gave a presentation to the board in january...they were selected. hutchens law firm was supposed to present a plan to the board last night but withdrew their request before the meeting. fo mchugh fuller law group wants to file a complaint on behalf of the county against opioid manufacturers and wholesale distributors for their role in the manufacturing . distribution . and promotion of opioids. board oi chairman amon mckenzie says the top priority in the decision is fighting the crisis head on.. amon mckenzie: "i do believe that b we're headed in the right direction. first of all we have the ea hr of the people and once you have the ear of the people then you're able to educate them and then the nextxt thing is to take action. and of o course take ne cessary actions to rid ouonrselves of this problem. i'm not that nave to believe that it will totally go away overnight. itve took time to get it in place and it's going to take time to rid us of it but we'll be more educatelld armed with information to move us forward." mckenzie also stressed how this process will take time. it will take more education and information to move forward.
-
Feb 6, 2018 | WHAS (ABC)
By Louisville, KY
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32492384?token=93039183-51d3-4bed-a3f2-7869f9903374
Rough Transcript: governor matt bevin is asking for help from kentucky's attorney general to fight the state's opioid epidemic. in a letter... bevin calls on 4:52 AMandy beshear to join forces against the epidemic by pursuing joint legal action against opioid drug manufacturers and distributors. at a news conference today, the governor says we have to keep people from falling into what he calls the "funnel of addiction. 10:24 there's no amount of money, there's no amount of programs, and there's no number of beds available in kentucky or anywhere to address this only if we deal with it at the bottom of the tunnel. this funnel of addiction, if we let everyone fall into it, without closing off the top, we can't begin to address it at the bottom. 10:41 in that letter bevin's counsel says in order to win... they must fight the opioid epidemic on all fronts... legal, legislative, and judicial. in indiana ... this year's kids count report focused on the impact of the drug epidemic on hoosier children. the 20-18 report shows nearly 60- percent of all department of child services removals are tied to substance abuse. the report shows calls to the indiana child abuse and neglect hotline jumped nine-percent in 20-17. that's an average of one call every two minutes.
-
Feb 6, 2018 | SPNWSAU (Spectrum News)
By Austin, TX
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32492463?token=93039183-51d3-4bed-a3f2-7869f9903374
Rough Transcript: the additional nurses have the option to stay until march. but they say they will stay for as long as they are needed. construction starting today on ththe county, announcing the suit monday, suing manufacturers, distributors, and marketers of pharmaceutical opioids for damages and penalties. travis county judge sarah eckhardt calling legal action "necessary to sto harvesting profits from human suffering." count d-a margaret moore is working with the commissioners court on the suit. lawsuit
MDL
Southwest (TX)
Northeast (MA, NY)
Midwest (IN)
Southeast (FL, NC, SC, WV)
Commentary and FYIs
Broadcast Media Coverage
Add recipients
Suggested