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Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report - 2/7/18
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Cleveland federal judge overseeing opioid suits orders parties to not discuss settlement talks with reporters
Feb 6, 2018 | Cleveland.com
By Eric Heisig
A federal judge presiding over hundreds of lawsuits filed against drug companies admonished lawyers and parties on Tuesday not to tell reporters about what is said during settlement discussions. -
Judge issues gag order in opioid lawsuit settlement talks
Feb 7, 2018 | Associated Press
By Staff
A federal judge in Ohio has ordered attorneys and others to keep quiet about settlement discussions involving hundreds of lawsuits filed over the country's opioid epidemic. -
Gag Order Issued Over Opioid MDL Settlement Talks
Feb 6, 2018 | Law360
By Dave Simpson
An Ohio federal judge Tuesday issued a gag order for the settlement negotiations pertaining to multidistrict litigation targeting the nation's largest prescription opioid sellers. -
Lawsuit takes aim at drug companies and distributors for opioid medication, first in SC
Feb 6, 2018 | ABC 4 News (SC)
By Caroline Balchunas
A lawsuit filed in Beaufort County on Tuesday is taking a shot at drug companies and distributors of opioid medication. -
Beaufort County files suit against drug manufacturers
Feb 6, 2018 | WTOC (SC)
By Zach Logan
More than 20 people died in Beaufort Co. in 2017 due to drug overdoses. With 17 of those deaths related to opioids, the county is ready to take action against several drug providers. -
Beaufort County files lawsuit to fight opioid crisis
Feb 6, 2018 | WJCL 22 ABC (SC)
By Lauren Sinatra
In 2017, Beaufort County recorded 24 deaths from drug overdoses. It said no less than 17 of those deaths were a result of opioid use. And with the recent increase in overdose deaths, the county said it has reached its breaking point. -
Beaufort County files lawsuit against opioid makers
Feb 6, 2018 | WSAV (GA)
By Andrew Davis
There 24 opioid overdose deaths in Beaufort County last year alIt’s. Its a growing problem that Beaufort County wants to stop. -
Beaufort County files suit against drug companies, doctors for their role in opioid epidemic
Feb 7, 2018 | The Post & Courier (SC)
By Mary Katherine Wildeman
In the first lawsuit of its kind in South Carolina, Beaufort County is attempting to win back some of the millions it spends annually to cope with the arrival of the opioid epidemic, which claimed at least 17 lives there last year. -
Horry County signs on to sue drug companies for opioid crisis
Feb 7, 2018 | WPDE (SC)
By Ashley Gooden
Horry County is the latest community to sign on to sue pharmaceutical companies over the opioid crisis. -
Horry County joins lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies over opioid epidemic
Feb 6, 2018 | WMBF (SC)
By Patrick Lloyd
Horry County is suing three major drug companies, saying the companies are partially responsible for the opioid crisis. Horry County Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to take part in the mass action lawsuit in which many other municipalities across the country have already done so. -
Horry County to sue major drug distributors for role in opioid epidemic
Feb 6, 2018 | WBTW (SC)
By Ryan Webb
Horry County council voted Tuesday night to sue major drug distributors for their alleged role in the opioid epidemic. -
City of Hattiesburg to file suit against drug companies over opioid epidemic
Feb 7, 2018 | WDAM (MS)
By Melissa Egan
The City of Hattiesburg is the first municipality in Mississippi to take a stand against major pharmaceutical companies for their role in the opioid epidemic. -
Brunswick Co. joins other local governments in suing drug companies
Feb 6, 2018 | WECT (NC)
By Staff
Brunswick County has joined hundreds of other local governments in suing pharmaceutical companies and distributors over the nation’s opioid epidemic. -
Westchester Files Lawsuit Against Big Pharma Over Opioids
Feb 6, 2018 | White Plains Patch (NY)
By Michael Woyton
As the costs of combating the opioid epidemic increases in Westchester County, officials have filed a complaint Feb. 6 seeking to recover damages for the use of public resources. The complaint includes more than 30 defendants and alleges that the manufacturers, distributors and other entities intentionally misled the public about the dangers of opioids. -
Westchester joins lawsuit against opioid manufacturers
Feb 7, 2018 | MidHudsonNews.com (NY)
By Staff
Lawyers for Westchester County Government filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against manufacturers and distributors of opioids. To date, 60 of the 62 counties in the state have taken similar actions in the belief that the opioid epidemic has been fueled by manufacturers misleading the public about the dangers of their drugs. -
Westchester County sues drug makers over opioid crisis
Feb 6, 2018 | Fox 5 (NY)
By Arthur Chi'en
Westchester County in New York is joining many other governments in trying to hold companies responsible for the deadly opioid epidemic. -
Westchester alleges Massive Pharma key to lethal opioid disaster that price tax to battle
Feb 7, 2018 | Lockport Press (NY)
By Staff
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. -
Westchester Sues Highly Addictive Opioid Manufacturers, Distributors
Feb 6, 2018 | Mount Vernon Daily Voice (NY)
By Jon Craig
Westchester County, facing the ever-escalating costs associated with combating the opioid epidemic, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against more than 30 parties alleged to manufacture and distribute the highly addictive painkiller. -
Lewis County Joins Opioid Class-Action Lawsuit
Feb 7, 2018 | WWNYTV (NY)
By Staff
Lewis County is the latest to join a class-action lawsuit against major manufacturers of opioid drugs. -
Haverhill City Solicitor speaks on big pharma lawsuit
Feb 7, 2018 | Eagle-Tribune (MA)
By Peter Francis
In addition to joining a nationwide lawsuit against multiple giants of the pharmaceutical industry for their roles in the nationwide opioid epidemic, the city is also planning to file a suit of its own against several drug manufacturers. -
Grafton considers opioid litigation
Feb 6, 2018 | Telegram & Gazette (MA)
By Susan Spencer
Selectmen considered Tuesday whether to join a handful of other Central Massachusetts towns in joining a civil lawsuit against opioid wholesale distributors and manufacturers. While they appeared in favor of such a move, they held off on action until a later meeting. -
St. Joseph County commissioners plan lawsuit against drug companies
Feb 6, 2018 | WSBT 22 (IN)
By Staff
The St. Joseph County commissioners are moving forward with plans to file a lawsuit against drug companies. -
Evansville joins other cities in filing lawsuit against opioid drug manufacturers
Feb 7, 2018 | Tristate Homepage (IN)
By Staff
The City of Evansville plans to go after opioid drug manufacturers and distributors. -
Lawrence County Files Lawsuit Against Opioid Manufacturers And Distributors
Feb 6, 2018 | WBIW (IN)
By Staff
The Lawrence County Commissioners have retained the Indianapolis law firm Cohen & Malad, LLP to file a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and distributors for their part in the opioid crisis that is ravaging Lawrence County. -
Mansfield joins national lawsuit against opioid manufacturers
Feb 6, 2018 | Mansfield News Journal (OH)
By Emily Mills
The city is joining more than 200 other cities across the country in a national civil suit against pharmaceutical companies that manufactured and distributed opioids. -
Pratt County joins opioid lawsuit
Feb 6, 2018 | The Ottawa Herald (KS)
By Gale Rose
The Pratt County Commissions have approved an outside council to pursue a suit against certain companies that wrongfully manufacture and distribute opioids. -
Dallas law firm appeals to Taylor County Commissioners about opioid crisis lawsuit
Feb 7, 2018 | KTXS (TX)
By Megan Murat
Opioid addiction has been a growing concern across the country and it's grabbing the attention of the Taylor County Commissioners. Tuesday, they heard a presentation about including Taylor County in a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies. -
Clallam County to join opioid lawsuit
Feb 7, 2018 | Sequim Gazette (WA)
By Rob Ollikainen
Clallam County has decided to join the local governments that are suing manufacturers and wholesalers of opioid-based prescription drugs. -
As lawyers push to limit opioid production in legal deal, Sen. Sanders wants more from Congress
Feb 6, 2018 | Fierce Pharma
By Eric Sagonowsky
Hundreds of cities and counties have sued Big Pharma for its alleged role in the opioid crisis, and while attorneys have met in Cleveland to discuss a potential settlement, Sen. Bernie Sanders is pushing for more action from Congress. -
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall Announces Lawsuit Against Major Opioid Manufacturer Purdue Pharma For Violation of Alabama Deceptive Trade Practices Act (PRESS RELEASE)
Feb 6, 2018 | Alabama OAG
By AG Steve Marshall
Attorney General Steve Marshall announced today that the State of Alabama has filed suit against Purdue Pharma, L.P., Purdue Frederick Company Inc., and Rhodes Pharmaceuticals, L.P. (collectively “Purdue”), the manufacturers and sellers of prescription opioid pain medications, including the brand name drugs OxyContin, MS Contin, Dilaudid/Dilaudid HP, Butrans, Hysingla ER, and Targiniq ER, as well as generic opioids. Alabama’s complaint asserts that Purdue violated Alabama’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act in the marketing and sale of opioid drugs and, in so doing, jeopardized the public health, welfare, and safety of Alabama residents. The State is seeking both monetary damages and injunctive relief. -
Fighting opioid lawsuits, McKesson offers new solution for old pills
Feb 6, 2018 | San Franscisco Business Journal (CA)
By Ron Leuty
In front of financiers and other potential investors at last month's J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, McKesson Corp. CEO John Hammergren highlighted the company's distribution of so-called "destruction pouches" as a way of taking unused opioid painkillers out of circulation. -
Opioid litigation is a slippery slope (EDITORIAL)
Feb 6, 2018 | Dothan Eagle (AL)
By Editorial Board
This week, Alabama became the 14th state to file a lawsuit against the makers of OxyContin and other opioids in a move to lay the blame for the nation’s drug epidemic at the feet of the manufacturer of the drugs. -
Jeff Sessions has a suggestion to tame the opioid crisis: Bufferin and less marijuana
Feb 7, 2018 | The Week
By Peter Weber
Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke Tuesday evening at a Heritage Foundation event to celebrate former President Ronald Reagan's birthday, and he was eager to tie President Trump to Reagan. One of the ways the Trump administration is echoing Reagan's legacy, he said, is by cracking down on drug use, blaming "lax enforcement, permissive rhetoric, and the media" for undermining Nancy Reagan's "just say no" message, especially with marijuana. -
Trump Has Given Victims of the Opioid Crisis Nothing But Contempt (EDITORIAL)
Feb 6, 2018 | New York Magazine
By Eric Levitz
The year Donald Trump was elected president, drug overdoses killed 63,600 Americans. That was 21 percent more drug deaths than America had seen in 2015, which had been the worst year for such fatalities in our nation’s history. It was also more unnatural deaths than gun violence, HIV/AIDS, or car accidents had ever caused in the United States in a single year. The scale of devastation wrought by the opioid epidemic was so vast, life expectancy in the United States fell for the second consecutive year — the first time that had happened since the early 1960s. -
How Much Is the Opioid Crisis Costing Governments?
Feb 7, 2018 | Governing
By Liz Farmer
Anyone who's familiar with addiction knows that it's insidious: It sneakily takes hold until the addict suddenly doesn't recognize his life anymore. Paying for addiction is like that, too. -
WTOC THE News at Daybreak 5A
| WTOC (CBS)
By Savannah, GA
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WJCL 22 News at 11
Feb 7, 2018 | WJCL (ABC)
By Savannah, GA
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WBTW News13 This Morning at 5:30
Feb 7, 2018 | WBTW (CBS)
By Myrtle Beach, SC
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Good Morning Augusta
Feb 7, 2018 | WJBF (ABC)
By Augusta-Aiken, GA
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News 13 Now
Feb 7, 2018 | WBTW (CBS)
By Myrtle Beach, SC
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News 12 Westchester
Feb 7, 2018 | N12WC (News 12)
By New York, NY
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7News This Morning on Fox
Feb 7, 2018 | WNYFCD (Fox)
By Watertown, NY
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WSBT 22 News on Fox
Feb 7, 2018 | WSBTDT2 (Fox)
By South Bend, IN
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14 News Sunrise Early Edition
Feb 7, 2018 | WFIE (NBC)
By Evansville, IN
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WDAM 7 Sunrise
Feb 7, 2018 | WDAM (NBC)
By Hattiesburg, MS
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KTXS This Morning
Feb 7, 2018 | KTXELD (ABC)
By San Angelo, TX
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WECT News, Carolina in the Morning Early Edition
Feb 7, 2018 | WECT (NBC)
By Wilmington, NC
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MDL
Southeast (SC, MS, NC)
Northeast (NY, MA)
Midwest (IN, OH, KS)
Southwest (TX)
Northwest (WA)
Commentary and FYIs
Broadcast Media Coverage
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Feb 6, 2018 | Cleveland.com
By Eric Heisig
A federal judge presiding over hundreds of lawsuits filed against drug companies admonished lawyers and parties on Tuesday not to tell reporters about what is said during settlement discussions.
In a two-paragraph order, U.S. District Judge Dan Polster wrote that participants in the negotiations, as well as lawyers and parties who are consulted about the negotiations, "shall maintain strict confidentiality as to the contents of those discussions.
"Attorneys, parties, and officials may publicly state they have met, or will meet, but nobody is to disclose to the media or any other outside party the contents of the discussions, or provide to the media assessments or commentary regarding those discussions," Polster wrote.
Polster's order comes less than a week after he brought attorneys and parties from across the country to Cleveland to discuss settling litigation between local governments and drug companies. Another session is scheduled for March.
Between and after sessions at the federal courthouse on Jan. 31, public officials spoke to journalists about what was going on in sessions that were closed to the public.
Among those who spoke to media outlets -- including cleveland.com -- were Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish.
In addition, Bloomberg published a story Friday that detailed some of the discussions held in the closed-door sessions. The story was based on interviews with unnamed people who attended the sessions.
The talks included local governments telling Polster that having drugmaker Purdue Pharma take the 80-milligram version of the Oxycontin pill off the market would substantially help abate the opioid crisis, according to Bloomberg.
States and local governments filed suits against drug manufacturers and distributors accusing them of misleading doctors and consumers about the addictive nature of opioids like OxyContin. The suits, which are still being filed, come amidst a crisis that killed users in every corner of the country.
Many of the cases were consolidated under Polster, who was appointed by a federal panel in December to oversee the cases. He has signaled that he wants to see a settlement that includes several of the federal lawsuits he oversees and others over which he has no jurisdiction. Polster's goal is to have money go toward treatment and to have doctors prescribe fewer opioids.
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Judge issues gag order in opioid lawsuit settlement talks
Feb 7, 2018 | Associated Press
By Staff
A federal judge in Ohio has ordered attorneys and others to keep quiet about settlement discussions involving hundreds of lawsuits filed over the country's opioid epidemic.
Judge Dan Polster says parties to the lawsuits can only reveal whether meetings have happened or will happen.
Polster issued a gag order Tuesday that bans discussion of the contents of settlement discussions along with assessments of the talks or commentary on them.
Polster is overseeing more than 300 lawsuits filed by cities and counties against pharmaceutical companies and distributors. The complaints allege the companies bear responsibility for the epidemic and for not doing enough to stop it.
Six state attorneys general, other state representatives and dozens of attorneys from both sides met last week in a closed-door meeting in Polster's Cleveland courtroom.
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Gag Order Issued Over Opioid MDL Settlement Talks
Feb 6, 2018 | Law360
By Dave Simpson
An Ohio federal judge Tuesday issued a gag order for the settlement negotiations pertaining to multidistrict litigation targeting the nation's largest prescription opioid sellers.
U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster issued the order just days after Law360 reported that local governments and drug companies traded divergent views of the opioid crisis at a closed-door hearing about settlement prospects in a colossal legal fight.
Sources told Law360 that on Jan. 31, attorneys discussed ways to ease the deadly overdose epidemic and who’s responsible for it.
It’s been less than two months since the MDL officially began, and observers called preliminary settlement talks a remarkable step at such an early stage.
Judge Polster is seeking to avoid drawn-out litigation and to broker settlements that bankroll addiction treatment and cut the number of opioids in circulation. Observers say it’s possible the judge has good reason to think that drug companies will be receptive.
“I don’t believe the judge would be going down this path if he had not received some positive vibes from the manufacturing and distributors’ world and the pharmacies,” Motley Rice LLC co-founder and co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs Joe Rice told Law360 Thursday.
Most of the sources who spoke with Law360 represent plaintiffs, which include local governments as well as unions and hospitals. Lead defense lawyers largely declined to comment or didn’t respond to requests for comments.
The MDL involves more than 250 lawsuits targeting various drugmakers, including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP, as well as major distributors and pharmacy chains. Damages could reach into the hundreds of billions of dollars, according to plaintiffs lawyers.
In 2016, more than 50,000 drug overdose deaths were attributed to opioids, including prescription painkillers and illicit narcotics, a figure more than 10 times the American death toll for the entire Iraq War.
Manufacturers targeted in the case include Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., Allergan Inc. and Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals LLC. Distributors targeted in the case include Cardinal Health Inc., AmerisourceBergen Corp. and McKesson Corp., which control most of the U.S. drug distribution market, as well as units of CVS Health Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
The suits generally allege that the makers of opioid pain medication overstated the drugs’ benefits and downplayed their risks while marketing them to doctors. Some suits are brought against the distributors, which the governments say failed to monitor and report suspicious drug orders.
Rice, who along with Paul J. Hanly Jr. of Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC and Paul T. Farrell Jr. of Greene Ketchum Farrell Bailey & Tweel LLP, was appointed as co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs, told Judge Polster in January that the plaintiffs shared his sense of urgency.
Some of the companies have already been hit with big penalties in opioid cases brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. For example, Purdue Pharma in 2007 paid $600 million and admitted to downplaying the addiction risks of OxyContin, the company’s flagship product. Last year, McKesson paid a $150 million penalty for allegedly failing to report suspicious opioid orders.
The case is In re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation, case number 1:17-md-02804, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. -
Lawsuit takes aim at drug companies and distributors for opioid medication, first in SC
Feb 6, 2018 | ABC 4 News (SC)
By Caroline Balchunas
A lawsuit filed in Beaufort County on Tuesday is taking a shot at drug companies and distributors of opioid medication.
The lengthy civil lawsuit names more than 20 defendants, including Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Rite Aid of South Carolina and individual physicians, claiming deceptive practices, fraud and misrepresentation of dangers of opioid medication.
"Manufacturers in the '90s and early 2000s used key opinion leader doctors to outright tell untruths, falsehoods to the American people, to the citizens of Beaufort County," said Ben Shelton, attorney with Finger, Melnic & Brooks, P.A. "To say that these drugs are safe, they're non-addictive, or they do not have a high risk of addiction and they're safe for chronic use, we know that's not true."
"This was an effective, deceptive marketing campaign and the counties across South Carolina are suffering real damages," said Charleston-based attorney Matt Yelverton. "The FDA has approved it, are these safe? Well the FDA approves these pills, these drugs, based on information received from the manufacturers."
The suit claims widespread opioid use has created an economic burden for first responders, local governments, and taxpayers footing the bills for addiction treatment, hospitalization and medications.
The number of drug overdose deaths in Beaufort County keeps rising. In 2015, there were four. In 2016, there were seven, but in 2017, there were 24. Coroner Edward Allen said 17 of those were caused by opioid use. Allen said he's not so sure the crisis has met its peak.
"I would be stupid enough to say I wish we've reached the peak but unfortunately, I'm quite certain there's going to be an increase, just as we look at what's happened in a 3-year period," said Allen.
EMS personnel bear the brunt of opioid overdose calls. Between 2013 and 2016, there's been a 67-percent increase in EMS attempts to reverse opioid overdoses, according to S.C. Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, South Carolina ranked highest among states for number of painkiller prescriptions per 100 people.
The lawsuit is the first suit of its kind to be filed in the state.
"We know the damages are vast, we know the damages begin with the actual expenses that would not be there but for the opioid crisis," Shelton said.
Other counties joined the lawsuit on Tuesday including Colleton, Spartanburg, Williamsburg, Hampton, Jasper and Allendale, according to Yelverton.
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Beaufort County files suit against drug manufacturers
Feb 6, 2018 | WTOC (SC)
By Zach Logan
More than 20 people died in Beaufort Co. in 2017 due to drug overdoses. With 17 of those deaths related to opioids, the county is ready to take action against several drug providers.
On Tuesday, Feb. 6, several attorneys filed a suit against several drug companies, pharmacies, and area doctors.
Lawyers Matt Yelverton and Ben Shelton are just a couple of the attorneys representing Beaufort Co.
"Firefighters are responding to opioid calls and not fighting fires. First responders are not responding to car wrecks at the level they're responding to opioid overdoses," Yelverton said.
Beaufort Co. is the first county in the State Court in South Carolina to file a suit regarding the opioid crisis, which was designated as a national emergency in 2017.
"Wages that are not being brought, not being made in Beaufort Co. because people are addicted, people are dead, and that's lost tax revenue," Shelton said.
Lawyers say they want to help the taxpayers who've spent millions of dollars on services relating to the opioid epidemic, like counseling services and childcare for those with parents dealing with opioids.
"To the taxpayers, that's money that could have been spent on the roads, on other things our government provides for the taxpayers," Yelverton said.
Beaufort Co. Coroner Edward Allen says he's seeing a spike in drug overdoses in the county.
"When we look at a couple of years ago, we had four drug overdoses. We had 24 overdoses last year, so we are seeing an increase," Allen said.
Around 30 drug manufacturers, pharmacies, and area doctors are named in the suit, including Johnson & Johnson, Rite Aid, Purdue, and Smith Drug Company.
Lawyers say these companies participated in deceptive marketing. In the suit, lawyers claim the defendants knew in order to sell more opioids, they would have to convince doctors and patients that long-term opioid therapy was safe and effective.
WTOC reached out several of the companies labeled in the suit. We have yet to hear back, except for Rite Aid who says the company cannot comment on pending litigation.
Right now, the big effort is to keep this case local instead of going to federal court.
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Beaufort County files lawsuit to fight opioid crisis
Feb 6, 2018 | WJCL 22 ABC (SC)
By Lauren Sinatra
In 2017, Beaufort County recorded 24 deaths from drug overdoses. It said no less than 17 of those deaths were a result of opioid use. And with the recent increase in overdose deaths, the county said it has reached its breaking point.
"If we lose one, it's one too many," said Beaufort County Coroner, Edward Allen.
Allen said he fears the crisis will worsen unless something is done.
"It's just going to be a matter of time before we encounter a case where a child is involved," he said.
On Tuesday morning, two law firms spoke on behalf of the county and stated they filed suit against multiple manufacturers, distributors and local doctors and clinics.
The county claims these companies and people are aware of the addictive nature of certain medications but failed to warn doctors and patients.
"Firefighters are responding to opioid calls and not fighting fires," said Matt Yelverton of Yelverton Law Firm, LLC during the press conference Tuesday.
Law enforcement, emergency crews, hospitals and treatment centers are all costs that taxpayers are funding and now the county wants to get some of that money back.
"That money has been taken from the taxpayers to treat a crisis that was created by a knowingly deceptive marketing campaign," said Yelverton.
But money is not the only issue. Allen said drugs like opioids are also dangerous to those crews who respond to overdose calls.
"You run the chance of an officer or first responder being in an environment where Fentanyl is there and getting it on their clothing and taking it home to their family unknowingly," Allen explained.
The exact amount of financial damages the county is suing for has not yet been determined; however, the lawyers said it could be up in the millions of dollars.
"We have decided it should be left in the hands of the people of the counties that have been affected by this epidemic to decide how these manufacturers, distributors and doctors should be held accountable on the scourge they have released on our state," Yelverton expressed.
Beaufort County is just one of six different counties across the state who have already filed this lawsuit and South Carolina is just one state of a nationwide effort to combat the opioid crisis.
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Beaufort County files lawsuit against opioid makers
Feb 6, 2018 | WSAV (GA)
By Andrew Davis
There 24 opioid overdose deaths in Beaufort County last year alIt’s. Its a growing problem that Beaufort County wants to stop.
So they are taking on the problem head on by taking them directly to court.
“Lost revenue, lost taxpayer dollars, because of the opiod crisis,” explained Attorney Matt Yelverton.
That’s why Beaufort County has filed a lawsuit in state court against 30 drug manufacturers, pharmacies and even “John Doe” doctors from Beaufort County for pushing opioids for their own benefit, even despite the dangers.
In 2010, 254,000,000 opioids were prescribed in America, that’s enough for every American adult to be dosed on opioids around the clock for a month.
“Manufacturers in the 90’s and early 2000, used key opinion doctors to tell outright falsehoods to the American people,” said Ben Shelton, attorney. “To the citizens of Beaufort County, to say that these drugs are safe, they are non-addictive or they do not have a high risk of addiction and they are safe for product use, we know that is not true.”
Yelverton said, “This was an effective deceptive marketing campaign, and the county’s in South Carolina are suffering real damages.”
According to the suit, drug companies convinced doctors and pharmacies that using opioids for pain outweighed the risks and misrepresented the dangers of long-term use.
Attorneys say the FDA approved the drugs, like Fentanyl and Oxycontin because of “misrepresentations” made my the drug companies themselves.
“(For example) A pharmacy that has built in flagging systems to let them know when there is potential abuse of an opioid,” said Shelton. “And those systems are ignored on not enforced and they profit form the continued distribution of pills despite flags that could have told them there’s a problem.”
The companies have gotten rich, the suit says, to the tune of $8 billion in revenue in 2012 alone while police and firefighters were left to spend their money battling the users left behind.
“The majority of their calls in some cases are in response to opioid overdoses and deaths. Firefighters are responding to opioid calls, not fires, police are not responding to car accident calls as much as opioid overdoses,” said Shelton. “When you have an officer who has to respond to a bedside in a hospital, that is an officer who is not on the street keeping the street safe.”
The damages, attorneys say, are “vast” and reach into the millions for Beaufort County.
The suit hopes to recoup the cost for materials, time, work hours and money used to battle the opioid crisis.
This is the first suit filed in South Carolina state court instead of federal court. That way the people of South Carolina can decide what’s right.
“We have decided it should be left in the hands of the people who live in the counties affected by this epidemic to decide how these manufacturers, distributors, doctors should be held accountable for the scurge they have unleashed on our state,” explained Yelverton.
Beaufort County may be the first to file but they probably won’t be the last in South Carolina. At least seven other counties have been contacted and could file in the next few months.
“Every single county has a distinct and separate case, every single county has distinct and separate damages. Every single county has been affected by this,” said Yelverton.
The South Carolina Attorney General already has his own statewide suit against the drug companies, and News 3 has learned several counties in Georgia are ready to file suits of their own. One of those in Chatham County.
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Beaufort County files suit against drug companies, doctors for their role in opioid epidemic
Feb 7, 2018 | The Post & Courier (SC)
By Mary Katherine Wildeman
In the first lawsuit of its kind in South Carolina, Beaufort County is attempting to win back some of the millions it spends annually to cope with the arrival of the opioid epidemic, which claimed at least 17 lives there last year.
Three law firms filed suit Tuesday against a slew of pharmaceutical companies and several physicians on behalf of the county, accusing them of failing to inform consumers about the dangers of prescription painkillers.
The 124-page suit names four anonymous doctors and five clinics along with drug distributors, including Rite Aide, Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and McKesson Corporation, among others.
The firms argue Beaufort County has felt the sting of the opioid epidemic in particular. Other counties and municipalities are expected to join the suit soon, according to the firms' release.
There were 616 opioid-related deaths in South Carolina in 2016, according to the latest information from the Department of Health and Environmental Control. Horry County had the greatest number of deaths by far, with 101.
"These companies have exacted a toll on society that may take years to eradicate," Joseph Cappelli, of Marc J. Bern and Partners, said in a statement. “Thousands of lives are continually at stake. We hope our work will prevent more tragedies and possibly inspire other affected parties to stand up to drug makers and hold them accountable.”
This complaint is not the first to aim to recoup some of the costs of coping with the scourge of painkiller addiction. Counties and municipalities across the country have leveled lawsuits against some of the heaviest hitters in the pharmaceutical industry.
South Carolina's attorney general filed a complaint against Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma, which manufactures the opioid painkiller OyxContin. Other states' attorneys general have done the same. And Joe Rice of Charleston's Motley Rice law firm was recently selected as co-lead counsel in the National Prescription Opiate Litigation, which was consolidated into the Northern District of Ohio in late 2017.
The suit will be the first to coordinate attorneys across the state in a localized attack against the pharmaceutical companies.
Prescription opioid abuse costs the U.S. more than $500 billion each year, according to a recent report by the White House Council of Economic Advisors.
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Horry County signs on to sue drug companies for opioid crisis
Feb 7, 2018 | WPDE (SC)
By Ashley Gooden
Horry County is the latest community to sign on to sue pharmaceutical companies over the opioid crisis.
It's all part of a mass action lawsuit. City and county officials nationwide are joining in to try to get some of the money back they've spent fighting addiction.
Chairman of the Horry County Council, Mark Lazarus, says it won't cost the county a dime. He says the lawyers they're working with take cases like this on a contingency basis and absorb all of the costs, so there's no downside of this for the county.
Attorneys with the Whetstone Perkins and Fulda Firm are representing Horry County.
This lawsuit is called a mass action lawsuit because many different law firms are teaming up with government bodies.
Lazarus says he thinks this lawsuit will definitely get the attention of the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry.
He says the county joined because officials think there's a good chance of winning. "Anything that we were to win in the litigation would go into us using toward the prevention and hopefully the rehabilitation of opioid use in our community," he said.
Lazarus says great strides are being made around the state, especially with the legislation to limit how much opioids can be prescribed by doctors.
He does believe this is a step in the right direction, but also thinks there's still a long way to go.
Marion County and Horry County are working with the same law firm, they are two of hundreds of municipalities that are also filing suit.
The opioid crisis is still hitting the Grand Strand hard, but new statistics show thenumber of overdoses and deaths are down.
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Horry County joins lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies over opioid epidemic
Feb 6, 2018 | WMBF (SC)
By Patrick Lloyd
Horry County is suing three major drug companies, saying the companies are partially responsible for the opioid crisis. Horry County Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to take part in the mass action lawsuit in which many other municipalities across the country have already done so.
Marion, Dillon and Beaufort counties are also all taking part in the lawsuit.
The drug companies AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, Cardinal Health 110 LLC and McKesson Corporation are accused of over prescribing opioids to people.
DHEC reports 101 people died as a result of opioid overdoses in 2016 in Horry County – the most deaths of any county in South Carolina.
John Breeden is the lawyer representing Horry County in the lawsuit. He told WMBF News the drug companies play a big role in the epidemic, and they need to be held accountable.
Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus says the opioid crisis needs to be stopped.
"We still have a serious problem that we've got to address – we are addressing – and this is just one step in many that we'll be taking,” Mark Lazarus said.
He says he hopes the drug companies will feel the pressure after so many municipalities across the country have joined this lawsuit.
"These manufacturers basically push these drugs onto the market and to doctors and things like that to get them to prescribe them and allegedly over prescribe them and things of that nature,” Lazarus said.
Lazarus said it wasn’t a difficult decision to join the lawsuit because it’ll be free for the county.
"It's not costing the county anything,” Lazarus said. “These lawyers take this on a contingency basis, full contingency. They absorb all the costs and everything out of it so there's no really downside on it for the county. There's a lot of upside to it as you go through the litigation process."
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Horry County to sue major drug distributors for role in opioid epidemic
Feb 6, 2018 | WBTW (SC)
By Ryan Webb
Horry County council voted Tuesday night to sue major drug distributors for their alleged role in the opioid epidemic.
Similar federal lawsuits have been filed by governments across the country, including Marion County. Law firms have recruited governments to join the lawsuits.
The suit filed in Marion County accuses three companies -- Amerisourcebergen Drug Corporation, Cardinal Health 110, and McKesson Corporation -- of helping to fuel the opioid epidemic with “lethal overshipments” of prescription drugs. The suit asks the companies to pay costs related to the epidemic, including first responder costs.
Horry County, like Marion County, had more opioid prescriptions than people in 2016, according to data from the CDC, with 110.7 prescriptions per 100 people. The national rate in the same year was 66.5.
Horry County will use the same law firm as Marion County. Horry County won’t pay any legal costs unless it wins money.
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City of Hattiesburg to file suit against drug companies over opioid epidemic
Feb 7, 2018 | WDAM (MS)
By Melissa Egan
.The City of Hattiesburg is the first municipality in Mississippi to take a stand against major pharmaceutical companies for their role in the opioid epidemic.
Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a resolution authorizing the city to contract a team of attorneys to file a lawsuit against drug manufacturers and wholesale distributors. According to the city, the companies in question control 85% of the market for prescription opioids and profited from the opioid epidemic.
"This is a significant public health issue and we as policy makers, we as leaders, we take a look at our community, we realize these problems are not going to get any better without intervention," said Hattiesburg Mayor Toby Barker. "That's why we are taking this step, because we do believe people should be held accountable for letting this problem go on for as long as it has."
According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least two opioid prescriptions were dispensed for every man, woman and child in Forrest County during 2016. Opioid abuse is the leading cause of death for those under 50, and researchers estimate the total economic burden of the prescription opioid epidemic at $78.5 billion.
The city will be in contract with McHugh Fuller Law Group, PLLC, to pursue "all civil remedies against those in the chain and distribution of prescription opiates responsible for the opioid epidemic which is plaguing the City of Hattiesburg."
James Moore has been a local advocate for increasing awareness about drug abuse and addiction since losing his son, Jeffrey, to an overdose in 2015.
"Until you have lost a child, you can not comprehend what being in this situation is like," said Moore.
Moore calls the city "courageous" for their decision to take legal action, something he said he expects to see more and more as communities learn the impact the drug companies have played in the epidemic.
"They've made not millions, or hundred of millions, they've made billions of dollars after they knew these drugs were highly addictive and continued to market them as addictive," said Moore.
"They had many, many times to realize there were huge problems happening," Moore said. "All they had to do was stop shipment and open up their own investigation, or alert the DEA that we have massive quantities of drugs going to the same location, that would have happened thirty years ago."
Officials said no taxpayer dollars will be used. If the litigation is successful, attorneys will be paid with funds that come out of the lawsuit.
Mayor Toby Barker said if litigation is successful, funds awarded to the city will be used to employ strategies and interventions to curb abuse through research-based education and programming.
"The rest, we will focus in on education, on heightening our public safety capacity and also treatment," said Barker. "That's a significant gap for long-term recovery and sobriety for a lot of people and that's kind of the biggest gap right now in our healthcare sector, is not having any long-term solution for those in recovery."
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Brunswick Co. joins other local governments in suing drug companies
Feb 6, 2018 | WECT (NC)
By Staff
Brunswick County has joined hundreds of other local governments in suing pharmaceutical companies and distributors over the nation’s opioid epidemic.
Similar to other municipalities’ lawsuits, the county’s suit, filed in federal court on Friday, alleges drug distributors conducted marketing campaigns that misled doctors and patients about the danger of addiction and overdose.
“These pharmaceutical companies aggressively advertised to and persuaded doctors to prescribe highly addictive, dangerous opioids and turned patients into drug addicts for their own corporate profit,” the suit states.
Between 1999 and 2007, Brunswick County experienced 79 opiate-related deaths for an average of 8.8 deaths per year, according to the lawsuit. In the following nine-year period, opiate-related deaths more than doubled to 204 – an average of 22.67 deaths per year.
From 2013 through 2016, the county’s opioid prescription rate per 100 people has consistently been nearly double the national average, according to Centers for Disease Control estimates.
It is not yet known if Brunswick County’s suit will be transferred to the Northern District of Ohio, where a federal judge has been assigned to broker a national settlement with the drug companies.
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Westchester Files Lawsuit Against Big Pharma Over Opioids
Feb 6, 2018 | White Plains Patch (NY)
By Michael Woyton
As the costs of combating the opioid epidemic increases in Westchester County, officials have filed a complaint Feb. 6 seeking to recover damages for the use of public resources. The complaint includes more than 30 defendants and alleges that the manufacturers, distributors and other entities intentionally misled the public about the dangers of opioids.
The complaint outlines the history of how the manufacturers and distributors — including Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals — downplayed the risks associated with opioids such as OxyContin, Fentanyl and Percocet while aggressively marketing them.
This alleged negligent behavior has led to a significant increase in county budgets for law enforcement, emergency care, first responder overtime, Narcan training and prevention and treatment programs.
There will be no cost to county taxpayers with the filing, a spokeswoman said.
County Executive George Latimer said that too many lives have been lost to opioids and too many Westchester parents have watched their children suffer and die from these drugs.
"It is time that we take a stand and hold the pharmaceutical companies responsible," he said. "These companies clearly knew the risks associated with the use of these products; they needed to build in protections for how they would be used and give proper attention to the likely abuse of their products."
Latimer said the costs of the opioid epidemic have taxpayers' pockets, in addition to education, enforcement and Medicaid costs.
"These costs must be borne instead by those who profited from the sales of these drugs," he said.
Overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50, officials said. In 2017, approximately 64,000 people died from drug overdoses in the U.S. — the largest annual increase of drug-related deaths ever recorded in the nation's history.
Westchester experienced 124 opioid overdose deaths, including heroin and prescription drugs, in 2016, according to the state Department of Health.
For the lawsuit, the county is being represented by and is partnering with the firm of Napoli Shkolnik PLLC.
"We are committed to working with the county in their fight against the makers of these dangerous and addictive painkillers," said Paul J. Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik.
The lawsuit demands a jury trial in the matter.
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Westchester joins lawsuit against opioid manufacturers
Feb 7, 2018 | MidHudsonNews.com (NY)
By Staff
Lawyers for Westchester County Government filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against manufacturers and distributors of opioids. To date, 60 of the 62 counties in the state have taken similar actions in the belief that the opioid epidemic has been fueled by manufacturers misleading the public about the dangers of their drugs.
County Executive George Latimer said the drug scourge impacts the community in many ways.
“This epidemic has represented not only the loss of life, but the cost of taxpayers and others that have to offset the treatment, the public education, t he law enforcement efforts that have to go above and beyond in order to fight this,” Latimer said.
Stephanie Marquesano is the founder and president of The Harris Project, named for her 19-year-old son who died by an accidental opioid overdose in 2013.
“As an advocate and someone who is truly living a nightmare, the silver lining for me is that I live in Westchester County where there is much support for turning the tide on this epidemic and changing outcomes through innovative solutions,” Marquesano said.
County Attorney John Nonna said the county believes that “the manufacturers, marketers and promoters of these drugs have misled us as to the addictive power of these drugs in their negligent marketing and misleading promotion of them.” He said they “should, and will be, held accountable for this conduct.”
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Westchester County sues drug makers over opioid crisis
Feb 6, 2018 | Fox 5 (NY)
By Arthur Chi'en
Westchester County in New York is joining many other governments in trying to hold companies responsible for the deadly opioid epidemic.
By the end of the day, some 115 Americans will die from an opioid overdose. This day isn't special. According to the CDC, 115 Americans are dying each and every day from prescription opioids.
With 124 opioid deaths in Westchester County in 2016, county officials joined the growing chorus of cities and counties filing lawsuits against several companies. Their accusation is deceptive marketing for claiming the painkillers were safe.
Chicago was first to file suit to hold manufacturers and distributors of opioid prescription drugs responsible. Two hundred lawsuits have been filed across the country. Cities and counties are hoping funds from the lawsuits can go towards the outreach, treatment, and emergency services needed to manage the epidemic.
New York City is also suing drug makers. In 2017, more people in in city died from overdoses than from murders and car accidents combined.
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Westchester alleges Massive Pharma key to lethal opioid disaster that price tax to battle
Feb 7, 2018 | Lockport Press (NY)
By Staff
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 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 , wholesalers, distributors and marketers, USA Today Network reported.
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.
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Westchester Sues Highly Addictive Opioid Manufacturers, Distributors
Feb 6, 2018 | Mount Vernon Daily Voice (NY)
By Jon Craig
Westchester County, facing the ever-escalating costs associated with combating the opioid epidemic, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against more than 30 parties alleged to manufacture and distribute the highly addictive painkiller.
The county seeks to recover money used fighting the opioid and related heroin crisis in Westchester, the Hudson valley and nationwide.
Westchester suffered 124 known opioid overdose deaths (includes heroin and prescription drugs) in 2016, according to the New York State Department of Health.
The lawsuit alleges that the manufacturers, distributors and other entities intentionally misled the public about the dangers of opioids. The complaint outlines the history of how these defendants downplayed the risks associated with opioids such as OxyContin, Fentanyl and Percocet while aggressively marketing them. This negligent behavior has led to a significant increase in County budgets for law enforcement, emergency care, first responder overtime, Narcan training and prevention and treatment programs. There will be no cost to the Westchester County taxpayers with this filing.
County Executive George Latimer said: “Too many lives have been lost to opioids. Too many parents in this County have watched their children suffer and die from these drugs. It is time that we take a stand and hold the pharmaceutical companies responsible. These companies clearly knew the risks associated with use of these products; they needed to build in protections for how they would be used and give proper attention to the likely abuse of their products. They ignored these concerns when promoting these drugs. They are drugs and they are dangerous - and the public must be protected. Further, the costs of this opioid epidemic have been borne by the taxpayers, in additional education, enforcement, and Medicaid costs. These costs must be borne instead by those who profited from the sales of these drugs”
In 2017, about 64,000 people died from a drug overdose in the United States – the largest annual increase of drug-related deaths ever recorded in U.S. history. Overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50.
Westchester County Attorney John Nonna of Pleasantville said, : “Westchester County, like many local governments, has expended resources and suffered financial loss addressing the opioid crisis affecting our entire community. We believe that the manufacturers, marketers and promoters of these drugs have misled us as to the addictive power of these drugs in their negligent marketing and misleading promotion of them. They should, and will be, held accountable for this conduct.”
Paul J. Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik, the firm the County Attorney's Office has partnered with in this endeavor said: “We are committed to working with the County in their fight against the makers of these dangerous and addictive painkillers.”
The Harris Project Founder and President Stephanie Marquesano,who lost her son Harris to opioids, joined Latimer for the announcement of the lawsuit: “My 19 year-old son Harris died by an accidental opioid overdose in 2013. This propelled me to become an advocate for prevention programming and integrated treatment to meet the needs of those with co-occurring disorders. I work closely with the County to support those facing the challenges of opioid addiction, and see first-hand the catastrophic impact on individuals and loved ones. This is a critical step in turning the tide on this epidemic, and creating long-term solutions.”
County Health Commissioner Sherlita Amler, M.D. said: “Westchester and the Nation are in the throes of a new public health crisis, the opioid epidemic, which last year killed more of our people than motor vehicle accidents. Prescription painkillers have actually overtaken heroin as the most common cause of opioid overdose deaths and every measure must be taken to stop this dangerous trend.”
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Lewis County Joins Opioid Class-Action Lawsuit
Feb 7, 2018 | WWNYTV (NY)
By Staff
Lewis County is the latest to join a class-action lawsuit against major manufacturers of opioid drugs.
It's a change in direction for lawmakers who had previously declined to participate.
More than a dozen New York counties, including St. Lawrence County, are working with law firm Simmons, Hanly, Conroy, P.C.
Lewis County Legislature Chair Larry Dolhof says the county wants "to try to recover some of the costs that the county incurs with the expense of the opioid addiction problem."
While lawmakers say there isn't one specific cause of the drug problem, they believe pharmaceutical companies deliberately push for the overuse of these highly addictive drugs.
"I don't see it as the manufacturers in a position of taking full blame," Dolhof said, "but they certainly do share in the responsibility."
Legislator Jerry King wants to make sure if the counties win the lawsuit, the money won't just be put into the general fund, but go directly towards combating the opioid crisis.
"We need to make sure we get the money where it's going to help the people," King said.
The lawsuit won't cost the counties anything unless there's a settlement. The law firm will get 25 percent of any winnings.
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Haverhill City Solicitor speaks on big pharma lawsuit
Feb 7, 2018 | Eagle-Tribune (MA)
By Peter Francis
In addition to joining a nationwide lawsuit against multiple giants of the pharmaceutical industry for their roles in the nationwide opioid epidemic, the city is also planning to file a suit of its own against several drug manufacturers.
In a short address to the City Council Tuesday night, City Solicitor William Cox gave more details about the upcoming suit the city is joining against 10 notable drug companies, including Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceutical, Endo International, Allegan and GlaxoSmithKline.
Three distributors — AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc., and the McKesson Corporation — are named in the federal suit.
The suit has been filed in court by Scott & Scott, a New York law firm that Cox said specializes in litigating class-action suits related to consumer, antitrust and securities fraud, along with representing governmental entities. Cox added that Scott & Scott also represents the city’s retirement board in antitrust price-fixing action against several large international banks.
Cox said the city has retained the firm on a contingency basis, meaning the city will not be spending any money for its involvement in the suit, but that the suit will take awhile to settle in court.
“This is work that’s going to go on for years. It’s not going to be solved overnight, everyone knows that,” said Cox of the suit. “But the remedial efforts and steps the city has to take to address this issue — in helping, treating and educating people — is going to be ongoing for some time to come.”
The city is seeking restitution for social services for addicts, training and providing the anti-overdose drug Narcan to emergency personnel, health care and worker’s compensation for city employees and their families affected by addiction, and law enforcement costs due to additional prosecutions.
“Financial compensation for the costs we have incurred is not the only factor that motivates us to take these actions at this time. There is also the issue of accountability,” Cox said. “Simply put, the nation’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors embarked on a campaign to deceive medical providers and patients for one reason — greed.
“There can never be enough compensation for the lives that have been lost and those forever changed,” Cox continued. “But holding these corporations accountable and responsible for their actions in initiating a virtual chain reaction which resulted in the opioid epidemic is part of our motivation for taking this action.”
The federal suit accuses the pharmaceutical companies of a civil conspiracy, fraud, negligence and recklessness, public nuisance, and violation of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act.
The suit also accuses drug distributors of unlawfully disregarding their statutory obligation to maintain control over the dissemination of controlled substances and to stop any suspicious sales, thereby flooding communities with addictive drugs.
Haverhill is joining the nationwide suit with only one other Massachusetts city, Springfield, although Cox said other Bay State communities may join on, as well.
Regarding the city’s own lawsuit, Cox said that the city’s own forthcoming lawsuit will likely be filed in Superior Court to preserve claims under state law, but added that it could be moved to federal court at some point.
When asked after speaking with the council how much money the city is seeking in compensation from the drug companies, Cox said its difficult to say.
“We’re in the process of doing a thorough examination of evaluating the total impact on the city,” he said, adding that a number of pharmaceutical companies have already begun settlement talks in a number of large-scale actions similar to the one the city is joining.
At this time, 15 states have filed claims in court against pharmaceutical companies over the opioid epidemic, said Cox. While Massachusetts has yet to do so, Cox said, the time is now to file a suit of its own.
“As we saw with the tobacco litigation, when the state files suit and settles on behalf of municipalities, the proceeds do not always come back to that municipality,” he said.
Councilor Colin LePage, who lost his son Christopher to an opioid overdose in July 2015 and has spent the better part of the last two years speaking to students in city schools about the dangers of opioids and advocating for more prevention efforts from the city.
LePage joined the other seven councilors participating in the meeting in praising Mayor James Fiorentini for pursuing the lawsuit. Fiorentini pointed out recently, Cox said, that the opioid epidemic has claimed the lives of more Massachusetts residents than the entire Vietnam War and that the state is “at risk of losing an entire generation of young people.”
“Drug overdose deaths in Massachusetts have increased by 19 percent since 2015 and 46 percent since 2014,” said Cox. “In 2016, Haverhill had 38 opioid-related deaths, up from 31 the year before.”
The opioid epidemic has claimed 110 lives in Haverhill from 2014 to 2016, said LePage with countless others overdosing on heroin, fentanyl or prescription opioids during that time.
Between 1993 and 2015, LePage said the Drug Enforcement Agency allowed the production of oxycodone to increase 39 times, while fentanyl — a high-powered pain medication 100 times more potent than heroin — to increase 25 times.
He added that four out of five people who become addicted to heroin start with pain meds like oxycodone.
“The sad reality of all this is that we’re not getting a hold of this issue. It’s been going on for quite some time,” said LePage. “The alarming rate it’s been growing has caused people to really look and see there’s an issue here.”
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Grafton considers opioid litigation
Feb 6, 2018 | Telegram & Gazette (MA)
By Susan Spencer
Selectmen considered Tuesday whether to join a handful of other Central Massachusetts towns in joining a civil lawsuit against opioid wholesale distributors and manufacturers. While they appeared in favor of such a move, they held off on action until a later meeting.
Town Counsel Ginny Kremer explained that cities and towns across the country are filing suit against the opioid industry, alleging they did not comply with federal requirements to alert regulators of red flags in distributing the addictive painkillers in “volume that is alarming and out of proportion to the population being served.”
Several major opioid manufacturers and distributors have already paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines to federal agencies for their role in the growing opioid crisis.
“What has been missing here is none of the money has been flowing back to municipalities,” Ms. Kremer said.
Yet municipalities bear the brunt of costs for police and emergency medical services to respond to overdoses, as well as publicly-financed health insurance and rehabilitation costs for employees with substance use disorders and special education costs for children who were exposed prenatally to opioids in the womb.
Ms. Kremer said the town would receive technical assistance in determining damages for the claim. “It’s a potentially significant amount of money,” she said.
The mass tort litigation would be filed through the Massachusetts Opioid Litigation Attorneys, a consortium of lawyers suing the pharmaceutical companies on behalf of individual municipalities.
A point person in the state is Richard M. Sandman of Malden, who a decade ago won $83 million from oil companies for communities that incurred damages when an additive in the refining process ended up in local water supplies, Ms. Kremer continued. She said Mr. Sandman had offered to speak to local boards about the litigation.
Under the proposed representation agreement, the town would pay the lawyers 25 percent of the total recovery received, whether by compromise, settlement, trial or verdict (and appeal).
The lead firm is Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Rafferty & Proctor, in Pensacola, Florida.
In Worcester County, Southbridge, Charlton, Dudley and Sturbridge have signed on to the suit already, according to Ms. Kremer. Town Administrator Timothy P. McInerney said Westboro and Shrewsbury, among others, were considering it.
“There’s some culpability somewhere,” Selectman Brook Padgett said. “To jump on board with somebody else, doesn’t seem to be a downside.”
In other business, selectmen voted to authorize the town administrator to negotiate a contract with D.A. Sullivan & Sons of Northampton to be owner’s project manager for the $16.6 million library renovation. The firm was recommended from 10 bidders, according to Mary Fritz, chairwoman of the Library Planning and Building Committee.
Selectman Craig Dauphinais questioned why Grafton resident and architectural engineer Andy Deschenes, who has already been hired under a three-year contract to serve as clerk of the works for the new Department of Public Works building, couldn’t also manage the library project for far less than an owner’s project manager would cost.
Ms. Fritz explained that because roughly half the cost of the library project will be reimbursed by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, strict rules about hiring an owner’s project manager have to be followed. She said D.A. Sullivan had more experience working on library projects, but added that Mr. Deschenes may be able to work with the owner’s project manager.
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St. Joseph County commissioners plan lawsuit against drug companies
Feb 6, 2018 | WSBT 22 (IN)
By Staff
The St. Joseph County commissioners are moving forward with plans to file a lawsuit against drug companies.
It accused those firms of deceptive practices contributing to the county's opioid crisis.
According to Ted Booker with our reporting partners at the South Bend Tribune, the commissioners are planning to hire the Indianapolis law fire representing Marshall County and 10 other Indiana counties and cities in similar lawsuits.
The commissioners will consider hiring the firm on February 20.
If approved the hope to file the lawsuit immediately.
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Evansville joins other cities in filing lawsuit against opioid drug manufacturers
Feb 7, 2018 | Tristate Homepage (IN)
By Staff
The City of Evansville plans to go after opioid drug manufacturers and distributors.
Evansville is joining a list of several hundred other cities across the country in a lawsuit that's seeking reimbursement of money spent dealing with drug overdoses and treatment. City officials say it's a public nuisance lawsuit against the pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and wholesale drug distributors that made the opioid epidemic possible.
Evansville Deputy Mayor Steve Schaefer says this is a much needed step to hold accountable the companies responsible for dumping millions of dollars’ worth of prescription opiates into communities.
Opioid overdoses are on the rise in Evansville, meaning more money is spent on police and fire runs.
City officials are hoping to recoup some of that money spent in connection with dealing with the opioid crisis.
Evansville, using an Indianapolis-based law firm, has filed suit against five of the largest manufacturers of prescription opioids and their related companies and against the country’s three largest wholesale drug distributors.
Officials say the manufacturing companies pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction, while the distributors breached their legal duties to monitor, detect, investigate, refuse and report suspicious orders of prescription opioids.
Evansville officials say because prescription opioids are a highly addictive substance, in 1970 Congress designed a system to control the volume of opioid pills being distributed in this country. It let only a select few wholesalers gain the right to deliver opioids. In exchange, those companies agreed to do a very important job – halt suspicious orders and control against the diversion of these dangerous drugs to illegitimate uses. But in recent years they failed to do that, and today the Evansville community is paying the price.
The City says it's working with a consortium of law firms to hold pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and wholesale distributors accountable for failing to do what they were charged with doing under the federal Controlled Substances Act – monitor, identify and report suspicious activity in the size and frequency of opioid shipments to pharmacies and hospitals.
“We are taking this action today because the costs of this opioid crisis have overwhelmed our ability to provide for the health and safety of our residents,” Mayor Winnecke said. “Homes have been broken and families torn apart by this epidemic, which has claimed victims from all walks of life. But it is the pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and wholesale drug distributors who failed in their legal obligation to notify the Drug Enforcement Administration of suspicious orders, even as the number of pills flowing into our county rose and rose.”
City officials say the residents of Evansville continue to bear the burden of the cost of the epidemic, as the costs of treatment for addiction, education and law enforcement have continued to rise. According to a federal study, roughly 1 in 7 people who received a refill or had a second opioid prescription authorized were still on opioids one year later.
The lawsuit was first reported by our media partner, the Evansville Courier & Press.
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Lawrence County Files Lawsuit Against Opioid Manufacturers And Distributors
Feb 6, 2018 | WBIW (IN)
By Staff
The Lawrence County Commissioners have retained the Indianapolis law firm Cohen & Malad, LLP to file a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and distributors for their part in the opioid crisis that is ravaging Lawrence County.
The effects of opioids on the county are devastating and quantifiable. As of today there are 192 inmates in the Lawrence County Jail. Many of them are there on drug related charges or because they violated their terms of probation.
The lawsuit will seek damages in the form of funds to address the significant financial burdens that the opioid crisis has placed on the county and the costs are exponentially both emotional and financial.
County Attorney Dave Smith, says there will be no cost to the county, unless the county wins the lawsuit.
This lawsuit supports Lawrence County's efforts to address a major public health crisis.
"This will not be a short-term venture," Smith added. "It will be complicated because so many states are involved."
Manufacturer defendants will include Purdue Pharma, Cephalon, Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Noramco, Inc., Endo Pharmaceuticals, Mallinckrodt PLC, Allergan PLC, and Watson Pharmaceuticals. The lawsuit will allege that these manufacturers deceptively marketed their opioid products with regard to their safety and the risks of use.
Distributor defendants will include AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, Cardinal Health, Inc., and McKesson Corporation. The lawsuit will allege that the distributors failed in their duty to report and stop suspicious orders of opioids flooding Lawrence County.
"Taxpayers shouldn't be left to shoulder the burden of solving a problem fueled by the opioid manufacturers and distributors," says Lynn Toops of Cohen & Malad, LLP "Lawrence County is taking an important step forward to hold these drug manufacturers and distributors accountable for their actions."
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Mansfield joins national lawsuit against opioid manufacturers
Feb 6, 2018 | Mansfield News Journal (OH)
By Emily Mills
The city is joining more than 200 other cities across the country in a national civil suit against pharmaceutical companies that manufactured and distributed opioids.
Mansfield City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved allowing the city's safety-service director, Lori Cope, to enter into a agreement with law firms Murray and Murray Co., out of Sandusky, and Rinehardt Law Firm, out of Ontario, who are handling the lawsuit for Ohio and Mansfield, respectively.
The lawsuit accuses the companies of misleading health care professionals and the public by marketing opioids as rarely addictive and as a safe substitute for non-addictive pain medications, such as ibuprofen, according to USA TODAY.
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, USA TODAY reports.
"The crux of it, in part, is the pharmaceutical industry falsely, failed to disclose the strong addictive nature of the opiate pharmaceutical products," said Mansfield law director John Spon. "And then these were massively distributed through our society, mainly through, initially, medical, doctors, physician services, and then they became a part of our mainstream society."
Spon said he became interested in pursuing the issue after hearing about Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's lawsuit against five prescription drug manufacturers in May.
Spon said he believes the city should enter into a contract to join the lawsuit "to have a seat at the table to try to recover tens of thousands of dollars that the city has had to expend as a result of the opiate crisis."
"We have nothing to lose and everything to gain," added Spon, who called the opiate crisis "unprecedented."
The number of drug overdose deaths in Ohio increased from 3,050 in 2015 to 4,050 in 2016. The 2017 numbers have not yet been released. Nationally, the U.S. Centers of Diseases Control and Prevention reports 42,000 people died of opioid overdoses in 2016.
According to the agreement between the city and the law firms, all civil remedies will be pursued against those in the chain of distribution of prescription opiates responsible for the opioid epidemic, "which is plaguing the City of Mansfield," according to the agreement.
The national lawsuit is headed by three law firms in Mississippi, Alabama and New York.
The attorneys involved in the suit across the country will receive 30 percent of anything recovered on behalf of the roughly 200 cities. No attorney fees will be paid if no amount is recovered.
The agreement says the litigation will be "very expensive."
"The cost of this litigation against the pharmaceutical companies will cost the plaintiffs' law firms millions of dollars to go after the pharmaceutical industry," Spon said.
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Pratt County joins opioid lawsuit
Feb 6, 2018 | The Ottawa Herald (KS)
By Gale Rose
The Pratt County Commissions have approved an outside council to pursue a suit against certain companies that wrongfully manufacture and distribute opioids.
Pratt County is latest entity to join in a lawsuit to make companies that manufacture and distribute opioid medications liable for its cost to government entities.
The Pratt County Commissioners passed a resolution to retain Prochaska, Howell & Prochaska of Wichita and additional firms to pursue a civil suit against companies that are legally responsible for the wrongful manufacture or distribution of prescription opiates and the damages they cause, said Pratt County Clerk Sherry Kruse.
Sedgwick County approved getting similar counsel about nine weeks ago. It is the same counsel Pratt has retained. Other Kansas governmental entities are also joining in the lawsuit, said Pratt County Counselor Bob Schmisseur.
Opioid addiction is impacting Pratt County. If a person in the county jail has an opioid addition, the county has to provide that person with medical treatment.
“It is a cost Pratt County is paying right now,” Schmisseur said.
There is an opioid crisis in America and the number of people dying from drug overdose continues to climb. This addiction hurts people and costs governments a substantial amount of money.
In this suit, the law firm will attempt to get the companies responsible to put money in a trust that governmental entities in the suit can draw from to help pay for some of the expenses they encounter in covering treatment for opioid addiction.
If the lawyers are successful, they will take 30 percent of the amount they recover for their fee and the government entities will get the remainder of they amount of their suit. Whatever that amount is, the government entities can use the money as they see fit.
The law firm will stand all the expenses. If the lawyers are not successful, there is no cost to the government entities, Schmisseur said.
With no expense coming out of the government entities coffers, the commissioners decided to go ahead an join in the lawsuit.
Opioid addiction is a problem in every community. The law suit is a way of holding the people who are profiting from this responsible.
Some of the major drug companies may have a drug company in a small town and millions of doses are being shipped to that pharmacy. Its this kind of practice the law suit hopes to make the drug companies that are creating the problem responsible for their actions.
Years ago there was a similar lawsuit against tobacco companies. Kansas filed in that suit and gets money from the settlement. But it took a long time to settle the tobacco lawsuit and a similar long time expected in this lawsuit before any money would be available.
“It will take years to get a settlement,” Schmisseur said.
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Dallas law firm appeals to Taylor County Commissioners about opioid crisis lawsuit
Feb 7, 2018 | KTXS (TX)
By Megan Murat
Opioid addiction has been a growing concern across the country and it's grabbing the attention of the Taylor County Commissioners. Tuesday, they heard a presentation about including Taylor County in a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies.
Jeffrey Simon of Simon Greenstone Panatier Bartlett, a law firm in Dallas, is representing other counties in the state of Texas fighting against big pharmaceutical companies to hold them financially responsible for the opioid crisis.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 million Americans are dependent on opioids and about 175 Americans die every day of opioid-related deaths.
Taylor County has seen an uptick in drug cases, which ends up costing the taxpayers in the long run.
"The number of people we have in custody, as well as the people that are going to court and kids are being taken away from their parents because of pharmaceutical abuses and it affects the entire judicial system in Taylor County," said Chuck Statler, the Taylor County Commissioner from Precinct 4.
As a result of increased CPS cases, the county was forced to add another prosecutor to the District Attorney's Office.
County officials say that in the meantime, educating the public on the lasting effects of the crisis will help.
"It's a cycle that we need to break that we can only break through educating the public and letting them know the entire impact, not only on them, but their family," said Statler.
In his presentation, Simon also said that it is also up to doctors to prescribe safe dosages of opioid-based medications to patients to prevent opioid addiction.
As for responsibility of the county, Statler said, "the medical professions, how they prescribe pain relievers is going to be a challenge to them, but it's nothing that county officials should be addressing. It's within the medical society that they need to address those issues."
The Taylor County Commissioners decided to take no action on today's presentation, although they plan to discuss the possible lawsuit and revisit it another time.
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Clallam County to join opioid lawsuit
Feb 7, 2018 | Sequim Gazette (WA)
By Rob Ollikainen
Clallam County has decided to join the local governments that are suing manufacturers and wholesalers of opioid-based prescription drugs.
Commissioners voted 3-0 on Jan. 30 to retain the Seattle law firm Keller Rohrback and file suit in federal court to recover the cost of fighting the opioid epidemic locally.
Attorneys from Keller Rohrback will be paid only if the county recovers damages in a settlement or at trial.
“The simple fact is Clallam County has a significant problem with opioids, with the number of opioid deaths the highest within the state,” Commissioner Bill Peach said before last week’s vote.
“I really do appreciate the action that the Department of Health has taken to say we must be proactive, and this is one of the actions.”
The opioid-related death rate in Clallam County was 16.5 per 100,000 from 2012 to 2016, according to state Department of Health statistics.
Mason County had the second-highest opioid death rate at 14.7 per 100,000, health officials said. Jefferson County’s opioid-related death rate was 10.3 per 100,000, ranking No. 10 among the 39 counties of the state.
King County, the city of Tacoma, Skagit County and the cities Mount Vernon, Burlington and Sedro Woolley have each filed similar lawsuits against Big Pharma.
More than 250 claims have been filed claims in federal courts nationwide. They are being consolidated under Judge Dan Polster of Cleveland, who is bringing together lawyers for governments across the country, drug makers, distributors and others, the Associated Press reported last week.
Since the aim is to broker a settlement, the judge has closed the discussions to the public and media.
The Clallam County Board of Health, which includes the three commissioners, voted 7-0 on Jan. 16 to recommend that the county pursue litigation.
“The Board of Health was strong in its endorsement of this course of action, and I think it is indicative of the significant impact — negative impact — that the opioid crisis is having here in our county,” Clallam County Commissioner Mark Ozias said.
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As lawyers push to limit opioid production in legal deal, Sen. Sanders wants more from Congress
Feb 6, 2018 | Fierce Pharma
By Eric Sagonowsky
Hundreds of cities and counties have sued Big Pharma for its alleged role in the opioid crisis, and while attorneys have met in Cleveland to discuss a potential settlement, Sen. Bernie Sanders is pushing for more action from Congress.
In a letter to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions chair Sen. Lamar Alexander, Sanders drew comparisons to Big Tobacco. He said it's time for Congress to "summon that courage" it used when it forced tobacco CEOs to testify under oath back in 1994, a Congressional hearing that he pointed out eventually led to a $246 billion settlement between states and the companies.
Sanders' effort comes days after more than a hundred lawyers met in Cleveland to discuss a global settlement to more than 200 lawsuits from cities and counties, according to CBS News. Part of the talks include a push by the plaintiffs to remove ultra-high-dose opioid products from the market, the publication reports.
In a court filing Friday, Judge Daniel Polster, who's overseeing the negotiations, wrote that the meeting on Jan. 31 was "productive" and that he has "decided to continue settlement discussions covering both economic and non-economic issues."
Now, both sides are to select six attorneys each for future discussions. The next settlement conference is scheduled for March 6 in Cleveland.
While details about the potential size of a settlement have not been made public, New York City which last month joined the list of those seeking damages, wants $500 million in reimbursement for itself. City leadership said opioid overdoses caused more deaths in New York City than homicides and car accidents combined in 2016.
According to Sanders, the cost of the opioid crisis to the U.S. is running at $78 billion every year and results in tens of thousands of deaths every year. It didn't "happen in a vacuum," he added.
"Thanks to the work of many investigative journalists, we know that pharmaceutical companies lied about the addictive impacts of the drugs," Sanders wrote. "In other words, they knew how dangerous these products were, but refused to tell doctors and patients."
"We also know that the companies and distributors teamed up to flood small towns with far more pills than they could ever need in a lifetime," the senator added.
Now is the time for Alexander's committee to push for more information from the pharmaceutical industry, Sanders believes. For his part, he plans to introduce legislation that will seek to put an end to "illegal marketing and distribution practices" for opioids, "create public accountability" for companies and executives, and force reimbursement for the costs of the crisis.
In addition to the state and county lawsuits, Sen. Claire McCaskill has opened an investigation into opioid marketing from pharma companies, as have attorneys general from a majority of states. State attorneys general are not under the Cleveland court's jurisdiction and are participating in the settlement talks voluntarily, Judge Polster wrote.
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Feb 6, 2018 | Alabama OAG
By AG Steve Marshall
Attorney General Steve Marshall announced today that the State of Alabama has filed suit against Purdue Pharma, L.P., Purdue Frederick Company Inc., and Rhodes Pharmaceuticals, L.P. (collectively “Purdue”), the manufacturers and sellers of prescription opioid pain medications, including the brand name drugs OxyContin, MS Contin, Dilaudid/Dilaudid HP, Butrans, Hysingla ER, and Targiniq ER, as well as generic opioids. Alabama’s complaint asserts that Purdue violated Alabama’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act in the marketing and sale of opioid drugs and, in so doing, jeopardized the public health, welfare, and safety of Alabama residents. The State is seeking both monetary damages and injunctive relief.
“The opioid epidemic has devastated Alabama families, leaving a trail of addiction and death winding though every community of this state,” said Attorney General Marshall. “Alabama ranks first in the nation for the number of painkiller prescriptions per capita. As a result, it is estimated that almost 30,000 of our residents over age 17 are dependent upon heroin and prescription painkillers. Alabama’s drug overdose death rate skyrocketed by 82 percent from 2006 to 2014 and it is believed that many of those deaths were from opioid painkillers and heroin.
“It will take years to undo the damage but an important first step we must take is to hold the parties responsible for this epidemic legally liable for the destruction they have unleashed upon our citizens. Today, I have filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma—the manufacturer of OxyContin and other opioids—in federal court here in Montgomery, and I anticipate that the suit will be transferred to Cleveland, Ohio, as part of the national multi-district litigation.”
On August 8, 2017, Governor Kay Ivey named Attorney General Marshall co-chair of the Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council, a Council that the Governor established to “develop and submit a strategic action plan to the Governor by December 31, 2017, that establishes recommendations for policy, regulatory and legislative actions to address the overdose crisis in Alabama.” That Council issued its 74-page Action Plan on December 31, 2017. Attorney General Marshall also attended a court-ordered settlement conference in Cleveland, Ohio, on January 31, 2018.
The State has retained two law firms, Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C. of Montgomery and Prince, Glover & Hayes of Tuscaloosa to prosecute Alabama’s claims on a contingency basis, under the supervision of attorneys from the Attorney General’s Office. The contract was undertaken in accordance with the 2013 Transparency in Private Attorney Contracts Act.
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Fighting opioid lawsuits, McKesson offers new solution for old pills
Feb 6, 2018 | San Franscisco Business Journal (CA)
By Ron Leuty
In front of financiers and other potential investors at last month's J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, McKesson Corp. CEO John Hammergren highlighted the company's distribution of so-called "destruction pouches" as a way of taking unused opioid painkillers out of circulation.
Along with a national, real-time network identifying potential misused prescriptions, the drug deactivation pouches are one of the ways that San Francisco-based McKesson (NYSE: MCK) — one of the big three medical distributors nationally — says it is fighting an opioid crisis that has pulled the company into 192 legal complaints and killed tens of thousands of people.
"We're exploring those (pouches) in different markets," Hammergren said.
But McKesson's deactivation-pouch initiative may be less than it seems. Beyond one state, it hasn't said where those pouches may be offered by the company or how effective the program has been in taking opioids off the street. Or much else about fighting an epidemic McKesson's critics and legal opponents say it helped to feed. It's not clear how much, if any, money McKesson made off the pouches.
"While we are looking at a variety of ways that McKesson can further help address the opioid epidemic (including drug disposal/destruction pouches/kits, technology solutions, educational efforts, etc.), we are not discussing any details publicly at this time," McKesson spokesperson Kristin Chasen said in an email.
McKesson has said only that it has distributed pouches in Pennsylvania. There, last July, Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced a program where McKesson would distribute to pharmacies some 300,000 Deterra drug deactivation systems made by privately held, Minnesota-based Verde Technologies Inc.
Deterra uses a water-soluble inner pouch that dissolves and deactivates up to 45 pills when warm water is added and the pouches are sealed. Then the outer pouch can be thrown away in the trash.TRENDINGBANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICESWells Fargo hit by Fed with growth limit, removal of four directorsCAREER & WORKPLACEMeet the 130 Best Places to Work in the Bay Area 2017HIRING IN SALESChief Business Development Officer
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A spokeswoman for Shapiro's office didn't respond when asked how effective the McKesson-distributed pouches have been in taking out drugs out of circulation. Those drugs are commonly prescribed for surgeries such as wisdom tooth extractions but underused by patients, leaving them vulnerable for misuse or sale on the black market. Pennsylvania's rate of drug overdose deaths — 37.9 per 100,000 — is surpassed by only West Virginia, Ohio and New Hampshire.
The attorney general bought the pouches through a Pennsylvania program funded by fines assessed for driving under the influence and drug offenses.
Two months after Shapiro announced the pouch program, he disclosed the expansion of a 41-state investigation of McKesson, fellow distributors AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health and opioid manufacturers Endo International, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceuticals and its generic opioid subsidiary Cephalon, Allergan and Purdue Pharma.
Shapiro has taken a lead role in the state cases, which were among more than 60 cases brought by state and local governments that were consolidated in December under U.S. District Court Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland. Polster has brought pharma executives, government officials and others together to negotiate a settlement in those cases.
About 29 cases against McKesson remain in state courts in Pennsylvania and six other states.
McKesson, which last week said it made $1.39 billion on revenue of $156.7 billion through the first nine months of its fiscal year, has stressed that it doesn't prescribe pills or fill prescriptions. And Hammergren told Bloomberg Television after his presenation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference last month that it is "nonsense, frankly" to suggest that the company willfully ignored the opioid epidemic.
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Opioid litigation is a slippery slope (EDITORIAL)
Feb 6, 2018 | Dothan Eagle (AL)
By Editorial Board
This week, Alabama became the 14th state to file a lawsuit against the makers of OxyContin and other opioids in a move to lay the blame for the nation’s drug epidemic at the feet of the manufacturer of the drugs.
The state’s attorney general, Steve Marshall, said as many as 30,000 Alabamians are addicted to opioids; our state ranks first in the nation in the number of painkiller prescriptions per capita with more than 5.8 million opioid prescriptions written in 2015. That equates to a rate of 1.2 prescriptions per person; the national per capita was 0.71 in 2015.
Litigation may not be the best approach to combating the addiction problem. The disparity between the number of prescriptions written and the addiction count suggests that the vast majority of patients receiving opioid painkillers don’t become addicted. Pursuing a punitive settlement from the drug manufacturer will likely drive up prescription costs – and insurance rates -- that are already out of reach for many Alabamians.
There’s no doubt that opioid addiction has taken countless lives and cost millions of dollars in healthcare spending. A portion of a multi-state settlement could, in theory, offset those costs. However, it would more likely become a political football, as did settlement funds from a suit against the tobacco industry, which were treated as found money by lawmakers struggling to balance the state’s General Fund.
One has to wonder where a successful suit against opioid manufacturers might lead.
“The opioid epidemic has devastated Alabama families, leaving a trail of addiction and death winding through every community of this state,” Marshall said. “It will take years to undo the damage but an important first step we must take is to hold the parties responsible for this epidemic legally liable for the destruction they have unleashed upon our citizens.”
In Marshall’s statement, the words “opioid epidemic” could be interchangeable with other controversial challenges. According to Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s Crime in Alabama 2016 report, 18,457 people were arrested for abuse of alcohol crimes such as public drunkenness and driving under the influence. Guns account for 9,650 crimes – 98 rapes, 3,098 robberies, 6,069 assaults, and 270 homicides. In contrast, 10,438 arrests were made for drug violations in 2016, including all illicit substances.
There is no easy fix. However, rather than jumping on the litigation bandwagon, Alabama would be better served to approach to the opioid epidemic by addressing the addiction, and working with the medical community to re-assess the use of these drugs as opposed to others that may lack the habit-forming properties of opioids.
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Jeff Sessions has a suggestion to tame the opioid crisis: Bufferin and less marijuana
Feb 7, 2018 | The Week
By Peter Weber
Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke Tuesday evening at a Heritage Foundation event to celebrate former President Ronald Reagan's birthday, and he was eager to tie President Trump to Reagan. One of the ways the Trump administration is echoing Reagan's legacy, he said, is by cracking down on drug use, blaming "lax enforcement, permissive rhetoric, and the media" for undermining Nancy Reagan's "just say no" message, especially with marijuana.
During a question-and-answer period, Sessions addressed the opioid epidemic, which is killing an estimated 175 Americans a day. Under President Trump, Kellyanne Conway and other political appointees are in charge of handling the opioid crisis, but Sessions touted an encouraging 7 percent drop last year in prescriptions of opioids, saying he wants to see that trend continue in 2018. "Sometimes you just need to take two Bufferin or something and go to bed," he said. (Bufferin is an old-timey aspirin brand now owned by India's Dr. Reddy's.)
Opioid pills "become so addictive," Sessions said. "The DEA said that a huge percentage of the heroin addictions starts with prescriptions. That may be an exaggerated number — they had it as high as 80 percent — we think a lot of this is starting with marijuana and other drugs."
Studies suggest medical marijuana actually reduces opioid abuse and deaths, but the attorney general's promised crackdown on marijuana, even where states legalized it, has advocates concerned. "Based on my research and what I've learned while teaching the first U.S. college course on the marijuana business at the University of Denver, I see no reason for supporters of legalization to panic," writes Paul Seaborn at The Conversation. "In fact, I believe that Sessions may have actually accelerated the process toward federal marijuana legalization."
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Trump Has Given Victims of the Opioid Crisis Nothing But Contempt (EDITORIAL)
Feb 6, 2018 | New York Magazine
By Eric Levitz
The year Donald Trump was elected president, drug overdoses killed 63,600 Americans. That was 21 percent more drug deaths than America had seen in 2015, which had been the worst year for such fatalities in our nation’s history. It was also more unnatural deaths than gun violence, HIV/AIDS, or car accidents had ever caused in the United States in a single year. The scale of devastation wrought by the opioid epidemic was so vast, life expectancy in the United States fell for the second consecutive year — the first time that had happened since the early 1960s.
The epidemic’s body count was almost certainly higher in 2017, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If the use of synthetic opioids like fentanyl continues to grow at its current rate, Stat News forecasts that more than 650,000 Americans will die from drug overdoses over the next decade — which is to say, slightly more than one would expect to perish if a foreign military power incinerated the entire city of Baltimore.
And yet, in his first State of the Union address, Trump did not offer a single concrete policy proposal for combating this “public health emergency.” Instead, he promised to get “much tougher on drug dealers and pushers”; “get treatment for those in need”; and pass restrictive immigration reforms — asserting, without evidence, that building a border wall and ending “chain migration” would “support our response to the terrible crisis of opioid and drug addiction.”
Then, in one of the speech’s only memorable passages, he told a story about a police officer named Ryan Holets, who came upon a “pregnant, homeless woman preparing to inject heroin.”
When Ryan told her she was going to harm her unborn child, she began to weep. She told him she didn’t know where to turn, but badly wanted a safe home for her baby. In that moment, Ryan said he felt God speak to him: “You will do it because you can.” He heard those words. He took out a picture of his wife and their four kids. Then he went home to tell his wife, Rebecca. In an instant, she agreed to adopt. The Holets named their new daughter Hope.
This is where the story ended. Hope’s mother merited no epilogue. She was the only victim of the opioid crisis mentioned in Trump’s address — and the speech treated her fate as irrelevant. The president did not present her story as a testament to the need for congressional action on opioids, but rather as an affirmation of the fact that “the most difficult challenges bring out the best in America.” In Trump’s framing, the suffering of this opioid addict was less an evil to be remedied than an opportunity for morally upright Americans to demonstrate their virtue.
All this made the president’s anecdote a discomfiting listen — and also a fitting summation of his administration’s approach to the opioid epidemic.
The drug-overdose crisis is concentrated in white, rural America (a.k.a. Trump Country). And on the campaign trail, the GOP nominee pledged to make ending the drug crisis a top priority of his administration. But since taking office, he has put far more effort into promoting policies that wouldexacerbate the epidemic than into ones that would mitigate it.
The president has tried to pass trillion-dollar cuts to Medicaid, one of the top sources of funding for addiction treatment in the United States; called for reducing spending on preventative anti-drug measures; proposed slashing the budget for the Office of National Drug Control Policy by 95 percent; neglected to nominate anyone to lead the Drug Enforcement Agency; declined to implement the vast majority of his own opioid-commission’s recommendations; declared the opioid crisis a “public health emergency” — but refused to ask for a single penny in additional funding to combat the crisis, even as he called on Congress to add $1.5 trillion to the deficit for the sake of cutting taxes; and put Kellyanne Conway, a career pollster and pundit — with no experience in public health — in charge of his administration’s opioids agenda.
That last decision is working out exactly as one would expect, as Politico reports:
President Donald Trump’s war on opioids is beginning to look more like a war on his drug policy office.
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.
… 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.
The piece goes on to reveal that:
• Lawmakers “who have been leaders on opioid policy,” like West Virginia senator Shelley Moore Capito, “haven’t seen outreach from Conway or her cabinet.”
• One of the few people working on Trump’s “public education campaign” is “Andrew Giuliani, Rudy Giuliani’s 32-year-old son, who is a White House public liaison and has no background in drug policy.”
• The office’s big idea for combating the drug-overdose crisis is a “just say no”–style ad campaign, which would have premiered during the Super Bowl broadcast, if Conway’s staff hadn’t failed to put it together in time.
If one assumes that the White House sees the drug-overdose epidemic an urgent policy challenge, then these actions appear incomprehensible. Why would you make a pollster your “drug czar,” have her ignore the advice of experts, and make defrosted Nancy Reagan–ism the heart your anti-drug policy?
On the other hand, if one stipulates that the administration sees opioids as a primarily political problem, its actions are easy to understand. If your goal isn’t to reduce drug deaths, but to project the image of working to reduce drug deaths, then handing off that mission to a veteran political operative makes perfect sense; as does focusing your resources on high-visibility remedies (like national ad campaigns) instead of those favored by experts (like expanding access to methadone clinics).
The point isn’t to help Hope’s mother; it’s to mine her suffering for a comforting, politically useful story.
It’s true that there is no silver bullet for Trump to fire at this epidemic; but there is a long list of evidence-based reforms that he could implement to save thousands of Americans from its ravages. To take just one example, the most effective remedy for opioid addiction, bar none, is medication-assisted treatment (MAT). Under MAT, addicts are provided with methadone and buprenorphine — less powerful opioids that satiate most addicts’ cravings, and arrest their withdrawal symptoms, without inducing heroin’s debilitating, euphoric high. Decades of research, the World Health Organization, CDC, and National Institute on Drug Abuse have all demonstrated MAT’s efficacy. Some studies suggest that the treatment reduces mortality among drug addicts by more than 50 percent. And yet, the therapy is only available in about 10 percent of America’s conventional drug-treatment facilities.
The humanitarian case for drastically increasing federal spending to expand access to MAT — and to other forms of addiction treatment and mental health care — is overwhelming. And such an investment is even worthwhile in the most bloodlessly mercenary analysis: In 2015 alone, the opioid crisis cost the American economy $504 billion, according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
But, as a practical matter, the case for any policy is only as strong as the political actors behind it. And despite the obscene inadequacy of the administration’s response — and the party’s desperate need to make inroads in rural America — Democrats have devoted relatively little energy to articulating and promoting an alternative vision for combating the worst drug crisis our country has ever known.
Fortunately, that may be changing. Last week, Senators Patty Murray and Elizabeth Warren called on the Government Accountability Office to investigate the the White House’s response to the opioid epidemic.
“Given the severity of the crisis, we have grown increasingly concerned by reports that the President has done little to make use of his public health emergency declaration,” the senators wrote, “leaving state and local communities without the resources they need to fight the opioid epidemic.”
If the White House is going to treat the opioid crisis as a purely political problem, then Democrats must work to make it one of epidemic proportions.
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How Much Is the Opioid Crisis Costing Governments?
Feb 7, 2018 | Governing
By Liz Farmer
Anyone who's familiar with addiction knows that it's insidious: It sneakily takes hold until the addict suddenly doesn't recognize his life anymore. Paying for addiction is like that, too.
"The costs build up slowly over time, so you almost don't even notice it," says Mark Chalos, a Nashville-based partner at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP, a law firm counseling counties considering opioid-related lawsuits. "But when our people really started to dig into the budgets, they realized the costs are more significant."
Of course, there are the easier costs to quantify.
For example, Pennsylvania estimates it is spending $5 million a year on the overdose-reversal drug naloxone. And in Middletown, Ohio, City Councilman Dan Picard estimates that each ambulance run for an overdose costs the city $1,140, which includes the cost of naloxone and wear-and-tear on the ambulance. From October 2016 to October 2017, Middletown answered 916 overdose calls, taking more than $1 million out of its $30 million annual budget.
But most opioid-related costs on things like health care, social services and criminal justice spending are harder to measure. That hasn't stopped some groups from trying. If governments can get a more complete picture of how much they're really spending on the epidemic, it could help them argue for more funding.
At the state level, a few reports have surfaced in recent months.
In November, S&P Global Ratings looked at Medicaid spending, which the authors reasoned was one of the few available state-by-state comparison measurements on the opioid crisis. The report noted that 3 in 10 non-elderly adults on Medicaid struggled with opioid addiction in 2015 -- double the rate of 2010. In West Virginia, the total number of substance abuse patients in its Medicaid population more than tripled in just two years to 100,209 in 2017. S&P concluded that Kentucky, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island and West Virginia, which have some of the nation's highest overdose death rates, are likely to see the biggest impact on their finances.
Meanwhile, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) estimates that the top five places residents shouldering the biggest burden are, in order, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Ohio and Connecticut.
The institute, which will release the full results of its study later this month, incorporated data on the societal cost of opioids from a 2016 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report and a more recent report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Together, those reports concludedthe epidemic cost the country a half-trillion dollars in 2015 alone. AEI breaks that down considering state-by-state variation in opioid overdose deaths, opioid abuse disorders, health-care costs, criminal justice costs and worker productivity. The result was a range of $465 per resident in Nebraska to $4,793 per resident in West Virginia.
At the local level, efforts to draw out the financial impact have been varied, mainly because governments don't start tallying up their opioid-related spending until it becomes a noticeable part of the budget.
Local governments are also often "caught by surprise when drug-related deaths start to occur, causing public safety expenses to spike," says Joe Roualdes, head of communications for the data platform OpenGov, whose research team is analyzing the impact drug-related deaths have on county budgets in Ohio and Pennsylvania. "It then takes counties a certain amount of time to develop a plan, reduce drug-related deaths and get their budgets back on track."
In Nashville, for example, many counties are blowing through their autopsy budgets and as a result, no longer conduct one for every suspected drug overdose. In other words, Chalos says, someone could die with a needle in her arm, but unless there is a witness or a toxicology test, the death will simply be recorded as drug-related and not get linked to opioids.
"Just speaking anecdotally, there could be twice as many opioid overdose deaths than we're recording," Chalos says, "or even more than that. That's the problem with having a lack of data -- you can only speculate."
But the most difficult piece to quantify is the indirect costs, such as the children who become wards of the state after losing one or more parents to an overdose, the emotional toll the crisis takes on emergency responders, and the lost economic productivity for cities and towns. In Ohio, accounting for all those intangibles could mean the state is losing $6 billion to nearly $8 billion annually, according to the C. William Swank Program in Rural-Urban Policy at Ohio State. The figure includes lifetime lost productivity of those who died from an opioid overdose in 2015. It is likely higher now as overdose deaths in Ohio spiked by 33 percent in 2016.
As one factory owner in Youngstown, Ohio, put it: "There are good-paying jobs and opportunity for people in our area. We just can't find people to show up who can pass a drug test."
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| WTOC (CBS)
By Savannah, GA
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32541101?token=447ca32f-dd71-42ed-8442-5c76fa13d655
Rough Transcript: beaufort county has filed a lawsuit against more than 20 drug manufacturers, pharmacies, and area doctors. attorneys handling the case say taxpayers have spent millions of dollars on services relating to the opioid epidemic. last year, 24 people died from drug overdoses in beaufort county. of those deaths, 17 were related to opioids. beaufort county is the first county in south carolina to file a suit regarding the opioid cris. "wages that are not being brought, not being made in beaufort county, because people are addicted - because people are dead and that's lost tax revenue." companies in the lawsuit include johnson and johnson, rite aid, and purdue. we reached out some of the companies. we only heard back from rite aid who said the company couldn't comment on pending litigation.
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Feb 7, 2018 | WJCL (ABC)
By Savannah, GA
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32541520?token=447ca32f-dd71-42ed-8442-5c76fa13d655
Rough Transcript: lowcountry lawyers are prescribing accountability after they say medicine caused two zen people to get hooked on opioids and eventually overdose. the suit claims the defendants were aware of the addictive nature of certain medications ábut failed to warn doctors and patients. last year -- 24 people who live in beaort county died from drug overdoses. at least 17 of those were opioid related. there are more than 20 defendants listed on the lawsuit ...including drug manufacturing and distribution companies like 'johnson and johnson' ...and perdue. there are also several local doctors and clinics being sued. "law enforcement, first responders, treatment centers, hospitals, the costs to the county - and when i say to the county, i mean to the taxpayers.th is money that could be spent on other things like roads, other things that the government spends on the taxpayers." the law firm involved tells us they expect this to be a long legal battle.
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WBTW News13 This Morning at 5:30
Feb 7, 2018 | WBTW (CBS)
By Myrtle Beach, SC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32544930?token=447ca32f-dd71-42ed-8442-5c76fa13d655
Rough Transcript: horry county council voted to sue major drug manufacturers. the county is one of many governments across the country doing this... and accusing the drug companies of helping the drug problem. matt: the suit filed in marion county is against three manufacturers... ameri-source-bergen drug corporation... cardinal health one-ten... and mckesson corporation. those companies are accused of fueling the drug problem by overshipping prescription drugs. the c-d-c says... horry and marion counties had more opioid prescriptions than people. the suit asks the companies to pay for things like first responder costs. mark lazarus: "our intention is anything that we were to win in the litigation would go into us using towards the prevention and hopefully rehabilitation of opioid use in our community." matt: horry county will use the same law firm as marion county. the county won't pay any legal fees unless it wins money.
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Feb 7, 2018 | WJBF (ABC)
By Augusta-Aiken, GA
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32544926?token=447ca32f-dd71-42ed-8442-5c76fa13d655
Rough Transcript: beaufort county, south carolina has filed the first of its kind state lawsuit against the drug companies that make opioids. beaufort county attorneys filed a civil suit in south carolina state court against 30 different defendants. most of those are drug companies who they say used, quote, "deceptive practices" and misrepresented the dangers of opioids to the fda, doctors and patients. opioids have been a major cause of death across the country in the past year.
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Feb 7, 2018 | WBTW (CBS)
By Myrtle Beach, SC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32544879?token=447ca32f-dd71-42ed-8442-5c76fa13d655
Rough Transcript: county council voted to sue major drug manufacturers. the county is one of many governments across the country doing this... and accusing the drug companies of helping the drug problem. matt: the suit filed in marion county is against three manufacturers... ameri-source-bergen drug corporation... cardinal health one-ten... and mckesson corporation. those companies are accused of fueling the drug problem by overshipping prescription drugs. the c-d-c says... horry and marion counties had more opioid prescriptions than people. the suit asks the companies to pay for things like first responder costs. mark lazarus: "our intention is anything that we were to win in the litigation would go into us using towards the prevention and hopefully rehabilitation of opioid use in our community." matt: horry county will use the same law firm as marion county. the county won't pay any legal fees unless it wins money.
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Feb 7, 2018 | N12WC (News 12)
By New York, NY
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32544883?token=447ca32f-dd71-42ed-8442-5c76fa13d655
Rough Transcript: westchester county - suing dozens of opioid manufacturers. the lawsuit says the companies are fueling the deadly epidemic by intentionally misleading the public about the dangers of the drugs. the county's attorney says he's currently working with the court to figure out how much money can be recovered in damages.
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Feb 7, 2018 | WNYFCD (Fox)
By Watertown, NY
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32544893?token=447ca32f-dd71-42ed-8442-5c76fa13d655
Rough Transcript: lewis county lawmakers say they'll join a lawsuit targeting opioid companies. it's a change in direction for lawmakers who had previously declined to participate. 7 news reporter alex valverde tells us what message lawmakers hope this sends in the fight against drug addiction. lewis county is the latest to join a class-action lawsuit against major manufacturers of opioid drugs. more than a dozen new york counties, including st. lawrence county, are working with law firm simmons, hanly, conroy. p.c. larry dolhof / lewis county legislative chair: "to try to recover some of the costs that the county incurs with the expense of the opioid addiction problem." alex valverde / stand-up: while lawmakers say there isn't one specific cause of the drug problem, they believe these pharmaceutical companies deliberately push for the overuse of these highly addictive drugs. larry dolhof / lewis county legislative chair: "i don't see it as the manufacturers in a position of taking full blame, but they certainly do share in the responsibility." legislator jerry king wants to make sure if thcounties win the lawsuit, the money won't just be put into the general fund... but go directly towards combating the opioid crisis. jerry king / lewis county legislator: "we need to make sure we get the money where it's going to help the people." the lawsuit won't cost the counties, unless there is a settlement. then the law firm will get 25 percent of the winnings.
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Feb 7, 2018 | WSBTDT2 (Fox)
By South Bend, IN
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32544888?token=447ca32f-dd71-42ed-8442-5c76fa13d655
Rough Transcript: st. joseph county commisioners. planning to file a lawsuit against drug companies. they accuse those firms of deceptive practices.... contributing to the county's opioid crisis. comissions are planing to hire the indianapolis law firm representing several other indiana cities and counties with similar lawsuits. the comissioners will consider hiring the firm later this month.
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Feb 7, 2018 | WFIE (NBC)
By Evansville, IN
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32544922?token=447ca32f-dd71-42ed-8442-5c76fa13d655
Rough Transcript: the city of evansville is taking a new step in fighting the opioid epidemic. we've learned the city has joined the long list of cities acro the country, going after opioid drug manufacturers and distributors. deputy mayor steve schaefer confirms the city filed suit against five of the largest manufacturersof the prescription drugs and the country's three largest wholesale drug distributors.
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Feb 7, 2018 | WDAM (NBC)
By Hattiesburg, MS
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32544908?token=447ca32f-dd71-42ed-8442-5c76fa13d655
Rough Transcript: the city of hattiesburg facies the opioid epidemic head on. the council voted to file a lawsuit against major drug companies for their role in manufacturing and distributing opioids - knowing of the addictive properties. according to the c-d-c, there were at least two prescriptions for every man, woman and child in forrest county in 2016. hattiesburg is the first city to take legal action in the state of mississippi. "this is a significant public health issue and we as policy makers, we as leade, we take a look at our community, we realize these problems are not going to get any better without intervention. that's why we are taking this step, because we do believe people should be held acountable for letting this problem go on for as long as it has." the lawsuit will at no cost to the taxpayer. mayor toby barker says if the litigation is successful, attorneys will be paid with fees recovered in the suit.
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Feb 7, 2018 | KTXELD (ABC)
By San Angelo, TX
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32544918?token=447ca32f-dd71-42ed-8442-5c76fa13d655
Rough Transcript: opioid addiction has been a growing problem across the country including course here taylor county is well an attorney from dallas gave a presentation about including taylor county in a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies he says that according to the cbc sixteen million americans are dependent on open boyd's here taylor county the casa supporting this epidemic is affecting taxpayers more drug abuse were later s means more space is taken up course and county jail cps cases of also increase because more children are being taken from their parents who have been known to use drugs both prescription drugs and illegal narcotics are jail numbers go up we understand that this crisis along with methamphetamine cocaine are affecting the number of people the warehousing in caspian taylor county today commissioners decided to take no action on tuesday's presentation find discussed the possible lawsuit and revisit this at a future date across the state
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WECT News, Carolina in the Morning Early Edition
Feb 7, 2018 | WECT (NBC)
By Wilmington, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32544952?token=447ca32f-dd71-42ed-8442-5c76fa13d655
Rough Transcript: a new supply of narcan is on it's way to the wilmington police department. that's the overdose antedote medicine, that's proven to save lives.s. it helps to reverse the effects e of an opioid overdose. police chief ralph evangelous asked elfor the new units to replace nearly 70 which had expired, and even more that are coming up on that date. city council is il 45-hundred dollars in drug tax revenue money to pay for new doses. and as the fight against the drug companies responsible for this opioid epidemic continues, brunswick county is now throwing its hat into the ring. it filed a lawsuit in federal court friday, alleging distributors misd borsth patients and doctors with marketing campaigns that downplayed the danger of addiction and overdose. the county saw an average of eight opioid deaths a year, spanning almost 10 years from the late 90s to 2007.
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