Preview Newsletter
Opioid Litigation Daily media Report - 2/12/18
-
OxyContin maker will stop promoting opioids to doctors
Feb 10, 2018 | Associated Press
By Matt Perrone
The maker of the powerful painkiller OxyContin said it will stop marketing opioid drugs to doctors, bowing to a key demand of lawsuits that blame the company for helping trigger the current drug abuse epidemic. -
Purdue Pharma to Stop Promoting OxyContin to U.S. Doctors
Feb 10, 2018 | The Wall Street Journal
By Jeanne Whalen
Privately held drug company Purdue Pharma LP said it would stop promoting OxyContin and other opioids to doctors, 22 years after the painkiller linked to widespread addiction hit the U.S. market. -
OxyContin maker Purdue to stop promoting opioids in light of epidemic
Feb 10, 2018 | NBC News
By Phil McCausland & Tracy Connor
Purdue Pharma, the company best known for selling the prescription painkiller OxyContin, announced on Saturday that they would stop marketing opioid drugs to doctors. The move comes amid a series of state and municipal lawsuits that blame the company for contributing to the opioid epidemic. -
OxyContin maker says it will no longer market opioid to doctors
Feb 12, 2018 | Fox News
By Amy Lieu
In a surprise reversal, the maker of the powerful painkiller OxyContin said Saturday that it will stop promoting opioid drugs to doctors. -
Pain Pill Giant Purdue to Stop Promotion of Opioids to Doctors
Feb 9, 2018 | Bloomberg
By Jared S Hopkins
Pain-pill giant Purdue Pharma LP will stop promoting its opioid drugs to doctors, a retreat after years of criticism that the company’s aggressive sales efforts helped lay the foundation of the U.S. addiction crisis. -
OxyContin maker Purdue will stop selling doctors on opioids
Feb 11, 2018 | PBS News Hour
By Hari Sreenivasan
Amid several lawsuits that accuse manufacturing giant Purdue Pharma of contributing to the country’s opioid epidemic, the company announced Saturday it will cut sales staff by more than half and stop marketing opioids to doctors. Reporter Lev Facher, who wrote for STAT that it marked the end of an aggressive, opioid marketing era that Purdue created, joins Hari Sreenivasan from Washington, D.C. Video Link: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/oxycontin-maker-purdue-will-stop-selling-doctors-on-opioids -
End of an era: Purdue to stop marketing opioids to doctors
Feb 10, 2018 | STAT News
By Lev Facher
Purdue Pharmaceuticals, the maker of the opioid painkiller OxyContin, said it would no longer actively market opioid products — a major about-face for a company increasingly viewed as a principal culprit in the country’s addiction and overdose crisis. -
OxyContin maker stops promoting opioids, cuts sales staff
Feb 10, 2018 | Reuters
By Staff
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP said on Saturday that it has cut its sales force in half and will stop promoting opioids to physicians, following widespread criticism of the ways that drugmakers market addictive painkillers. -
OxyContin maker will stop marketing opioid products to doctors amid scrutiny
Feb 10, 2018 | The Hill
By Max Greenwood
The maker of the painkiller OxyContin will stop actively marketing its opioid products to doctors. -
Oxycontin Maker Purdue Pharma Will Stop Marketing the Drug to U.S. Doctors
Feb 11, 2018 | Fortune
By David Z. Morris
Purdue Pharma will no longer target U.S. doctors in its efforts to sell OxyContin, a prescription opioid whose overprescription fueled America’s opioid crisis — and made billions for Purdue’s founding family. -
OxyContin maker cuts sales staff, won't hawk drug to docs
Feb 11, 2018 | USA Today
By John Bacon
The pharmaceutical company that produces the painkiller OxyContin is slashing its sales staff and says it will halt, effective Monday, promotion of opioids to physicians and other health care professionals. -
Purdue’s Bid to Reverse Ruling Regarding OxyContin Litigation Rejected
Feb 12, 2018 | Legal Reader
By Sara E. Teller
A federal appeals court has rejected Purdue’s bid to reverse a ruling last month allowing New Hampshire to pursue litigation against the OxyContin manufacturer claiming the company deceptively marketed opioids in state rather than federal court. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston denied Purdue’s request for permission to reverse and appeal the decision. -
DeWine pushing ‘Big Pharma’
Feb 11, 2018 | Urbana Daily Citizen (OH)
By Josh Ellerbrock
Under Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s direction, the State of Ohio is examining how to best pressure large pharmaceutical companies to take financial responsibility for the social problems caused by the opioid epidemic. -
Indiana going to court in opioid battle (EDITORIAL)
Feb 11, 2018 | South Bend Tribune (IN)
By Editorial Board
Indiana communities, struggling under the weight of an opioid crisis, are increasingly turning to the courts to hold drugmakers and distributors accountable for their role in the plight. -
Legal ramifications of war on opioids (EDITORIAL)
Feb 11, 2018 | PennLive (PA)
By Staff
Last week, the Dauphin County commissioners filed suit against 11 drug manufacturers and three doctors for ignoring the effects of prescription opioids and pursuing profits over patients. We support that litigation. -
Opioid problem is users, not manufacturers (Letter to the Editor)
Feb 12, 2018 | Peninsula Daily News (WA)
By Ron Gregory
The Clallam County Health Board exhibits the same mentality as the proponents of gun control. -
Trump budget to include billions to combat opioid epidemic
Feb 12, 2018 | The Hill
By Rachel Roubein
President Trump’s budget will propose billions of dollars to combat the opioid epidemic plaguing the country, months after the administration designated the crisis a national public health emergency. -
Trump to nominate White House aide for drug czar: White House
Feb 9, 2018 | Reuters
By Staff
U.S. President Donald Trump intends to nominate White House aide Jim Carroll to serve as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a post popularly known as the drug czar, the White House said in a statement on Friday. -
City Commission approves opioid lawsuit
Feb 9, 2018 | YourObserver (FL)
By David Conway
Hoping to recover damages associated with the opioid epidemic, the City Commission voted unanimously to move forward with a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies Feb. 5. -
County sues big pharmacy in opioid crisis
Feb 9, 2018 | Osceiola News-Gazette (FL)
By Rachel Christian
Osceola County government is taking legal action in the fight against opioid addiction. -
Parkersburg may sue drug makers
Feb 10, 2018 | Parkersburg News & Sentinel (WV)
By Evan Bevins
Parkersburg could join cities and counties around the country in suing drug manufacturers and distributors over the impact of the opioid abuse epidemic. -
Upshur County prepares to file lawsuit in response to opioid crisis
Feb 11, 2018 | WVNews (WV)
By Michael Lemley
The Upshur County Commission is taking the steps that will lead to a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies and other responsible parties in response to the opioid crisis. -
Athens-Clarke, Oconee suing opioid companies
Feb 11, 2018 | Online Athens (GA)
By Lee Shearer
Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties have joined a growing number of other governments and hospital authorities across the country in a multi-state federal lawsuit targeting makers and distributors of opioid drugs. -
Mansfield joins lawsuit against drug manufacturers, distributors
Feb 9, 2018 | Richland Source (OH)
By Emily Dech
The city wants to have a seat at the table when it comes to the fight against major opioid manufacturers and distributors accused of misleading the public about the dangers of opioids. -
Gary Files Suit in Opioid Epidemic Fight
Feb 9, 2018 | Inside Indiana Business (IN)
By Reed Parker
The city of Gary has filed a complaint in Lake County seeking to recover damages after using public resources to battle the opioid epidemic. The complaint includes over 25 defendants, and alleges that the makers and distributors intentionally misled Hoosiers on opioid dangers. -
County board votes to join statewide opioid lawsuit
Feb 9, 2018 | Argus-Press (MI)
By Tim Rath
Shiawassee County will join a statewide lawsuit, seeking damages from pharmaceutical companies and large retailers who allegedly hid information about the addictiveness of opioids from consumers. -
Dane County charts next steps after approving outside council in opioid lawsuit
Feb 11, 2018 | The Daily Cardinal (WI)
By Sydney Widell
At their last meeting, the Dane County Board of Supervisors approved the county’s corporate lawyer to seek outside counsel, showing a clear picture of what local officials are hoping to achieve with the lawsuit. -
City authorizes lawyer to go after 'Big Pharma'
Feb 9, 2018 | BCR News (NY)
By Goldie Rap
The city of Princeton is joining the legal fight against “Big Pharma” amid the opioid crisis. -
Pittsfield Asked to Join Lawsuit Against Opioid Manufacturers, Distributors
Feb 10, 2018 | Iberkshires (MA)
By Staff
The City Council will consider joining a lawsuit against opioid wholesalers to recoup some of the cost the city has incurred combating the drug epidemic. -
FOX and Friends Sunday
Feb 11, 2018 | Fox News (FOX)
By National Programming
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622710?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0 -
Squawk Box
Feb 12, 2018 | CNBC (CNBC)
By National Programming
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622704?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0 -
News 12 New Jersey
Feb 12, 2018 | N12NJ (News 12)
By New York, NY
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622730?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0 -
News at 11:30
Feb 12, 2018 | CLTV (CLTV)
By Chicago, IL
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622740?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0 -
The Georgia Gang
Feb 11, 2018 | WAGA (FOX)
By Atlanta, GA
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622753?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0 -
KHOU 11 News at 10PM
Feb 11, 2018 | KHOU (CBS)
By Houston, TX
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622760?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0 -
7 News at 10PM on CW56
Feb 11, 2018 | WLVI (CW)
By Boston, MA
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622766?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0 -
News 4 Today
Feb 11, 2018 | WRC (NBC)
By Washington, DC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622770?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0
Purdue Marketing Announcement
Commentary and FYIs
Southeast (FL, WV, GA)
Midwest (OH, IN, MI, WI)
Northeast (NY, MA)
Broadcast Media Coverage
-
OxyContin maker will stop promoting opioids to doctors
Feb 10, 2018 | Associated Press
By Matt Perrone
The maker of the powerful painkiller OxyContin said it will stop marketing opioid drugs to doctors, bowing to a key demand of lawsuits that blame the company for helping trigger the current drug abuse epidemic.
OxyContin has long been the world’s top-selling opioid painkiller, bringing in billions in sales for privately-held Purdue, which also sells a newer and longer-lasting opioid drug called Hysingla.
The company announced its surprise reversal on Saturday. Purdue’s statement said it eliminated more than half its sales staff this week and will no longer send sales representatives to doctors’ offices to discuss opioid drugs. Its remaining sales staff of about 200 will focus on other medications.
The OxyContin pill, a time-release version of oxycodone, was hailed as a breakthrough treatment for chronic pain when it was approved in late 1995. It worked over 12 hours to maintain a steady level of oxycodone in patients suffering from a wide range of pain ailments. But some users quickly discovered they could get a heroin-like high by crushing the pills and snorting or injecting the entire dose at once. In 2010 Purdue reformulated OxyContin to make it harder to crush and stopped selling the original form of the drug.
Purdue eventually acknowledged that its promotions exaggerated the drug’s safety and minimized the risks of addiction. After federal investigations, the company and three executives pleaded guilty in 2007 and agreed to pay more than $600 million for misleading the public about the risks of OxyContin. But the drug continued to rack up blockbuster sales.
Dr. Andrew Kolodny, director of opioid policy research at Brandeis University and an advocate for stronger regulation of opioid drug companies, said Purdue’s decision is helpful, but it won’t make a major difference unless other opioid drug companies do the same.
“It is difficult to promote more cautious prescribing to the medical community because opioid manufacturers promote opioid use,” he said.
Allergan, which makes three opioid pain medications, said it has not actively marketed those drugs in years, and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, said it stopped marketing the medications in 2015. Both said opioid drugs make up a very small portion of their total revenue. Another drugmaker, Insys, said it was not able to comment immediately, while Teva Pharmaceutical Industries did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kolodny said that opioids are useful for cancer patients who are suffering from severe pain, and for people who only need a pain medication for a few days. But he said the companies have promoted them as a treatment for chronic pain, where they are more harmful and less helpful, because it’s more profitable.
“They are still doing this abroad,” Kolodny added. “They are following the same playbook that they used in the United States.”
Purdue Pharma only does business in the U.S. It is associated with two other companies, Mundipharma and Napp, that operate in other countries. It said those companies have separate leadership and operate according to local regulations.
Purdue and other opioid drugmakers and pharmaceutical distributors continue defending themselves against hundreds of local and state lawsuits seeking to hold the industry accountable for the drug overdose epidemic. The lawsuits say drugmakers misled doctors and patients about the risks of opioids by enlisting “front groups” and “key opinion leaders” who oversold the drugs’ benefits and encouraged overprescribing. State and local governments are seeking money and changes to how the industry operates, including an end to the use of outside groups to push their drugs.
Kolodny is serving as an expert advising the court in those lawsuits.
U.S. deaths linked to opioids have quadrupled since 2000 to roughly 42,000 in 2016, or about 115 lives lost per day. Although initially driven by prescription drugs, most opioid deaths now involve illicit drugs, including heroin and fentanyl.
-
Purdue Pharma to Stop Promoting OxyContin to U.S. Doctors
Feb 10, 2018 | The Wall Street Journal
By Jeanne Whalen
Privately held drug company Purdue Pharma LP said it would stop promoting OxyContin and other opioids to doctors, 22 years after the painkiller linked to widespread addiction hit the U.S. market.
The company will continue selling the products, but Purdue’s sales force “will no longer be visiting offices to engage in discussions about opioid products,” the company said, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg. Doctors and other prescribers who have questions about the drugs will have to contact Purdue’s medical affairs department, the company said.
Purdue is also cutting its U.S. sales force by more than 50%, to about 200 people. The remaining sales representatives will market non-opioid products, said the Stamford, Conn.-based company.
Many public-health officials have said Purdue’s aggressive marketing of OxyContin after the drug’s 1996 launch helped encourage lax prescribing and widespread addiction that for many people progressed to heroin and other illicit drugs. More than 300,000 Americans have died from opioid overdoses since the late 1990s.
In 2007, Purdue and three of its executives pleaded guilty in federal court to criminal charges of misleading the public about the addictive qualities of OxyContin. Purdue and the executives agreed to pay $634.5 million in government penalties and costs to settle the civil litigation.
In its guilty plea, Purdue admitted the company’s sales tactics included false claims that OxyContin was less addictive, less subject to abuse and less likely to cause withdrawal symptoms than other pain medications. Within a few years of the drug’s launch, many communities around the country started reporting worrying rates of OxyContin-related abuse and overdose deaths.
Purdue has since said it has “learned from the past,” and that it supports programs to prevent prescription-drug abuse.
Purdue’s halting of its opioid marketing comes as the company faces growing legal scrutiny. More than a dozen states and about 400 cities and counties in the U.S. have sued Purdue or other opioid-painkiller makers, accusing them of fueling addiction by misrepresenting the risks of their drugs. In response to the suits, Purdue has said it is “dedicated to being part of the solution” to the opioid crisis.
In October, Purdue said it was the subject of a probe by federal prosecutorsrelated to OxyContin. The company said it was cooperating with the investigation.
In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines urging doctors to limit their prescribing of opioids for chronic pain. Since then, Purdue’s opioid-related discussions with prescribers have included details about the CDC recommendations, the company said.
-
OxyContin maker Purdue to stop promoting opioids in light of epidemic
Feb 10, 2018 | NBC News
By Phil McCausland & Tracy Connor
Purdue Pharma, the company best known for selling the prescription painkiller OxyContin, announced on Saturday that they would stop marketing opioid drugs to doctors. The move comes amid a series of state and municipal lawsuits that blame the company for contributing to the opioid epidemic.
Purdue has faced criticism for more than a decade that it has aggressively and irresponsibly pushed the sale of its drug OxyContin. The company said Saturday that it would cut its sales force by more than 50 percent, with approximately 200 people remaining in the department.
"We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers," Purdue said in a statement.
The company plans to run all questions about its highly profitable drug Oxycontin — which the American Addiction Centers said has a strong “potential for addiction and subsequent withdrawal symptoms” — through its medical affairs department.
Dr. Andrew Kolodny, the co-director of Opioid Policy Research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, said he wished that the company had decided to stop marketing the drug years ago and that other opioid manufacturers would agree to do the same.
"The problem we have is doctors over-prescribing opioids, and it’s difficult to promote more cautious prescribing if manufacturers are sending drug reps into doctor’s offices and advertising in medical journals and investing millions to get them to prescribe more," Kolodny said.
"Overall, the impact will be small because the genie is out of the bottle," he said of the opioid manufacturer's decision. "But if other opioid manufacturers would do the same, it would have a bigger effect."
Purdue generated $1.94 billion in Oxycontin sales in 2017, according to Symphony Health Solutions. That is approximately $1 billion less than its all-time high in 2013.
First introduced in 1995, Oxycontin was marketed by Purdue as being a non-addictive, time-release version of oxycodone used for the treatment of chronic pain. Users soon learned that they could bypass its time-release function by crushing the pills and snorting or injecting them.
Because of Oxycontin’s rising cost, many people who developed an addiction to the opioid subsequently turned to heroin, contributing to the ongoing drug epidemic.
In 2007, Purdue Pharma and three of its executives were fined $634.5 million for misleading the public about the painkiller's addictive properties. The company's top lawyer, former president and former chief medical pleaded guilty to misbranding the drug. They were placed on probation for three years and ordered to perform 400 hours of community service.
The drug maker recently attempted to recast itself as an advocate in the fight to end the opioid crisis, while maintaining an aggressive sales push. According to new details released in a 2017 Washington state lawsuit, Purdue’s sales staff collected data to find the highest prescribers it could and then aggressively market its drugs to those individuals.
More recently, the company identified nurses and physician assistants as "a high value target, particularly due to impact on primary care," and pushed its sales team to target these potential prescribers. The drug maker noted an 18 percent uptick in sales from nurses and physician assistants between 2014 to 2015.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 4 people who received prescriptions to drugs like Oxycontin currently struggle with an opioid addiction. The CDC also reported that more than 1,000 people are treated in emergency rooms for prescription opioid overdoses.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse reported that opioid pain reliever prescriptions escalated from 76 million in 1991 to nearly 207 million in 2013. The institute also found that the United States is the biggest consumer of hydrocodone in the world, taking in almost 100 percent of the world’s doses.
Related: Americans are abusing over-the-counter drugs as well as opioids, study shows
The White House Council of Economic Advisers announced in November that the ongoing opioid crisis cost the country $504 billion in 2015, attributing the high dollar amount to health care, criminal justice spending and lost worker productivity. Their finding is more than six times the most recent estimate.
In the past year, Purdue has been named in lawsuits filed by the Ohio, Alabama and Washington attorneys general. Even cities like Philadelphia have filed a suit against the company for exacerbating the drug addiction crisis.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced earlier this week that he had filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, stating that drugs like Oxycontin had left "a trail of addiction and death winding through every community of this state."
"Alabama ranks first in the nation for the number of painkiller prescriptions per capita,” Marshall said in a statement. "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."
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, whose state leads the nation with the highest per capita rate of fatal drug overdoses, said in a statement that he was "encouraged by Purdue's decision to stop marketing deadly opioids," but "they are still a long way from reversing the damage they've done to families and communities across the country."
"If they really want to start helping the communities they've devastated, they should support and implement my LifeBOAT legislation, and contribute one penny per milligram of every opioid they sell to funding treatment centers," Manchin, a Democrat said.
The legislation "would establish a permanent funding stream to provide and expand access to substance abuse treatment," and impose a fee of 1 cent per milligram of active opioid ingredients in prescription pain pills, and include rebates for cancer-related pain and hospice care, according to his office. The re-introduced bill was referred to the Finance Committee last year.
-
OxyContin maker says it will no longer market opioid to doctors
Feb 12, 2018 | Fox News
By Amy Lieu
In a surprise reversal, the maker of the powerful painkiller OxyContin said Saturday that it will stop promoting opioid drugs to doctors.
Manufacturer Purdue bowed to a key demand of lawsuits that blame the Connecticut-based company for helping trigger the opioid epidemic.
The company's statement said it eliminated more than half its sales staff this week and will no longer send sales representatives to doctors' offices to discuss opioid drugs.
Its remaining sales staff of about 200 will focus on other medications.
"The genie is already out of the bottle," said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, director of opioid policy research at Brandeis University and an advocate for stronger regulation of opioid drug companies. "Millions of Americans are now opioid-addicted because the campaign that Purdue and other opioid manufacturers used to increase prescribing worked well. "
He said Purdue's decision is helpful, but it won't make a major difference unless other opioid drug companies do the same.
"We would have more success in encouraging cautious prescribing if drug companies stopped promoting aggressive prescribing," he told the Los Angeles Times.
U.S. deaths linked to opioids have quadrupled since 2000 to roughly 42,000 in 2016, or about 115 lives lost per day. More than 7 million Americans are estimated to have abused OxyContin since its 1996 debut, the Times reported.
The report said states where OxyContin abuse rates were the highest "experienced the largest increases in heroin deaths," a research from Penn’s Wharton School and Rand said.
OxyContin has long been the world's top-selling opioid painkiller, bringing in billions in sales for the privately-held company.
Eventually, Purdue acknowledged that its promotions exaggerated the drug's safety and minimized the risks of addiction.
"They are still doing this abroad," Kolodny said of their international arm Mundipharma. "They are following the same playbook that they used in the United States."
Purdue and other opioid drugmakers and pharmaceutical distributors continue defending themselves against hundreds of local and state lawsuits seeking to hold the industry accountable for the drug overdose epidemic.
-
Pain Pill Giant Purdue to Stop Promotion of Opioids to Doctors
Feb 9, 2018 | Bloomberg
By Jared S Hopkins
Pain-pill giant Purdue Pharma LP will stop promoting its opioid drugs to doctors, a retreat after years of criticism that the company’s aggressive sales efforts helped lay the foundation of the U.S. addiction crisis.
The company told employees this week that it would cut its sales force by more than half, to 200 workers. It plans to send a letter Monday to doctors saying that its salespeople will no longer come to their clinics to talk about the company’s pain products.
“We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers,” the company said in a statement. Instead, any questions doctors have will be directed to the Stamford, Connecticut-based company’s medical affairs department.
OxyContin, approved in 1995, is the closely held company’s biggest-selling drug, though sales of the pain pill have declined in recent years amid competition from generics. It generated $1.8 billion in 2017, down from $2.8 billion five years earlier, according to data compiled by Symphony Health Solutions. It also sells the painkiller Hysingla.
Purdue is credited with helping develop many modern tactics of aggressive pharmaceutical promotion. Its efforts to push OxyContin included OxyContin music, fishing hats and stuffed plush toys. More recently, it has positioned itself as an advocate for fighting the opioid addiction crisis, as overdoses from prescription drugs claim thousands of American lives each year.Rising Toll
Purdue and other opioid makers and distributors face dozens of lawsuits in which they’re accused of creating a public-health crisis through their marketing of the painkillers. Purdue officials confirmed in November that they are in settlement talks with a group of state attorneys general and trying to come up with a global resolution of the government opioid claims.
More than 60,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2016, and there was a fivefold increase in overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids -- from 3,105 in 2013 to about 20,000 in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The addiction epidemic cost the American economy $504 billion in 2015, the equivalent of 2.8 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product that year, according to a report by the Council of Economic Advisers.
About 200 remaining Purdue salespeople will focus on promoting the company’s opioid induced constipation drug, Symproic. The drug launched last year in partnership with Shionogi & Co.
-
OxyContin maker Purdue will stop selling doctors on opioids
Feb 11, 2018 | PBS News Hour
By Hari Sreenivasan
Amid several lawsuits that accuse manufacturing giant Purdue Pharma of contributing to the country’s opioid epidemic, the company announced Saturday it will cut sales staff by more than half and stop marketing opioids to doctors. Reporter Lev Facher, who wrote for STAT that it marked the end of an aggressive, opioid marketing era that Purdue created, joins Hari Sreenivasan from Washington, D.C.
Video Link: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/oxycontin-maker-purdue-will-stop-selling-doctors-on-opioids
HARI SREENIVASAN:
This week, the maker of OxyContin announced it is ending its marketing operation for the powerful opioid. Purdue Pharma is not giving up selling the highly profitable drug but it will stop sending reps to doctors offices to drive sales of the addictive painkiller. Back in 2007, Purdue pleaded guilty to criminal charges of misleading the public about Oxycontin addictive qualities and agree to a civil penalty of nearly $635 million. This week’s decision comes as Purdue and other opioid manufacturers are facing lawsuits from some 400 cities and states alleging they fueled addiction by misrepresenting the risks. Could Purdue’s move change the course of America’s opioid crisis. Lev Facher is a reporter with STAT News joins me now from Washington D.C. Tell me how significant this is?
LEV FACHER:
Well, symbolically this is huge. This is the company that really changed the paradigm for opioid use in the 1990s by aggressively marketing it to prescribers. The fact that Purdue has decided it’s no longer going to go into doctors offices and push this drug is really symbolic of where the country currently is in terms of considering the opioid epidemic a public health crisis and in terms of recognizing the potential harmful characteristics of drugs like OxyContin.
HARI SREENIVASAN:
What’s the correlation between marketing them less and less of them being available on the street?
LEV FACHER:
Obviously marketing drugs less should correspond to fewer sales. That said this is not really a preemptive move. This is after years of declining Oxycontin sales. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued recently new and much stricter guidelines for opioid prescription so prescriptions are down. Public awareness of the addictive qualities of these drugs is way up. And while there is still legitimate medical need and while prescriptions are going to continue, this is a move that more corresponds to a decline in sales than one that should fuel one.
HARI SREENIVASAN:
But what are the factors that can actually decrease opioid consumption overall or over prescription? It seems that there’s a tremendous amount of power that’s in the hands of the insurance companies that choose to say that it’s OK to prescribe these and that will pay for them?
LEV FACHER:
Yeah. And both insurance companies and public health providers like Medicaid and Medicare have taken steps a variety of steps recently to reduce prescriptions and increase incentives to prescribe non opioid non-addictive painkillers. But again, the marketing I think is less of something that’s going to drive fewer prescriptions and more on produce from something that is meant to really change the narrative they’ve been taking out full page ads in newspapers. They’ve been really trying to get out in front of the fact that they are increasingly viewed as a culprit. You mentioned the settlement in 2007. They’re in talks to settle many of those other lawsuits from states and municipalities that you mentioned. So in terms of marketing it’s unclear what level of impact that’s going to have on prescription levels but this comes amid a really sea change in the way physicians are prescribing opioids to begin with. And that’s been happening over the last several years along with actions from the Drug Enforcement Agency. A lot of different, you know, government agencies that are really taking steps to make sure that these drugs are used much less liberally.
HARI SREENIVASAN:
All right. Liv Facher of STAT News joining us from Washington, D.C. Thanks so much.
LEV FACHER:
Thanks.
-
End of an era: Purdue to stop marketing opioids to doctors
Feb 10, 2018 | STAT News
By Lev Facher
Purdue Pharmaceuticals, the maker of the opioid painkiller OxyContin, said it would no longer actively market opioid products — a major about-face for a company increasingly viewed as a principal culprit in the country’s addiction and overdose crisis.TOBY TALBOT/AP
P
urdue Pharmaceuticals, the maker of the opioid painkiller OxyContin, said it would no longer actively market opioid products — a major about-face for a company increasingly viewed as a principal culprit in the country’s addiction and overdose crisis.
The company said it is reducing its sales staff by more than half, and that its remaining salespeople will no longer visit doctor’s offices to push their product. Instead, the company said it will direct prescribers to materials published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the office of the U.S. surgeon general.
“We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers,” Purdue said in a statement.
The announcement, first reported by Bloomberg, marks the end of an era for a company that changed the paradigm for opioid use in part through aggressive, in-person marketing to doctors. Sales of OxyContin and other opioids have fallen recently amid pressure from regulators, insurers, and the general public. The company has been unable to develop or buy a drug to replace OxyContin’s sales.
Instead, the company has mounted a vast public-relations effort in the face of increasing criticism — most notably with recent full-page ads in major newspapers.
“We manufacture prescription opioids,” reads one of the ads. “How could we not help fight the prescription and illicit opioid abuse crisis?”
State lawsuits against Purdue have mounted in recent months as governments at all levels have struggled to combat the opioid epidemic — much of which, experts say, was caused by excessive prescription of powerful painkillers like OxyContin. The company in 2007 paid out $600 million to settle civil and criminal charges related to the drug’s marketing, with three company executives agreeing to pay an additional $34.5 million.
The health insurer Cigna also announced in October it would no longer cover OxyContin through employer-based plans, shortly after the pharmaceutical industry lobby group PhRMA broadly endorsed policies that limit opioid prescriptions to seven days.
In an effort to shed light on the marketing practices of Purdue, STAT filed a motion in March 2016 to unseal records including the deposition of Dr. Richard Sackler, a former president of Purdue and a member of the family that owns the privately held Connecticut company. The records could provide new information on how Purdue marketed the potent opioid and what top executives knew about the addictive nature of the painkiller.
A three-judge panel of the Kentucky Court of Appeals is now considering the matter.
-
OxyContin maker stops promoting opioids, cuts sales staff
Feb 10, 2018 | Reuters
By Staff
The drugmaker said it will inform doctors on Monday that its sales representatives will no longer visit physician offices to discuss its opioid products. It will now have about 200 sales representatives, Purdue said.
“We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers,” the Stamford, Connecticut-based company said in a statement.
Doctors with opioid-related questions will be directed to its medical affairs department. Its sales representatives will now focus on Symproic, a drug for treating opioid-induced constipation, and other potential non-opioid products, Purdue said.
Opioids were involved in more than 42,000 overdose deaths in 2016, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Among other opioid producers, Endo International Plc (ENDP.O) agreed in July to pull its Opana ER painkiller after the Food and Drug Administration called for its withdrawal.
Purdue and other drugmakers have been fighting lawsuits by states, counties and cities that have accused them of pushing addictive painkillers through deceptive marketing.
The lawsuits have generally accused Purdue of downplaying OxyContin’s addiction risk and of misleading marketing that overstated the benefits of opioids for treating chronic, rather than short-term, pain.
At least 14 states have sued privately held Purdue. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing Purdue of deceptively marketing prescription opioids.
Purdue is also facing a federal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Connecticut.
Purdue has denied the allegations in the various lawsuits. It has said its drugs are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and account for only 2 percent of all opioid prescriptions.
Purdue and three executives pleaded guilty in 2007 to federal charges related to the misbranding of OxyContin and agreed to pay $634.5 million to resolve a U.S. Justice Department probe.
That year, Purdue also reached a $19.5-million settlement with 26 states and the District of Columbia. It agreed in 2015 to pay $24 million to resolve a lawsuit by Kentucky.
U.S. President Donald Trump has drawn criticism for his response to the opioid crisis. He has yet to declare it a national emergency as he pledged to do in August following a recommendation by a presidential commission.
-
OxyContin maker will stop marketing opioid products to doctors amid scrutiny
Feb 10, 2018 | The Hill
By Max Greenwood
The maker of the painkiller OxyContin will stop actively marketing its opioid products to doctors.
Purdue Pharmaceuticals announced that it would cut its sales staff by more than half and would stop sending sales representatives to doctor's offices to discuss opioid products.
"We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers," the company said in a statement.
Purdue also said it will start referring opioid-related requests and questions from prescribers to health-care professionals in its medical affairs department.
In a message to health-care professionals, Monica Kwarcinski, the head of Purdue's medical affairs department, said that the new policies would go into effect on Monday.
"Effective Monday, February 12, 2018, our field sales organization will no longer be visiting your offices to engage you in discussions about our opioid products," she said.
President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency in October.
Many experts have placed blame on the over-prescription of powerful painkillers for the opioid epidemic that has ravaged the country in recent decades.
A number of states have filed lawsuits against Purdue, alleging that the company misled prescribers and patients about the risks of prescription opioids.
Purdue has denied the allegations, noting that its products are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and that they account for only a small portion of all opioid prescriptions.
-
Oxycontin Maker Purdue Pharma Will Stop Marketing the Drug to U.S. Doctors
Feb 11, 2018 | Fortune
By David Z. Morris
Purdue Pharma will no longer target U.S. doctors in its efforts to sell OxyContin, a prescription opioid whose overprescription fueled America’s opioid crisis — and made billions for Purdue’s founding family.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Purdue will continue selling the drug, but will no longer send salespeople to doctors’ offices to promote it. Purdue will cut its U.S. sales staff by more than half.
The move comes as opioid addiction continues to take a devastating toll on large swathes of the United States. Deaths from drug overdoses accelerated sharply in 2016 and 2017, and are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 50. Many of those overdoses are attributed to other opioids, including fentanyl and heroin, which OxyContin users often switch to after becoming addicted to the painkiller.
The boom in OxyContin prescriptions, and the resulting expansion of the deadly abuse of opioids, has been consistently blamed on Purdue’s aggressive and misleading marketing of the drug. Purdue for years made the case that OxyContin was less addictive than other opioid painkillers, and that the risks of opioid addiction in general were overblown — claims partly rooted in a decades-old anecdotal letter rather than scientific research.
In 2007, Purdue Pharma and three of its executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges of misrepresenting their product’s addictiveness, and paid a total of $635 million in fines.
Purdue’s decision to entirely stop marketing the drug in the U.S. comes amid a new wave of legal action, reminiscent of the legal campaign against tobacco companies in the 1990s. States including Montana, New Jersey, and Alabama , as well as some cities, have sued Purdue, claiming that the opioid epidemic has reduced lifespans and caused massive social and economic damage. Costs of opioid addiction to the U.S. economy have been estimated to be as high as $78.5 billion.
Growing awareness of Purdue’s handling of OxyContin has also recently attracted scrutiny of the Sacklers, the family that controls the privately held firm. The Sacklers’ philanthropy has left their name prominently displayed across dozens of museums and universities, but they have carefully avoided public association with OxyContin, which reportedly generated the bulk of their wealth.
-
OxyContin maker cuts sales staff, won't hawk drug to docs
Feb 11, 2018 | USA Today
By John Bacon
The pharmaceutical company that produces the painkiller OxyContin is slashing its sales staff and says it will halt, effective Monday, promotion of opioids to physicians and other health care professionals.
The decision by Purdue Pharma comes as the industry battles an avalanche of lawsuits across the nation related to an epidemic of opioid abuse.
“We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers," Purdue Pharma said in a statement.
Indra Cidambi, medical director at the Center for Network Therapy detox program in New Jersey, said she was encouraged by Purdue's announcement. But she warned that tightening the prescription supply already has illegal drug dealers turning out more pills that look like branded prescription meds but can be even more dangerous.
"The decision by a manufacturer to stop pushing opioid pain medications is late, but better late than never," Cidambi told USA TODAY. "Even if we save one life due to this decision, it is worth it."
Purdue's head of medical affairs, Monica Kwarcinski, sent a letter to prescribers updating the company's efforts to support responsible opioid use.
"Effective Monday, February 12, 2018, our field sales organization will no longer be visiting your offices to engage you in discussions about our opioid products," Kwarcinski said in the letter, which was released to media outlets. "Requests for information about our opioid products will be handled through direct communication with the highly experienced health care professionals that comprise our Medical Affairs department."
Purdue said in a statement that it is reducing its sales force by more than 50%. The remaining 200 sales reps will focus on non-opioid drugs such as Symproic, the company said. Symproic is used to treat opioid-related constipation.
The company said it has consistently followed opioid guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control, which include a recommendation that opioids not be the first option for chronic pain.
Purdue, a privately held company based in Stamford, Conn., has been slammed with lawsuits claiming the company has downplayed OxyContin's addiction risk. Opioid litigation increased sharply in 2017 when hundreds of cities, counties and states sued opioid makers, wholesalers, distributors and marketers.
The lawsuits accuse the companies of, among other things, misleading prescribers and the public by marketing opioids as a safe substitute for non-addictive pain medications such as ibuprofen. Opioids also have been blamed for a resurgence in heroin use.
The government claims the results have been tragic — and left government agencies with millions in social and health care costs.
Purdue said in a statement that it "vigorously denies" allegations of misconduct, adding that its products account for only "approximately 2%" of all opioid prescriptions.
"We are deeply troubled by the opioid crisis, and we are dedicated to being part of the solution," the company said.
Opioids are substances that work on the nervous system in the body or specific receptors in the brain to reduce the intensity of pain. The CDC says more than three out of five drug overdose deaths involve opioids — and that annual deaths from heroin and prescription opioids have increased more than five-fold since 1999, including 42,000 deaths in 2016.
Purdue and three former executives pleaded guilty in federal court a decade ago to criminal charges of misleading the public about the addictive nature of OxyContin, paying more than $630 million in fines and penalties.
-
Purdue’s Bid to Reverse Ruling Regarding OxyContin Litigation Rejected
Feb 12, 2018 | Legal Reader
By Sara E. Teller
A federal appeals court has rejected Purdue’s bid to reverse a ruling last month allowing New Hampshire to pursue litigation against the OxyContin manufacturer claiming the company deceptively marketed opioids in state rather than federal court. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston denied Purdue’s request for permission to reverse and appeal the decision.
Deputy Attorney General Ann M. Rice originally filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of the state of New Hampshire. The official complaint alleged the company failed to report to New Hampshire authorities deceptive practices involving prescribing of opioids, while it promoted its “constructive role in the fight against opioid abuse” and “strong record of coordination with law enforcement.”
“Over the past two years, our office has conducted an extensive investigation into Purdue’s marketing of OxyContin and its other products in New Hampshire,” said Deputy Attorney General Rice said. “New Hampshire continues to experience a severe opioid epidemic. Last year alone nearly 500 overdose deaths occurred—almost ten times more than in 2000. In 2016, the Deputy Administrator of the DEA called New Hampshire ‘ground zero’ of the opioid epidemic. The CDC reports four out of five heroin users started with prescription opioids. To defeat the epidemic, we must stop creating new users and part of that is making sure these highly addictive and dangerous drugs are marketed truthfully and without deception and in such a way as not to minimize addiction risks or overstate benefits to patients.”
The Complaint also claimed that Purdue aggressively marketed its opioids to treat chronic pain and failed to disclose that there is no credible scientific evidence that opioids are actually safe or effective for such pain, misrepresented evidence regarding the effects of long-term opioid use and misrepresented the drugs’ risks and benefits, including the potential for users to become addicted.
The drug manufacturer has been hit with a multitude of lawsuits as of late, which it has been thus far unable to reverse, and has combated the litigation instead with several major ad campaigns intended to show its commitment to fighting against addiction and opioid abuse. However, many public officials and industry experts are saying the company needs to do much more to prove its commitment to the fight. And, many public officials have expressed their disbelief in the genuineness of the company’s concern.
“It’s an advertising technique that is trying to reframe their image in the community and their association with the opioid crisis,” said Debbie Danowski, an associate professor of communications and media arts at Sacred Heart University. “From what I can see in this ad, it’s kind of a lot of talk and not any real concrete action. Imagine the number of people they could be helping by using the money they’re spending on those ads on treatment centers for those who have become addicted to their drugs.”
In 2007, Purdue and three of its executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges for deceptive conduct and the court ruling required the company to pay $735 million in total. New Hampshire wasn’t included at the time. As part of the settlement, Purdue acknowledged that its sales and marketing team falsely represented that OxyContin “caused less euphoria, had less addiction potential, had less abuse potential, was less likely to be diverted than immediate-release opioids.”
-
Feb 11, 2018 | Urbana Daily Citizen (OH)
By Josh Ellerbrock
Under Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s direction, the State of Ohio is examining how to best pressure large pharmaceutical companies to take financial responsibility for the social problems caused by the opioid epidemic.
“We’re losing 12 to 15 people a day, who are dying of overdoses and drugs. Half the kids in foster care are there because one or both parents are drug addicts. We’re having to send kids outside of the state of Ohio because there are so many kids in foster care. Our county jails are detox centers today with tremendous cost. We have babies born in Ohio who are born addicted with lifetime costs for some of them,” DeWine said. “What’s more of a hidden cost is the fact that we have a large number of Ohioans who can’t pass a drug test today and, therefore, cannot get certain jobs.”
Currently, the State of Ohio is looking at several tracks to do so, DeWine said, but the path with the best chance is ongoing legal discussions between governmental bodies and pharmaceutical companies under the watch of U.S. District Judge Dan Polster.
“When a federal judge asks you to come in and talk, you come in and talk,” DeWine said. “That doesn’t mean there’s going to be a settlement, but there might be a settlement. There’s a chance.”
Allen County is currently examining if it should join those talks. Allen County Commissioners have spoken to Allen County Prosecuting Attorney Juergen Waldick about the possibility, but it remains up to Waldick to keep the ball rolling.
“We haven’t had extensive conversations. He more or less asked if we were okay with him pursuing it,” Commissioner Jay Begg said.
DeWine has also taken the initiative to approach pharmaceutical companies outside of federal negotiations to see if they are interested in discussions before going forward with state litigation. Two out of the five have already met with state officials. Two others have indicated interest. The final company, Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin, has expressed disinterest.
“We have to see if these drug companies are serious, and we have to get further along the path of negotiations,” DeWine said. “They can wait until we have a jury in Ross County — where we filed the suit — and take their chances with the jury. If they want to stonewall, we can’t stop them from stonewalling, but I filed suit because I want some leverage. And I thought if they do nothing, I want to start moving down the path of getting this in front of jury of Ohioans who are going to make the decision.”
To show good faith, pharmaceutical companies can take the lead in reversing some of the ways they influenced doctors to prescribe potentially dangerous drugs.
“Drug companies could today, unilaterally, be helpful in explaining the dangers to doctors. They changed the culture in the wrong direction. They could certainly change it in the right direction. They could start today,” DeWine said.
-
Indiana going to court in opioid battle (EDITORIAL)
Feb 11, 2018 | South Bend Tribune (IN)
By Editorial Board
Indiana communities, struggling under the weight of an opioid crisis, are increasingly turning to the courts to hold drugmakers and distributors accountable for their role in the plight.
The latest is Marshall County, where overdose deaths went from one in 2015 to 16 in 2017. The county filed a lawsuit in federal court two weeks ago, accusing more than 20 companies of deceptive practices that contributed to the opioid crisis.
It joins a list of more than a dozen Hoosier cities and counties — including Indianapolis, Lafayette, Bloomington, Fort Wayne and Harrison, as well as Vigo and Jennings counties — that have filed lawsuits against opioid makers and distributors. Among other things, the lawsuits claim that manufacturers have aggressively advertised to and persuaded doctors to prescribe highly addictive painkillers. The lawsuits aim to offset the financial costs needed to combat the consequences of the drug epidemic.
Last week brought news that the St. Joseph County commissioners also plan to proceed with a civil lawsuit against drug companies, accusing them of deceptive marketing practices that have contributed to the county’s opioid crisis. In St. Joseph County, there were 59 overdose-related deaths in 2015, 60 in 2016 and 57 in 2017, according to the Indiana Department of Health.
The opioid epidemic has taken a heavy toll on Indiana, which ranks ninth in the country for its opioid prescription per capita and overdose rates have more than doubled in the past three years.
The legal action is part of a national trend. Among the entities that have sued companies that make and distribute prescription opioids are Philadelphia; the state of Ohio; Princeton, W. Va.; the Cherokee Nation; and a consortium of counties across Wisconsin.
In 2015, the maker of OxyContin agreed to pay the state of Kentucky $24 million over eight years as part of the settlement of a long-running lawsuit that accused the company of misleading the public about the addictiveness of the powerful prescription drug.
There’s precedent for the actions: In 1998, state attorneys general sued the tobacco companies, arguing the companies should pay for the costs of smoking-related diseases. The four largest tobacco companies agreed to pay 46 states more than $200 billion over 25 years — the largest civil-litigation settlement agreement in U.S. history. The money was to fund public health programs and anti-smoking campaigns. The lawsuits also forced the companies to be accountable.
The current lawsuits could do the same. If successful, they could assist states in dealing with the destruction caused by opioid addiction by paying for additional treatment options and prevention initiatives.
Beyond the money involved, there needs to be an accounting of these companies’ actions, including how they marketed their products — just as the tobacco industry’s strategies were eventually uncovered. Ultimately, the lawsuits against opioid manufacturers could force them to take responsibility for their role in a public health crisis that has wracked the state and the nation.
-
Legal ramifications of war on opioids (EDITORIAL)
Feb 11, 2018 | PennLive (PA)
By Staff
Last week, the Dauphin County commissioners filed suit against 11 drug manufacturers and three doctors for ignoring the effects of prescription opioids and pursuing profits over patients. We support that litigation.
It mimics a move made last year by Delaware County, taking the war on opioid abuse directly to the source, and asking tough, hard questions about the role of the pharmaceutical industry - and some doctors - in contributing to the problem
We acknowledge that the solution to the opioid crisis is complicated, and a lawsuit alone will not solve the crisis locally.
But it does help address an important question: “Did pharmaceutical companies knowingly disregard and actively downplay the addictive nature of prescription drugs in order to increase sales?”
The inclusion of specific doctors from Utah and California in this suit suggest an additional question: “Did influential doctors acting as complicit agents of the pharmaceutical companies help guide physicians to believe that prescribing higher doses of painkillers was the best course of treatment for patients showing signs of addiction?”
The goal of the lawsuit is twofold, says Dauphin County Commissioner Jeff Haste. First, “to save lives,” and secondly, to plow any financial proceeds to off-setting the high cost of treatment and prevention programs.
Dauphin County spent $19.6 million to help over 2,500 people suffering from addiction in 2017.
But there is another welcome outcome: We’re beginning to understand how primary care physicians freely prescribed these drugs. That is why doctors from the western United States are named in this suit.
Two of them, Drs. Perry Fine and Lynn Webster of Utah, are not named as defendants filed by the Ohio attorney general (as well as a suit by the city of Chicago), but are cited as being members of a “small circle of doctors” who supported chronic opioid therapy in a series of published books, speeches and seminars.
Both are past presidents of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. Both were supported by the industry financially because of their public views.
Both are known as “thought leaders” in pain management.
Dr. Webster is “credited” with a concept known as “pseudo-addiction.” In essence, the concept he put forth is that if a patient being treated for pain with opioids starts asking for higher doses or showing signs of addiction, the most likely cause is that they are really in severe pain.
The first course of action, wrote Dr. Webster ... was to increase dosage.
Let that sink in.
A leading expert in pain management, supported by the industry, guided primary-care physicians to prescribe more addictive drugs to patients showing signs of addiction.
If the lawsuit filed by the commissioners can draw a straight line from Big Pharma to over-prescribing, this is a connector. It’s as simple as the Watergate-era phrase “follow the money.”
In fairness, it is one thing to observe a pattern and another thing to prove it (Dr. Webster has repeatedly stated he only had the welfare of patients in mind).
If we ever get there, it will only be after every party has their day in court: The companies deserve their day in court and the doctors deserve their day in court.
Dauphin County residents deserve their day in court — as do the citizens of every community ravaged by this epidemic.
Admittedly, this epidemic is as complex as are the solutions for mitigating it. There is no one simple, solitary solution, nor it there one single cause. But understanding the root causes as specifically as possible leads to answers.
And if along the way it leads to accountability then so much the better.
Much as Delaware County Council was in becoming one of the first government agencies to file such an action, the Dauphin County Commissioners were right to file this litigation. And we support their actions.
-
Opioid problem is users, not manufacturers (Letter to the Editor)
Feb 12, 2018 | Peninsula Daily News (WA)
By Ron Gregory
The Clallam County Health Board exhibits the same mentality as the proponents of gun control.
It is not the manufacturers who are causing the crisis, it is the illegal users of these prescriptive pain killers.
There are legitimate needs for these opioids and generic production has led to price decreases for these drugs.
Health board members are looking for an opioid fix by wasting taxpayer money with these frivolous lawsuits.
-
Trump budget to include billions to combat opioid epidemic
Feb 12, 2018 | The Hill
By Rachel Roubein
President Trump’s budget will propose billions of dollars to combat the opioid epidemic plaguing the country, months after the administration designated the crisis a national public health emergency.
The White House’s fiscal 2019 budget set to be released Monday will include nearly $17 billion for the opioid epidemic that’s killing more Americans per year than car accidents, according to an outline from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
The Department of Health and Human Services will specifically receive a large chunk of those dollars to expand prevention, treatment, recovery and mental health services — $3 billion for 2018 and $10 billion for 2019, according to the outline.
The two-year budget deal Congress passed includes $6 billion over the next two years to help with mental health and opioid addiction. OMB’s outline says the president’s budget will account for the recent spending caps deal.
In mid-October, Trump declared the epidemic a national public health emergency, a move which the administration extended another 90 days last month.
The money didn’t free up millions of more dollars nor did it include a request to Congress for more funding, which has frustrated addiction advocates. They’ve argued more funding is needed to make the move effective in combating the rising rate of opioid overdose deaths, which increased nearly 28 percent from 2015 to 2016.
Every year, the president releases its budget, but Congress has the power of the purse, and often ignores or changes the White House’s asks. Yet, the document serves as a window into the administration’s priorities.
-
Trump to nominate White House aide for drug czar: White House
Feb 9, 2018 | Reuters
By Staff
U.S. President Donald Trump intends to nominate White House aide Jim Carroll to serve as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a post popularly known as the drug czar, the White House said in a statement on Friday.
Carroll, who currently serves as White House deputy chief of staff, must be confirmed by the Senate.
As drug czar, Carroll would coordinate the administration’s response to an epidemic of opioid overdoses that is killing tens of thousands of Americans annually and the problem of illegal drug use.
“We have full confidence in Jim to lead ONDCP to make significant strides in combating the opioids crisis, reducing drug use, and coordinating U.S. drug policy,” the White House said.
Trump’s previous pick for drug czar, Republican Representative Tom Marino, withdrew his nomination in October after a media report he spearheaded a bill that hurt the government’s ability to crack down on opioid makers flooding the market with the addictive painkillers.
Before joining the White House, Carroll, a lawyer, worked for the Ford Motor Co. He has also held posts at the U.S. Treasury and Justice Department.
Trump has been criticized for his response to the opioid epidemic. He has yet to declare it a national emergency as he pledged to do in August following a recommendation by a presidential commission.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioids were responsible for more than 33,000 U.S. deaths in 2015, the latest year for which data is available. Estimates show the death rate has continued rising.
-
City Commission approves opioid lawsuit
Feb 9, 2018 | YourObserver (FL)
By David Conway
Hoping to recover damages associated with the opioid epidemic, the City Commission voted unanimously to move forward with a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies Feb. 5.
Attorneys with the Sarasota-based law firm Kirk Pinkerton and the Jacksonville-based Abbot Law Group approached the city with the prospect of filing suit as part of a broader effort statewide to take action against drug manufacturers.
After getting the commission’s approval, the legal team announced today its intention to file a suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, located in Tampa. In a release, the attorneys said they would file suit against as many as seven major pharmaceutical manufacturing companies.
“Their conduct is fraudulent, unlawful and deceptive and municipalities have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to keep up with expenses related to this malfeasance,” said Bill Robertson, an attorney with Kirk Pinkerton, in the release.
On Monday, Robertson and Abbot Law Group attorney Steven Teppler outlined the merits of the case to the commission. Robertson and Teppler said the city would not be responsible for any expenses related to the suit unless the legal team successfully recovers damages.
When the commission asked why the attorneys wanted to file a suit on Sarasota’s behalf, Teppler said the opioid epidemic can be tied to a number of economic injuries that negatively affected the city.
“The city shares the same problem as every other county and municipality in Florida, as to an opioid problem,” Teppler said. “If the city doesn’t file for compensation, it won’t get any compensation.”
The commission applauded the attorneys’ initiative and expressed hope any damages could be used to fund social programs designed to assist residents affected by opioid-related issues.
“It’s probably one of the only ways to get these manufacturers to realize that they’ve got to think about what they’re doing,” Alpert said.
-
County sues big pharmacy in opioid crisis
Feb 9, 2018 | Osceiola News-Gazette (FL)
By Rachel Christian
Osceola County government is taking legal action in the fight against opioid addiction.
Osceola recently became the first county in Florida to file a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies that manufacture highly addictive opioid medications.
The suit targets over 20 different big pharmacy companies, including the maker of OxyContin and corporations like Johnson & Johnson.
County staff members said the lawsuit is meant to hold the manufacturers accountable for increased healthcare, law enforcement and first responder costs incurred locally due to the opioid crisis.
Alachua County in northern Florida also filed a nearly identical suit against more than a dozen drug manufacturers this week. Other counties across the state, including Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, are considering filing lawsuits, but have not yet done so.
Joseph Ciaccio, an attorney with the New York-based law firm Napoli Shkolnik, signed professional service contracts with both Osceola and Alachua counties. His firm represents more than 100 other counties nationwide in state-level litigation.
The County Commission voted to appoint the firm in November. Napoli Shkolnik is taking the case on for free due to a contingency clause, but the firm would be awarded 25 percent of the money if the county wins, said Osceola County Attorney Andrew Mai.
The suit, which is currently in circuit court, asserts that drug companies put their desires for making money above the well-being of consumers by using a deceptive and unfair marketing campaign to get doctors and patients to use the powerful drugs to treat chronic pain long term, rather than short term as was originally intended.
Mai said it is still being determined how much money the county will seek in damages from the drug manufacturers named in the suit.
A 2016 report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement says 5,725 opioid-related deaths were reported in the state, which is a 35 percent increase over 2015.
Facilities, such as the Transition House and Park Place Behavioral Health Care have seen a major uptick in the number of patients struggling with opioid addiction.
Jim Shanks, CEO/president of Park Place, said many individuals get hooked on opioids after being prescribed pain pills by a physician. After the prescription runs out though, more individuals are transitioning to harder, illegal opioids like heroin and Fentanyl.
“Mixing heroin and Fentanyl can be a deadly combination,” Shanks said. “But people do it because they’re chasing the high they experienced from the presentation pills.”
-
Parkersburg may sue drug makers
Feb 10, 2018 | Parkersburg News & Sentinel (WV)
By Evan Bevins
Parkersburg could join cities and counties around the country in suing drug manufacturers and distributors over the impact of the opioid abuse epidemic.
A resolution on the agenda for Tuesday’s City Council meeting would declare “that opiate abuse, addiction, morbidity and mortality has created a serious public health and safety crisis in the City of Parkersburg, West Virginia and is a public nuisance.”
It’s not just a statement against the drug abuse epidemic affecting the city, region, state and country, City Attorney Joe Santer said. Although not mentioned in the text of the resolution, it is one “precursor” to a potential lawsuit against the companies that make and distribute the prescription opioid medications that are often abused, he said.
“The city engaged an attorney to handle a case for the city,” Santer said. “He suggested that that’s something that would demonstrate the city is unified … against the opiates.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 42,000 people died in 2016 from overdoses on opioids, including prescription painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin, heroin and the synthetic drug fentanyl. Two murder cases were filed last year in Wood County against individuals who allegedly supplied fentanyl to overdose victims. One pleaded guilty; the other case is pending.
Attorney Rusty Webb of Charleston said he’s already filed suits on behalf of Charleston, Huntington and Fort Gay and is working with other government subdivisions on litigation, including Glenville and Calhoun County. He contacted Parkersburg about possible litigation and recommended the ordinance.
“The end goal is to pay back the political subdivisions the damages they’ve incurred for the opioids dumped in their districts,” Webb said.
Those costs could include overtime, the cost of anti-overdose medications like Naloxone, expenses for treatments and needle exchanges and increased regional jail costs for counties, he said. Even expenses related to heroin abuse are being examined, Webb said, because that’s a drug people turn to when the prescription medication is too expensive to obtain.
“We’re requesting damages as far back as (2007) to date,” he said.
Webb said manufacturers of the drugs “misled”physicians about the addictiveness of the medications.
“The distributors failed to comply with DEA rules and regulations to advise the DEA of spikes or trends of opioid distribution … in Parkersburg,” Webb said.
In filings for similar litigation, pharmaceutical companies have emphasized that the painkillers they deal in are approved by the federal government, prescribed by doctors and have legitimate medical uses, while also saying they want to help address the crisis.
More than 300 lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies and distributors are being overseen by federal Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland. Webb said that’s where he anticipates the suits for Parkersburg and other government entities he represents to end up.
Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce did not return a call seeking comment about the resolution and potential litigation Friday.
Two of the three City Council members sponsoring the resolution declined to comment about the possible suit until they had more information.
Councilman J.R. Carpenter said he sponsored it because the opioid epidemic is a topic he’s eager to tackle locally and wants to discuss the resolution further with council. He said Friday he was unaware of its connection to possible litigation.
“I sponsored the resolution for what it says,”Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl said, adding in regard to any lawsuit, “I really need some more information about that.”
-
Upshur County prepares to file lawsuit in response to opioid crisis
Feb 11, 2018 | WVNews (WV)
By Michael Lemley
The Upshur County Commission is taking the steps that will lead to a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies and other responsible parties in response to the opioid crisis.
At the commission's meeting Thursday, commissioners agreed to sign a contingent fee contract with Fitzsimmons Law Firm, PLLC.
The agenda for the meeting details that this contract, "authorizes Fitzsimmons Law Firm PLLC to take charge and prosecute by claim or suit for damages to final determination by all necessary legal proceedings or by compromise or settlement a claim for damages caused by the opioid epidemic against certain pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, suppliers and all others who may by potentially liable."
In a related action, another item of the meeting's agenda saw the commission classify the opioid crisis as a public nuisance.
This classification means that the commission, "shall take any and all actions which it deems proper and necessary to abate the public nuisance caused by the opioid crisis, including the filing of a legal action against any responsible parties," according to the agenda.
These decisions will allow Upshur to join a number of other counties throughout the U.S. in filing suits against pharmaceutical companies.
This includes Clay County, which filed a suit in January against a number of companies that it argues contributed to the opioid crisis by funneling large numbers of prescription opioids into the county.
-
Athens-Clarke, Oconee suing opioid companies
Feb 11, 2018 | Online Athens (GA)
By Lee Shearer
Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties have joined a growing number of other governments and hospital authorities across the country in a multi-state federal lawsuit targeting makers and distributors of opioid drugs.
The Athens law firm Blasingame, Burch, Garrard & Ashley filed a complaint in the United States District Court’s Middle District of Georgia Wednesday, and followed up Thursday with a similar complaint on behalf of Oconee County, said James Matthews, a Blasingame Burch partner.
The law firm earlier filed lawsuits against major opioid manufacturers and distributors on behalf of rural Candler County and the Candler County Hospital Authority.
Matthews said he expects the firm to file 25 or more complaints against the opioid manufacturers and distributors for other Georgia governments and agencies.
The more than 20 named defendants in the 176-page complaint Athens-Clarke County filed Wednesday include Cardinal Health Inc., Cephalon Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Ortho-McNeil Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc, Allergan PLC, and Watson Pharma Inc., among others.
“Plaintiff brings this civil action to eliminate the hazard to publish health and safety caused by the opioid epidemic; to abate the nuisance caused thereby, and to recoup monies that have been spent, or will be spent, because of Defendants’ false, deceptive and unfair marketing and/or unlawful diversion of prescription opioids,” according to the complaint.
Those costs include money for medical care, costs for rehabilitation and related services, and “costs associated with law enforcement and public safety” relating to the opioid epidemic, according to the Athens-Clarke complaint.
“Cities, counties and states are hugely affected by this, so the potential legal damages are very high,” Matthews said.
One rural South Georgia county had to establish a drug court primarily because of opioid-related cases at a cost of $400,000 a year, he said.
The Georgia complaints will be combined with dozens of similar lawsuits across the United States in a process called multi-district litigation. The cases will be grouped with dozens or hundreds of others in the federal Northern District of Ohio.
Fulton and DeKalb counties have also sued companies over the costs of dealing with opioid addiction and overdoses, but those cases were filed in Georgia state courts, Matthews said.
Lawyers sometimes use the same multi-district approach when many claims arise from a defendants’ alleged actions.
In the 1990s, most states joined in a lawsuit against tobacco companies over the costs of smoking and tobacco use, eventually reaching a $10 billion settlement with the companies. Lawsuits arising from the massive 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico were also handled through multi-district litigation.
Blasingame Burch has developed a reputation for expertise in such multi-district litigation in medical cases, in part because of its lawsuits filed on behalf of women who suffered injuries resulting from the use of a kind of plastic mesh for repair in vaginal surgery.
About 95 percent of around 100,000 plaintiffs nationwide - many but not all represented by Blasingame, Burch, Garrard & Ashley - have now settled with defendants in the mesh litigation, Matthews said.
Ohio District Court Judge Dan Polster has appointed a lead counsel for the opioid litigation, but Matthews hopes to be appointed to a plaintiffs’ steering committee, not yet named, according to the Fulton County Daily Report, an Atlanta legal newspaper.
The litigation could take years to resolve, and the judge has told lawyers he wants the first year to be spent on trying to settle the cases, Matthews said.
An eventual settlement or judgment might help pay for future anti-opioid measures now working their way through Georgia and other state legislatures, said University of Georgia law professor Elizabeth Weeks Leonard.
Georgia’s state Senate recently approved legislation to establish a commission to study the addiction and substance abuse, for example.
Multi-district cases can also be helpful for the defense side, Leonard said. Like the plaintiffs, the defense lawyers don’t have to defend what is essentially the same case in multiple courtrooms.
The opioid crisis means more work for law enforcement, agreed Oglethorpe County Sheriff David Gabriel.
“It’s definitely a problem,” he said. “I think you’re seeing it everywhere.”
Victims of the drug often begin with a legitimate need for the pain-killers, but become addicted, he said.
“The biggest issue is that opioids are a route to people getting on heroin,” he said. Oglethorpe county had one death last year attributed to heroin, he said.
Opioid pills are expensive, so those who become addicted may turn to heroin as a cheaper alternative, and to crime as a way to pay for drugs, he said.
“It’s down to money at the end of the day,” he said.
-
Mansfield joins lawsuit against drug manufacturers, distributors
Feb 9, 2018 | Richland Source (OH)
By Emily Dech
The city wants to have a seat at the table when it comes to the fight against major opioid manufacturers and distributors accused of misleading the public about the dangers of opioids.
Accordingly, Mansfield City Council approved legislation allowing the city to enter into a contract with the law firms of Murray & Murray Co., of Sandusky, and Rinehardt Law Firm, of Ontario, to provide representation in pending litigation against pharmaceutical companies that manufactured and distributed opioids for their role in opioid addiction, abuse and morbidity.
"The purpose of the lawsuit is to seek reimbursement of the costs incurred in the past fighting the opioid epidemic and/or recover the funds necessary to abate the health and safety crisis caused by the unlawful conduct of the wholesale distributors," the agreement states.
"The crux of it, in part, is the pharmaceutical industry falsely failed to disclose the strong addictive nature of the opiate pharmaceutical products, 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," said law director John Spon.
Spon said he's conferred with the fire chief, safety-service director and others regarding this lawsuit.
Over 200 cities and counties have filed suit against major opioid manufacturers and distributors. Those cases have been consolidated for discovery under the federal court multidistrict litigation rules and transferred to the United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division with Judge Dan Polster, according to a letter to the city from attorney John T. Murray of Murray and Murray.
"We believe it is in the City of Mansfield's interest to have a seat at the table as this litigation proceeds to resolution," Murray wrote.
Spon said the lawsuit won't cost the city a penny.
"We have nothing to lose and everything to gain," he said, adding that this is the city's chance to "recover tens of thousands of dollars that the city has had to expend as a result of the opiate crisis."
The attorneys, if successful, will receive 30 percent of anything received by the city plus attorneys' out of pocket costs expended on behalf of the city in this litigation.
Both the Richland County Children Services and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine have filed similar lawsuits against drug manufacturers.
-
Gary Files Suit in Opioid Epidemic Fight
Feb 9, 2018 | Inside Indiana Business (IN)
By Reed Parker
The city of Gary has filed a complaint in Lake County seeking to recover damages after using public resources to battle the opioid epidemic. The complaint includes over 25 defendants, and alleges that the makers and distributors intentionally misled Hoosiers on opioid dangers.
The suit claims defendants have downplayed the risks of OxyContin, Fentanyl and Percocet, while aggressively marketing the drugs. Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson says "I have seen addiction as a deputy prosecutor, defense attorney, drug court judge and Indiana Attorney General. We understand the scourge of addiction created by illegal drugs. To think that legal drugs have been manufactured and distributed in a way that increases and risks the harm to citizens of Gary and other communities is unconscionable. As Mayor, I have a responsibility to protect our resources and there is no doubt in my mind that the citizens in this community are our most treasured commodity. We are excited to have an experienced and aggressive legal team fighting for our citizens.”
Indiana hospitals saw fatal overdoses rise by an average of 3.5 percent each year, from 2011 to 2015. Freeman-Wilson says the opioid problems have caused budget increases for law enforcement, emergency care and treatment programs. More than 17,000 US residents died from prescription opioids in 2015 alone.
Gary is just the most recent Indiana city to file suit to recover expenses. Indianapolis was the first and Fort Wayne followed suit as well.
-
County board votes to join statewide opioid lawsuit
Feb 9, 2018 | Argus-Press (MI)
By Tim Rath
Shiawassee County will join a statewide lawsuit, seeking damages from pharmaceutical companies and large retailers who allegedly hid information about the addictiveness of opioids from consumers.
The county board of commissioners unanimously signed off Thursday on a resolution agreeing to terms with the law firms Behm and Behm, Sam Bernstein and Weitz and Luxenberg, who will work on retainer, to represent the county in court.
The remainder of this article is under paywall at: http://www.argus-press.com/news/news_local/article_ee0f3d6d-f20c-5229-b925-a229da2677e3.html
-
Dane County charts next steps after approving outside council in opioid lawsuit
Feb 11, 2018 | The Daily Cardinal (WI)
By Sydney Widell
At their last meeting, the Dane County Board of Supervisors approved the county’s corporate lawyer to seek outside counsel, showing a clear picture of what local officials are hoping to achieve with the lawsuit.
According to the resolution, the board will not compensate any outside counsel unless the county receives a financial benefit from the lawsuit. Additionally, the county wants to engage in litigation alone rather than be a part of a joint lawsuit.
The resolution specifies that the county should take on “any pharmaceutical company, wholesale distributor, manufacturer, and/or other entity that engages in practices that contribute to the ongoing opioid epidemic within Dane County.”
Dane County, like most all other regions in the country, has seen a spike in opioid-related deaths since 2016, with more than 85 such deaths in 2016 compared to 13 in 2000. The resolution notes the number of opioid-related deaths jumped 130 percent from 2010 to 2016.
Over that same period, the rate of heroin-related deaths has tripled from 3.0 per 100,000 in 2000 to 10.1 per 100,000 in 2016.
Supervisor Hayley Young, District 5, said the decision to pursue this lawsuit was in part to keep pace with other municipalities doing the same and hold these corporations accountable.
“We do a lot of mental health and addiction treatment in our human services, but instead of just looking at it from a response side, going to the heart of the issue and the folks who have some culpability for what’s going on,” Young said.
Young added that when the resolution was circulating, sponsors noted how many other municipalities had also opted to sue pharmaceutical companies. Cities such as Seattle, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Dayton and Chicago have already entered into similar lawsuits.
“It’s just an example of local governments trying to leverage their power together,” said Young.
-
City authorizes lawyer to go after 'Big Pharma'
Feb 9, 2018 | BCR News (NY)
By Goldie Rap
The city of Princeton is joining the legal fight against “Big Pharma” amid the opioid crisis.
During Monday’s regular meeting, council members unanimously approved a resolution authorizing a contingent fee engagement agreement with local attorney Melissa K. Sims and Sanders Phillips Grossman LLC of New York.
Sims spoke before the resolution was approved and said it’s a privilege to represent the place she calls home.
Sims decided to partner with the New York law firm in a federal multi-district litigation (MDL) after watching the first three cases be filed against “Big Pharma” a little over a year ago. Because the cases were public nuisance litigation on behalf of municipalities, it struck Sims’ interest, and she decided to dig deeper into the issue.
“I could not believe what happened to this public health crisis and how it got started,” she said.
Sims explained how manufacturers and distributors of opioids were involved in fraud marketing and lied to the Federal Drug Agency about how addictive their pills were.
“They said there was a one percent risk of addiction, but I think all of us here tonight know someone who has been affected by this crisis,” she said. “Opioids typically were only prescribed for people who had acute injury or end of life. They were not meant to be for someone who was a habitual user.”
According to Sims, manufacturers and distributors were supposed to red flag and stop shipments that were suspicious or for habitual users, but instead increased sale agents to sell more product.
Municipalities, counties, cities and states throughout the country are now banding together seeking litigation against the manufacturers and distributors.
Over the past year, Sims said, those three original cases have turned into more than 500 cases.
“Three cases weren’t going to make a difference, but over 500 cases will make a difference,” she said.
The MDL Sims is working for has been paneled in Cleveland where one judge is listening to all cases. Sims said the judge is looking to settle quickly.
“It will be settled for hundreds of billions of dollars. That’s what it’s going to take to break the back of this public health crisis,” she said.
Under Princeton’s agreement with Sims, she will work to ensure money is returned to the city to compensate past recovery and future costs needed for opioid treatment.
“Those costs should not be borne by taxpayers. Those costs should be borne by the companies that shirked their laws,” she said. “I want you to know you will have a strenuous advocate on behalf of the city of Princeton in this multi-district litigation.”
-
Pittsfield Asked to Join Lawsuit Against Opioid Manufacturers, Distributors
Feb 10, 2018 | Iberkshires (MA)
By Staff
The City Council will consider joining a lawsuit against opioid wholesalers to recoup some of the cost the city has incurred combating the drug epidemic.
The law firm Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Rafferty & Proctor is taking on major drug manufacturers and distributors for fueling the illicit opioid market.
The firm isn't asking for a city contribution for the case but is rather working for 25 percent of any settlement. Cities and towns throughout the nation have already joined the effort to recoup some of the costs associated with a municipality's efforts to combat the crisis.
"This litigation is intended to address a significant problem in the city. The litigation focuses on the wholesale distributors and manufacturers of opioids and their role in the diversion of millions of prescription opiates into the illicit market which has resulted in opioid addiction, abuse, morbidity, and mortality.
There is no easy solution and no precedent for such an action against this sector of the industry," reads a proposed agreement between the city and the law firm.
"Many of the facts of the case are locked behind closed doors. The billion-dollar industry denies liability. The litigation will be very expensive and the litigation expenses will be advanced by the firm with reimbursement contingent upon a successful recovery.
The outcome is uncertain, as is all civil litigation, with compensation contingent upon a successful recovery." The lawsuit claims that companies did not comply with federal regulations in regards to distribution of painkillers and flooded the market, fueling the epidemic.
Municipalities are often burdened with significant costs for such things as first responders responding to overdoses, police enforcement, rehabilitation, and in the school system. The firm believes some of the major manufacturers are responsible and should pay for the damage caused to cities and towns.
"The purpose of the lawsuit is to seek reimbursement of the costs incurred in the past fighting the opioid epidemic and/or recover the funds necessary to abate the health and safety crisis caused by the unlawful conduct of the wholesale distributors and manufacturers of opioids," the agreement reads.
The Pensacola, Fla., firm has already received much support in Massachusetts. The litigation may or may not end up with a payout. The agreement is on the City Council's agenda for Tuesday.
-
Feb 11, 2018 | Fox News (FOX)
By National Programming
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622710?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0
Rough Transcript: with over 63,000 drug overdose deaths in 2016 alone, some cities are taking the opioid crisis into their own hands. like philadelphia, which has the highest opioid death rate of any u.s. city, and officials say the city's on track for 1200 overdose deaths. so what's philadelphia's solution? 8:44 AMbecoming the first u.s. city to legalize safe injection sites. but is this the best course of action? let's ask our fox news medical a team's dr. mark segal and trial attorney, and marie appley, you're suing some of these pharmaceutical companies and opioids, but dr. segal, i want to start with you, is this a good idea, a safe space to legally shoot up drugs? >> let's start with the idea that i'm not in any way condoning this idea that drug use is killing a lot of people. but this isn't the first time -- we have syringe services programs throughout the united states. griff, over 30 states, over 200 programs, and they've been studied by the centers for disease control. they're a place to educate people. a place to have naloxone which is an antidote to opioids. in philadelphia over 60% of the opioid deaths you talked about are due to fentanyl which is 8:45 AMmuch more powerful. you can start them with knacks alone, and you can say so seboxone that works. it reduces hiv in people who inject drugs. hiv cases decreased by 80%. hepatitis c decreases dramatically by using these programs, bringing them into the light, having medical professionals involved. i'm not condoning it but it cuts down dramatically on cost and health risks. griff: doctor, you say good idea. marie, what do you think about it? >> i think we could spend our money on rehabilitation and integrated rehabilitation and go to the root of the cause and go after the drug manufacturers and the distributors who are mismarketing it. and they're distributing distributing to communities and create pill mills, donating what they're supposed to be doing. what they're supposed to be doing is reporting any strange activity to the fda, which they're not doing because they're making money over it. 8:46 AMso hold them responsible, work on rehabilitation, and get the message out there that these drugs are addictive, the opposite of what everybody's been told. >> there is no evidence that these syringe programs increase use of intravenous drugs, no evidence. now, i'm not in favor of what they're doing in nevada where they have like in a slot machine where you just push a punt and you get a syringe. that's not what i want. i like the idea of medical professionals involved, counselors involve, people that can start you on medically assisted therapy like ceboxone which really workers. i'm not for decriminalizing this. putting pushers in jail is a good idea. that's different if you're an addict, you need medical help, we need to cut down on infections by sharing syringes. >> i would agree that there are two issues going on. one is to prevent new addicts from forming so that's going 8:47 AMafter the manufacturers and distributors and getting the message out. for the people who are already addicts, i think the way to go is rehabilitation. whether or not you give them clean syringes and give them narcn so they don't overdose in the future, i'm not against that but just giving them a location where they can shoot up, it's not going to be legal activity just because they're in this location. they can still get arrested. griff: right, 'cause they're doing the drugs. dr. segal, seattle and san francisco seemed to try this but it failed there. >> it failed in seattle because they had to get city council approval. here in philadelphia what i think will succeed is they're going to use a private company. so i think it will pass. with the current laws it's hard to get a city council to agree to do this but to get a private company involved has happened all over the country. by the way, i want to agree with one point marie is making. i think the drug companies are terrible, i think the pharmaceutical companies have enabled this problem and 250 million prescriptions written by physicians in 2015 for opioids, physicians bear a lot of the responsibility here. griff: that, dr. segal is unacceptable, almost every family community in this country knows someone or has been affected by this terrible tragedy. dr. segal, marie, thank you for coming in and weighing in with us.
-
Feb 12, 2018 | CNBC (CNBC)
By National Programming
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622704?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0
Rough Transcript: and oxycontin maker purdue pharma is cutting its sales in half pharma companies have come under fire for the way they've marketed addictive painkillers privately held purdue has been sued by 14 states accused of deceptively marketing opioids to try and generate higher sales.
-
Feb 12, 2018 | N12NJ (News 12)
By New York, NY
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622730?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0
Rough Transcript: today-- new jersey native and trump administration aide, kellyann conway, said the administration is putting 6-billion dollars into the budget to battle the opioid crisis. " and we want to do with that wewant to invest in... treatment, law enforcement, education, and prevention. we need to tackle all three at once." that announcement comes on the heels of a major move but the company that makes oxycontin.it will no longer promote the drug to physicians. that begins monday. purdue pharma says they're also cutting its sales force in half. the drugmaker had recently been facing a string of lawsuits both from state and local governments.
-
Feb 12, 2018 | CLTV (CLTV)
By Chicago, IL
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622740?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0
Rough Transcript: oxycontin opioid painkiller says - as of tomorrow, it will stop promoting it to physicians. purdue pharma also says it is cutting its sales-force in half. purdue and other drug- makers have been severely criticized and were hit by a string of lawsuits from state and local governments. oxycontin is a highly addictive opioid. some lawsuits say purdue downplayed its addictive risks, and overstated its benefits as a painkiller.
-
Feb 11, 2018 | WAGA (FOX)
By Atlanta, GA
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622753?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0
Rough Transcript: five counties are suing opioid manufacturers. there is a broad assault here. >> it is. what you saw is probably about a year and a half ago, attorneys came to these five counties and presented an opportunity for them to step up and get involved in sort of a regional lawsuit around opioids. to phil's point, we've seen documentary after documentary, specials about how this opioid cris is just rampant, not just in georgia, but all over. i think the attorney general and the legislature, they really deserve a lot of, you know, kudos here because this is an uncomfortable conversation to have. when you look at the families down at the capitol on these last couple weeks talking to legislators about how this addiction has destroyed their families and taking their loved ones away, it was really pretty amazi amazing.
-
Feb 11, 2018 | KHOU (CBS)
By Houston, TX
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622760?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0
Rough Transcript: one popular drugmaker is claiming they will help curb the nations opioid epidemic. the makers of oxycontin say they will stop promoting the drug to doctors. they are slashing their sales staff on monday. the remaining salespeople will focus on non-opioid drugs. the entry is facing an avalanche of lawsuits. >>> in december harris county filed a suit against 21 drug manufacturers including purdue pharma. the lawsuit claims the companies knew the use of opioids had the potential to cause addiction. attorneys hope to be in the courtroom later this year.
-
Feb 11, 2018 | WLVI (CW)
By Boston, MA
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622766?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0
Rough Transcript: pharmaceutical giant slowing sales of oxycontin. they will no longer promote the powerful opioid to doctors as of tomorrow. several company including purdue faced lawsuit by state and local governments. they are accused of down playing objectiony highly addictive qualities. purdue denying any wrongdoing and the cdc says opioid contributed to over 42,000 u.s. death in 2016.
-
Feb 11, 2018 | WRC (NBC)
By Washington, DC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/32622770?token=298e06a2-9fa9-4006-979d-5643e20523c0
Rough Transcript: starting tomorrow purdue far sa says it's going to stop promoting opioids to doctors. this all comes after wide, wide spread criticism of drug manufacturers who advertise for the highly addictive painkillers. 14 states have sued purdue including maryland. montgomery county executive announced last wednesday that purdue is one of several companies named in a lawsuit.
Purdue Marketing Announcement
Commentary and FYIs
Southeast (FL, WV, GA)
Midwest (OH, IN, MI, WI)
Northeast (NY, MA)
Broadcast Media Coverage
Add recipients
Suggested