Preview Newsletter
Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report 2/27/18
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Ohio accuses drug distributors of helping fuel opioid epidemic
Feb 26, 2018 | Reuters
By Nate Raymond
Ohio on Monday accused four major pharmaceutical distributors of ignoring their responsibilities to ensure that opioids were not being diverted for improper uses, contributing to a drug abuse epidemic in the state. -
N.J. county goes for the gold in opioid lawsuit (Opinion)
Feb 27, 2018 | NJ.com (NJ)
By Editorial Board
The family members whose company makes OxyContin as "racketeers"? -
Pharmacy benefits managers in crosshairs of latest opioid lawsuit
Feb 26, 2018 | Benefits Pro
By Marlene Satter
They’d been out of the fight over the widespread use and abuse of opioids, but that could be about to change. Pharmacy benefit managers are being targeted by a lawsuit filed by Webb County, in South Texas, charging that PBMs enabled the opioid crisis and profited from the sale of the drugs that fueled it, according to a lawyer who represents the county. -
Municipal Lawsuits Are Not a Solution to the Opioid Crisis (Opinion)
Feb 27, 2018 | InsideSources
By Robin Newhouse
While over-burdened treatment centers struggle with ever-rising rates of addiction and overdose, more than 100 cities and states have joined the parade of litigation started by Chicago in 2014. Citizens have good reason for outrage, but if anyone thinks these lawsuits will solve our opioid crisis, they will be highly disappointed. -
Leading Opioid Litigation Firm Becomes a Top Donor to McCaskill Leading Up to Report’s Release
Feb 27, 2018 | InsideSources
By Ethan Stoetzer
As U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., faces a difficult reelection fight, one of her top issues in the past year has become the opioid epidemic plaguing the country. Last March, McCaskill launched a probe investigating the financial ties between the nation’s top opioid manufacturers and non-profit organizations, in an effort identify if doctors and organizations were being paid to promote certain opioid drugs as treatment for pain management. After the announcement, InsideSources exposed McCaskill’s failure to pursue an investigation of Mallinckrodt, the pharmaceutical company with the highest annual opioid prescriptions, which also happens to be based in McCaskill’s home state of Missouri. McCaskill later expanded the probe to include Mallinckrodt. -
Judge overseeing opioid lawsuits pushes DEA to release drug data for settlement talks
Feb 26, 2018 | Cleveland.com (OH)
By Eric Heisig
The federal judge overseeing hundreds of lawsuits local governments filed against opioid manufacturers and distributors is pushing the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to release government-collected painkiller data to both sides engaging in settlement talks. -
Wilkes County sues prescription opioid pain medication makers, distributors
Feb 26, 2018 | Wilkes Journal - Patriot (NC)
By Julie Hubbard
Wilkes County government is seeking compensation from over a dozen drug companies for costs resulting from opioid addiction in a 162-page lawsuit filed in the Western District of U.S. District Court in Statesville on Feb. 16. -
Rutherford County sues opioid manufacturers, following a national trend
Feb 26, 2018 | Daily News Journal (TN)
By Adam Tamburin
Rutherford County has joined a growing chorus of Tennessee communities that are suing the makers of prescription opioids in federal court. -
DeKalb County Law and Justice Committee hears presentation on opioid litigation possibilities
Feb 26, 2018 | Daily Chronicle (GA)
By Lindsay Gloor
An attorney with Sanders Phillips Grossman spoke with county officials Monday regarding opportunities to file a lawsuit for damages that the opioid epidemic has caused. -
Lawsuits pending against drug manufacturers of opioids
Feb 26, 2018 | KKTV (CO)
By Dustin Cuzick
The opioid crisis has gripped the country -- and southern Colorado is one of the hardest areas hit. -
Good Morning Cleveland 6 AM
Feb 27, 2018 | Cleveland, OH
By WEWS (ABC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33051587?token=86b6256d-0f25-42b7-ad79-9b9e3ade3513 -
ABC 7 News at 5
Feb 27, 2018 | El Paso, TX
By KVIA (ABC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33051583?token=86b6256d-0f25-42b7-ad79-9b9e3ade3513 -
Daybreak
Feb 27, 2018 | Parkersburg, WV
By WTAP (NBC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33051566?token=86b6256d-0f25-42b7-ad79-9b9e3ade3513 -
Local 6 Today
Feb 27, 2018 | Paducah, KY
By WPSD (NBC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33051552?token=86b6256d-0f25-42b7-ad79-9b9e3ade3513 -
News 4 Today 6am
Feb 27, 2018 | Nashville, TN
By WSMV (NBC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33051528?token=86b6256d-0f25-42b7-ad79-9b9e3ade3513
Ohio AG Suit Against Distributors
Commentary and FYIs
MDL
Southeast (NC, TN, GA)
West (CO)
Broadcast Media Coverage
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Ohio accuses drug distributors of helping fuel opioid epidemic
Feb 26, 2018 | Reuters
By Nate Raymond
Ohio on Monday accused four major pharmaceutical distributors of ignoring their responsibilities to ensure that opioids were not being diverted for improper uses, contributing to a drug abuse epidemic in the state.
The lawsuit by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine was filed in a state court against McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc, AmerisourceBergen Corp and Miami-Luken Inc and marked the second he has pursued over corporations’ roles in the opioid crisis.
“They knew the amount of opioids allowed to flow into Ohio far exceeded what could be consumed for medically necessary purposes, but they did nothing to stop it,” DeWine said in a statement.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for the increased costs Ohio incurred for healthcare, criminal justice, social services and education. It also seeks punitive damages.
Representatives for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. They have previously denied similar allegations in other cases.
Opioids were involved in more than 42,000 overdose deaths nationwide in 2016, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hundreds of lawsuits by states, counties and cities have accused drugmakers of pushing addictive painkillers through deceptive marketing and wholesale distributors of failing to report suspicious drug orders.
DeWine previously in May 2017 sued Purdue Pharma LP, Endo International Plc, Johnson & Johnson, Allergan Plc and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd , accusing them of deceptively marketing opioids. They have denied wrongdoing.
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N.J. county goes for the gold in opioid lawsuit (Opinion)
Feb 27, 2018 | NJ.com (NJ)
By Editorial Board
The family members whose company makes OxyContin as "racketeers"?
It's a unique twist in Camden County's otherwise "me-too" lawsuit hoping to recover damages from the financial and human costs relating to opioid addiction.
In the spate of litigation that has been filed against pharmaceutical companies, this wrinkle could stand out. Maybe it will work, although the bar for proof for getting personal with executives of Purdue Pharma might be significantly higher than in other lawsuits that states, cities and counties have filed against producers, wholesalers and pharmacies that supply the addictive, but legal, painkillers.
In announcing the lawsuit last week, Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr., left no doubt about who he thinks Public Enemy No. 1 is, when it comes to the opioid crisis.
Members of the Sackler family, which founded Purdue,"are the lowest form of humans you can possibly imagine," Cappelli said at a press conference.
Other excerpts from the 177-page lawsuit say that that Richard, Mortimer and Raymond Sackler and their family "executed an epic scheme to deceive doctors (and the public at large) into believing that opioids can be prescribed for long periods of time with little to no risk of addiction; a blatantly false premise."
Articles with titles like "Meet the Sacklers: The Family That's Killing Millions" already abound on the internet.
Indeed, Purdue Pharma paid a $600 million government fine in 2007 over allegedly misleading marketing for their "new" opioid, introduced in 1995. Its sales reps and paid "experts" claimed it could be prescribed for pain without patients becoming hooked.
Camden County's suit -- as well as most of the others -- doesn't target Purdue alone.
The suit's big-name drug company defendants, who marketed pain pills of the same generation, include Janssen (a Johnson & Johnson division) Teva and Abbott Laboratories. Two major medicine wholesalers, along with the Costco, Walgreens and Rite Aid retail chains are also named.
However, all of the above are publicly traded companies. If nothing else, going after Purdue, a privately-held company and its allied family fortune, is an attention-getter. Recently, possibly in response to all of the litigation, Perdue announced that it would stop marketing OxyContin actively to physicians.
The crisp narrative of the Camden County lawsuit stands out, too: "In the hour that it takes to read this complaint, six Americans will fatally overdose from opioids, two opioid-dependent babies will be born and a significant number if former opioid addicts will turn to heroin," the introduction states.
The suit also makes the case that the Camden County Police Department, which patrols Camden City exclusively, spent 1,740 hours in 2016 and 2017 alone responding to 941 overdose cases, often administering the opioid reversal drug, Narcan.
At some point, judges are likely to consolidate some of these 300-plus lawsuits filed against these painkiller defendants. Surely, the plaintiffs and their lawyers hope that a judgment or settlement will result in the kind of landmark, $200 billion anti-smoking fund that tobacco companies were forced to set up in the 1990s.
"With us, it's personal," was an ad slogan used recently by one of the the retail pharmacy chains that Camden County is suing.
If this is suit is personal, and the Sacklers are made to fund the bulk of the relief, Camden County will have done a service to the nation.
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Pharmacy benefits managers in crosshairs of latest opioid lawsuit
Feb 26, 2018 | Benefits Pro
By Marlene Satter
They’d been out of the fight over the widespread use and abuse of opioids, but that could be about to change. Pharmacy benefit managers are being targeted by a lawsuit filed by Webb County, in South Texas, charging that PBMs enabled the opioid crisis and profited from the sale of the drugs that fueled it, according to a lawyer who represents the county.
Stat News reports that not only does this suit, filed in January, target PBMs, but in being rolled over into a larger that aggregates claims from cities and states across the country, it could also open up PBMs across the country to potential settlements as well as court orders meant to change the way the drug industry operates.
PBMs, the financial middlemen that determine which drugs are available and how much they’ll cost patients out of pocket, provide little transparency on how they make those determinations. The Webb County lawsuit is thought by its attorneys to be the first in the country to name PBMs as defendants in a municipal opioid lawsuit.
While some experts say that because PBMs aren’t publicly visible in their role, that could make it tough to prove liability for the overdose deaths and other consequences of the crisis.
Related: How can brokers help clients address the opioid epidemic?
“They are far more removed than manufacturers and distributors,” Jodi Avergun, a former chief of staff of the Drug Enforcement Administration and now a defense lawyer with Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, is quoted saying in the report. Avergun adds, “PBMs play a less significant role and one that’s harder to ascribe liability to under traditional tort principles.”
But that’s not the only expert opinion on the subject; other experts believe that legal discovery could be especially damaging for PBMs, since they hold records on the number of opioids dispensed in communities hit with huge increases in overdoses.
“It’s hard for these companies to [argue] that in certain locales the volume of pills was for a legitimate medical purpose,” Rebecca Haffajee, a professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, is quoted saying in the report. She adds, “The paper trail of prescriptions makes it more compelling, and those records should be disclosable.”
Joanne Cicala, a lawyer who represents Webb County, says in the report that PBMs enabled the opioid crisis and profited from the sale of the drugs that fueled it. She’s quoted saying, “We see them as an absolutely essential part of this scheme. They made sure these drugs were dispensed and they controlled their flow out into the communities.”
According to the report, the county’s suit includes claims against three PBMs that control most of the U.S. market: Express Scripts, CVS Health, and OptumRx. In addition, it names two smaller companies that also operate in South Texas, Prime Therapeutics and Navitus Health Solutions.
The suit also includes fraud, conspiracy, and racketeering charges against major drug manufacturers and wholesale distributors, which is common to many other complaints filed across the country. However, Webb County’s case stands out thanks to its legal claims and language directed at PBMs, entities the suit calls “the gatekeepers to the vast majority of opioid prescriptions filled in the United States.”
The PBMs aren’t going down without a fight, however. The report cites an e-mailed statement from Jennifer Luddy, a spokeswoman for Express Scripts, saying that the allegations in the case are without merit. “We plan to defend ourselves vigorously,” the statement says. In addition, CVS Health, Prime Therapeutics and Navitus Health Solutions all were quoted in the report saying that charges were baseless or defending their practices.
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Municipal Lawsuits Are Not a Solution to the Opioid Crisis (Opinion)
Feb 27, 2018 | InsideSources
By Robin Newhouse
While over-burdened treatment centers struggle with ever-rising rates of addiction and overdose, more than 100 cities and states have joined the parade of litigation started by Chicago in 2014. Citizens have good reason for outrage, but if anyone thinks these lawsuits will solve our opioid crisis, they will be highly disappointed.
And considering the current number of Americans who die of opioids annually is equal to the population of Portland, Maine, the stakes have never been higher.
These lawsuits rightly cite unlawful marketing practices, oversupply and failure to warn patients of the high risk of addiction. Yet, as the number of filed legal grievances ticks higher, it’s clear that however well-intended or warranted, litigation is not a substitute for the hard work needed in fighting this crisis — most of which is receiving scant attention and suffering from even less funding.
The growing abuse of heroin and fentanyl — beyond pharmaceutical opioid painkillers — are a clear indication of the complexity of the problem. A change in marketing practice by pharmaceutical companies is not enough to fix the problem when only one in four opioid prescriptions is actually taken by the person to whom it was prescribed.
A limit on the number of pills being shipped to a small town will only drive addicts to readily available, cheaper and even more dangerous options like black-tar heroin. These lawsuits may provide funding for long-term solutions, but they are only a small part of what must be a comprehensive and nuanced response to this very immediate crisis.
A truly responsive approach requires that we find a way to create access to real data that tracks prescriptions and key metrics on substance-use disorder and that we close gaps in health care that we know can lead to relapses. It would mean funding and radically expanding research into the effectiveness of treatment programs. And it would be supported by collaborative partnerships between higher education, lawmakers, health systems and federal agencies.
There are clear first steps to take. In spite of the evident need, we have yet to create a federal database tracking the purchase and subscription of opioids. For more than a decade, we’ve tracked every purchase of pseudoephedrine that exceeded 9mg, but do not do the same for highly addictive and potentially deadly opioids.
State-level data are also painfully inadequate. Health systems and state agencies lack solid data about the rate and geographic distribution of substance-use disorder. That’s why an effort by Indiana University to build a first-of-its-kind data commons are so critical — both in Indiana and as a model for other states.
From what limited data we already have, we know that access to health care and health coverage is essential to ensuring the continuity of treatment programs. We see this quite clearly in prisons, which have faced a surge in the number of opioid-addicted inmates. Breaks or changes in treatment programs while incarcerated put addicted offenders at much higher risk of relapse when they are released.
While states and counties are required to provide health care to inmates, those treatments are often inferior and differ widely from what is available outside the correctional system. Even more troubling, patients often go without treatment at the very moment of their release from prison due to a gap in Medicaid coverage. Not only is this poor public health policy, but it threatens to squander any investments made by states in rehabilitating inmates.
But to accomplish any of these efforts — and countless more — we need civic institutions that actually work. We need lawmakers who are committed to a data-based approach. We need health care providers at the table to consider their role in delivering treatment and providing access. And we need well-funded research to inform both policy and treatment.
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Leading Opioid Litigation Firm Becomes a Top Donor to McCaskill Leading Up to Report’s Release
Feb 27, 2018 | InsideSources
By Ethan Stoetzer
As U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., faces a difficult reelection fight, one of her top issues in the past year has become the opioid epidemic plaguing the country. Last March, McCaskill launched a probe investigating the financial ties between the nation’s top opioid manufacturers and non-profit organizations, in an effort identify if doctors and organizations were being paid to promote certain opioid drugs as treatment for pain management. After the announcement, InsideSources exposed McCaskill’s failure to pursue an investigation of Mallinckrodt, the pharmaceutical company with the highest annual opioid prescriptions, which also happens to be based in McCaskill’s home state of Missouri. McCaskill later expanded the probe to include Mallinckrodt.
McCaskill’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. Simmons Hanly Conroy, a leading law firm that’s filing lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, distributors, and other organizations associated with the medication, has become one of the top donors to McCaskill’s reelection effort. The firm took little notice of the senator earlier in her career but has donated $219,300 to her campaign so far this cycle.
McCaskill, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has made the opioid epidemic a focus of her work in the Senate. Earlier this month, McCaskill released the findings of the report examining non-profit payments, in which approximately $9 million was donated, between 2012 and 2017, to patient advocacy groups and other nonprofits that have promoted the use of opioids for pain management. Many of these groups have argued that they have changed their practices as opioid addiction has become a crisis.
Simmons Hanly Conroy is likely to benefit from the release of McCaskill’s report. According to reporting from the Center for Public Integrity and the Associated Press: “The findings [of the report] could bolster hundreds of lawsuits that are aimed at holding opioid drugmakers responsible for helping fuel an epidemic blamed for the deaths of more than 340,000 Americans since 2000.”
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Judge overseeing opioid lawsuits pushes DEA to release drug data for settlement talks
Feb 26, 2018 | Cleveland.com (OH)
By Eric Heisig
The federal judge overseeing hundreds of lawsuits local governments filed against opioid manufacturers and distributors is pushing the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to release government-collected painkiller data to both sides engaging in settlement talks.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster, during a hearing Monday, ordered the DEA to inform him by March 5 if it will consent to releasing some data from the Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System, or ARCOS. He also wants to know how long it would take to release the data.
If an agreement can't be reached, or if the release will take too long, the judge may order the full release of the ARCOS database -- a move the DEA opposes.
The ARCOS data, which drug companies must provide to the government under the Controlled Substances Act, shows transactions made by opioid manufacturers and distributors. The database shows how many pills were sold, where in the U.S. they were sent and what pharmacies bought them.
The database is often used by agents conducting criminal investigations into the trafficking of prescription opioids.
Polster said during Monday's hearing "the important thing is to track whose pills went where, specifically."
The data could be used in settlement talks the judge is hosting to try to craft an omnibus resolution that would put money toward helping abate the nation's painkiller problem, the judge indicated.
Polster also indicated the data could only be used in the opioid litigation and for law enforcement purposes. It would not be made public unless the lawsuits went to trial.
Attorneys for local governments want the data so they can find out what drug companies moved large amounts of prescription opioids to certain parts of the country. This information could help guide settlement talks with affected cities and counties, said attorney Paul Farrell, who represents the local governments.
The data would also be used to determine whether the local governments need to sue drug companies not named in the lawsuits that have already been filed, Farrell said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney James Bennett argued that the full release of the database could jeopardize ongoing investigations and would expose confidential information about companies that did nothing wrong.
Monday's hearing was held because the DEA and the local governments came to an impasse on negotiating the release of the data.
In the end, Polster proposed that the DEA give both sides a list of drug companies that manufacture and distribute 95 percent of the opioids in each state, broken down by state, for each year between 2006 and 2014. He also would like the data to include the total number of pills sold in every state each year and how much market share each drug company enjoys.
While Polster said the easiest thing would be for the DEA to transfer the full database, he acknowledged that such an order may be opposed. That comes with the risk for an appeal, which could drag out the litigation, he said.
Polster was appointed to preside over the litigation in December. The lawsuits say the drug manufacturers overstated the benefits and downplayed the risks of addiction when treating pain with opioids, and that distributors failed to properly monitor suspicious orders of prescription painkillers.
Many local governments in Ohio are participating in the litigation in front of Polster. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, which has made the state's opioid problem a key issue as he campaigns to be the next governor, has also filed two lawsuits against drug companies in state court.
Polster, who is pushing for a settlement, held a round of negotiations in January. Another session is scheduled for next week.
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Wilkes County sues prescription opioid pain medication makers, distributors
Feb 26, 2018 | Wilkes Journal - Patriot (NC)
By Julie Hubbard
Wilkes County government is seeking compensation from over a dozen drug companies for costs resulting from opioid addiction in a 162-page lawsuit filed in the Western District of U.S. District Court in Statesville on Feb. 16.
The suit claims that the companies committed offenses as part of ongoing criminal organizations, some as manufacturers and others as distributors of prescription opioid pain medication.
The suit asks that the companies be ordered to pay medical and mental health treatment costs related to opioid addiction in Wilkes, as well as foster care, law enforcement, jail, court and other costs in the county. It also seeks punitive damages, which are funds collected as punishment.
The suit asks that the defendants be ordered to put money in a fund to help abate the opioid “public nuisance” in Wilkes. No specific amounts are listed, but local officials have said it could be millions of dollars.
It says the drug manufacturers made false and misleading claims regarding risks of opioid addiction with their products. It details various ways this occurred, including recruiting and compensating doctors to convey misleading information and using “front groups” like American Pain Foundation.
The suit claims that the manufacturers identified primary care doctors as susceptible prescribers and the elderly and veterans as vulnerable patient populations and therefore targeted them with deceptive marketing.
The suit says the distributors failed to fulfill their duties under federal and state law to monitor, investigate, refuse to fill and report “suspicious orders” of prescription opioids from Wilkes County. The suit defines suspicious orders as those of unusual size or frequency and include those the companies knew would likely be illegally sold and used.
The drug-makers also are accused of breeching their duties under law to monitor, report and prevent suspicious orders.
As the companies’ efforts to sell more opioid pain medication increased, so did opioid addiction and death rates in Wilkes County and North Carolina, the suit says.
The suit says Wilkes had 79 opiate-related deaths from 1999 through 2007 - an average of nearly nine per year. Opiate-related deaths in the county more than doubled to 190 from 2008 through 2016 - an average of 21 per year.
Quoting the Centers for Disease Control, the suit says the opioid prescription rate in Wilkes has been well above the national average since 2013.
Companies named as defendants in the case are:
• AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp., based in Conshohocken, Pa.;
• Cardinal Health Inc., based in Dublin, Ohio;
• Purdue Pharma Inc. and Purdue-Frederick Co., both based in Stamford, Conn.;
• Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., based in North Wales, Pa.;
• Cephalon Inc., based in Frazer, Pa.;
• Johnson & Johnson, based in New Brunswick, N.J.;
• Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., based in Belgium;
• Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., based in Titusville, N.J.;
• Noramco Inc., based in Athens, Ga.;
• Endo Health Solutions Inc. and Endo Pharmaceuticals, both based in Malvern, Pa.;
• Dublin, Ireland-based Allergan PLC and related Watson and Actavis companies;
• Mallinckrodt PLC, based in England and with U.S. headquarters in St. Louis, Mo.;
• McKeeson Corp., based in San Francisco, Calif.
The Wilkes County commissioners on Jan. 16 passed a resolution declaring the “opioid crisis” a public nuisance and agreed to join a growing number of local governments in North Carolina and nationwide that have sued pharmaceutical companies over costs related to opioid abuse.
A federal judge in Ohio has been appointed to oversee all of these suits through pretrial proceedings as part of a multidistrict procedure, which is used to more efficiently handle multiple civil suits with a common issue. The cases must return to their original courts if they go to trial.
Also on Jan. 16, the Wilkes commissioners approved an “authority to represent” agreement that authorized hiring Hattiesburg, Miss.-based McHugh Fuller Law Group to file the suit on their behalf and represent them.
This document said the county will pay McHugh Fuller 30 percent of any funds recovered from drug companies. It says the county won’t pay anything if nothing is recovered.
The authority to represent agreement authorized nine other law firms based in North Carolina, Florida, Texas or West Virginia to assist attorney Michael J. Fuller Jr. of the McHugh Fuller Law Group in the Wilkes case.
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Rutherford County sues opioid manufacturers, following a national trend
Feb 26, 2018 | Daily News Journal (TN)
By Adam Tamburin
Rutherford County has joined a growing chorus of Tennessee communities that are suing the makers of prescription opioids in federal court.
The county's lawsuit, filed Monday in Nashville, accuses some of the nation's top drug companies of violating federal law by "promoting highly addictive opioids as safe and necessary, while concealing the true risks of the drugs."
Rutherford County spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year "to protect its residents from the opioid epidemic that is taking a daily, deadly toll," according to the 76-page complaint.
The suit seeks financial reimbursement for those costs.
We are at the front lines of this epidemic through our justice system, ambulance services, recovery programs and other county programs," Rutherford County Mayor Ernest Burgess said in a statement. "It is our job to protect taxpayer money and address this horrible epidemic that is at our doorstep. This lawsuit is one of the many ways we intend to stand up for the residents of this county."
Pharmaceutical companies have declined to comment on ongoing opioid litigation. One of many lawsuits
The suit follows a familiar model.
Cities, counties and officials from across the nation have filed suit to fight against the opioid epidemic.
In Tennessee — where more opiate prescriptions are doled out per capita than any state in the nation except West Virginia — Nashville, Williamson County, Smith County and White County have filed their own federal suits.
More than a dozen of Tennessee's top prosecutors, including the district attorney general for Rutherford County, are pursuing their own lawsuits in state court.Lawsuits offer 'a seat at the table'
The Rutherford County Commission voted earlier this year to hire the law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein to file a federal lawsuit against major opioid manufacturers. The firm is also handling several other federal opioid suits, including Nashville's.
Mark Chalos, managing partner of the firm's Nashville office, said more local lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies are likely. The firm has been hired to investigate the toll of prescription opioids in La Vergne and Cannon County.
Chalos said the flurry of lawsuits reflect the financial toll of the opioid epidemic.
"The opioid catastrophe is costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands or in some case millions of dollars," Chalos said. "This is money that they shouldn't have had to spend in the first place."
The hundreds of federal lawsuits are being transferred to Ohio, where one judge is overseeing all of them. That judge has made it clear he wants to see the cases settled quickly.
Chalos said filing a federal lawsuit gives his clients the chance to help shape that settlement.
"There's not really another effective way of getting a seat at the table," he said.
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DeKalb County Law and Justice Committee hears presentation on opioid litigation possibilities
Feb 26, 2018 | Daily Chronicle (GA)
By Lindsay Gloor
An attorney with Sanders Phillips Grossman spoke with county officials Monday regarding opportunities to file a lawsuit for damages that the opioid epidemic has caused.
DeKalb County State’s Attorney Rick Amato brought Melissa Sims to speak to members of the DeKalb County Law and Justice Committee during a meeting Monday night.
“What happened? Who dropped the ball?” Sims said. “You are damaged by the epidemic.”
Sims travels across the country representing municipalities and communities such as DeKalb County, she said.
A team of lawyers, including Sims, works to file lawsuits against “Big Pharma” in public nuisance cases, Sims said to the group, which met in the county Administration Building’s Conference Room East in Sycamore.
She said pharmaceutical companies knew their drugs were creating addicts but called the situation a “gold mine” rather than alerting the Drug Enforcement Administration.
DeKalb County residents who might have become addicted to opioids because they were overprescribed then turned to other fixes, such as heroin, when painkillers became harder to obtain, costing police departments and the coroner, among others, time and money, Sims said.
“[Large pharmaceutical companies] did just get that big tax break,” County Board Chairman Mark Pietrowski Jr. said. “Maybe they’ll use it to settle.”
If the county decides to pursue litigation against opioid distributors or manufacturers, attorneys would cover the fees. Sims said they would work on a contingency fee basis, only earning money from the case if the county won.
“Even if we get zero dollars, we’ve brought this issue to light,” Sims said. “There is power in numbers.”
County Board member Dianne Leifheit said it seems like the federal government should have taken the lead in handling opioid distributors and manufacturers.
No action plan was made after the presentation, but committee members voiced concerns about the cost of providing law enforcement officials with drugs such as naloxone to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses.
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Lawsuits pending against drug manufacturers of opioids
Feb 26, 2018 | KKTV (CO)
By Dustin Cuzick
The opioid crisis has gripped the country -- and southern Colorado is one of the hardest areas hit.
"El Paso County alone has 120 people that lost their life to overdoses in the last year," said attorney Pat Mika, who is suing the pharmaceutical company. "Ninety-two thousand children are in foster care in our state as a result of the opioid addiction."
Mika and retired anesthesiologist Dr. Stephen Ochs say those numbers are staggering -- and if they were statistics for anything else, there would be action.
"If tainted water were killing 120 people a year in El Paso County, I suspect we would have a response," Ochs said.
But the men say there isn't a huge response because of the stigma that surrounds opioid addiction.
Mika and Ochs -- who is also an attorney -- are part of a team suing all major drug manufacturers of prescription opioids. They're suing on behalf of counties across the country, including Huerfano County, which is one of the four worst areas in the country for abuse of the drug. The lawyers allege a drug manufacturer was supplying enough pills to that community to give each man, woman and child 30-60 tablets every month.
They say the companies have been illegally pushing drugs for decades -- falsely advertising in order to get people hooked.
"They were never to be prescribed for the routine sprained ankle, or the chronic backache, or even in the case of surgery, more than five to seven days," Ochs said.
Mika says the longer a person is on opioids, the more they begin to crave it -- and thus a devastating cycle of addiction begins.
"The longer that you are on an opioid, the more opioids that you will need to take later on and the longer you will have to be on it and that's the addictive quality. ... At some point, when the doctors cut them off or the medication somehow stops their ability to get it, they resort to street drugs like heroine and other street drugs that are cheaper but are as dangerous."
Now the men want to hit the pharmaceutical companies where it hurts -- their pocketbooks.
"They will change, but they're only going to change if they know that they will go bankrupt or they will lose money unless they do something," Mika said.
Lawyers will be meeting with Pueblo County to find out if that community wants to file a lawsuit like their neighbors to the south. They have also been in talks with El Paso County.
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Feb 27, 2018 | Cleveland, OH
By WEWS (ABC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33051587?token=86b6256d-0f25-42b7-ad79-9b9e3ade3513
Rough Transcript: u.s. attorney general is taking measures to stop the opioid epidemic. jeff sessions is scheduled to announce a new policy today. earlier this month, sessions claimed that marijuana helped fuel that epidemic. opioid kills an average of 115 people a day.
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Feb 27, 2018 | El Paso, TX
By KVIA (ABC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33051583?token=86b6256d-0f25-42b7-ad79-9b9e3ade3513
Rough Transcript: info on el paso county's lawsuit against pharmaceutical compans. late last , el paso coun commissioneranimously voted to join a lawsuit against veral pharmaceutical companies- taking on their alleged role in contributing to the opioid is. today, the county attorney requested that the county see ouide counsel in this case. thay thera sutantial needor legal services that can't be aduate performed by el paso aorne or those in private practice. coissions voted unanimously to accept the county attorney's request.
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Feb 27, 2018 | Parkersburg, WV
By WTAP (NBC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33051566?token=86b6256d-0f25-42b7-ad79-9b9e3ade3513
Rough Transcript: the wood county commission delays a final decision to join a lawsuit ainst opioid manufacturers and distributors. the commission planned monday to vote on joing a suit filed by a wheeling-based lafirm. but it since has been approached by other firms filing similar gal ses. commissioners decided yesterday to wait until next monday's meeting to make a final decision on joing one of those lawsuits. "the attorney general is not in the business of saying what law firm to use. and the county commission association has not said, 'this is our preferred vendor'. it leaves it up to the counties to make that determination.' couch says the commsion will hear thursday from some of those law firms. the "ford law firm" in clarksburg is one of the firms mentioned that contacted wood county.
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Feb 27, 2018 | Paducah, KY
By WPSD (NBC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33051552?token=86b6256d-0f25-42b7-ad79-9b9e3ade3513
Rough Transcript: county leaders also heard about possible legal action to end opioid epidemic. attorney emily roark talked about options to sue pharmaceuticalcompanies like purdue pharma. roark and her partners want to involve several cities and counties for a joint lawsuit.
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Feb 27, 2018 | Nashville, TN
By WSMV (NBC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33051528?token=86b6256d-0f25-42b7-ad79-9b9e3ade3513
Rough Transcript: rutherford county is suing the makers of prescription opiods in federal court. in the lawsuit filed yesterday... the county accuses top drug manufacturers of violating federal and state law... by falsely promoting addictive opioids as safe and necessary -- while concealing their true risks. the county is suing to recover taxpayer money spent to combat the epidemic in rutherford county.
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