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Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report - 3/7/18
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U.S. judge says opioid settlement roadblocks may prompt trials
Mar 7, 2018 | Reuters
By Nate Raymond
A federal judge pushing for a settlement in lawsuits by state and local governments against drug companies over their roles in the U.S. opioid epidemic said on Wednesday that trials may be needed after both sides identified barriers to reaching a deal. -
Opioid Judge Allows Trial Prep as Settlement Talks Hit Snag
Mar 7, 2018 | Bloomberg
By Jef Feeley & Jared S Hopkins
A push to resolve more than 350 lawsuits against the makers and distributors of opioid painkillers has hit a snag, so a federal judge cleared the way for lawyers to start collecting evidence for trials. -
Opioid Settlement Talks Hit Headwinds
Mar 7, 2018 | The Wall Street Journal
By Sara Randazzo
A federal judge’s push for a quick resolution of hundreds of lawsuits filed against drugmakers over their alleged role in the opioid crisis hit a roadblock this week, with both sides opting to seek more information to help value a global settlement. -
Opioid Judge Allows Some Discovery, Motions to Go Forward in MDL
Mar 7, 2018 | The National Law Journal
By Amanda Bronstad
Following two months of settlement talks, a federal judge overseeing hundreds of opioid lawsuits has allowed lawyers to proceed with some discovery and motion filings. -
Opioid MDL To Get Litigation Track Amid Settlement Talks
Mar 7, 2018 | Law360
By Jeff Overley & Emily Field
Multidistrict litigation over the opioid crisis will enter an active stage of discovery, motions and bellwether trials to boost the prospects of ongoing settlement talks, an Ohio federal judge said Wednesday. -
Judge trying to settle opioid lawsuits says trials may be possible to overcome hurdles in talks
Mar 7, 2018 | Cleveland.com (OH)
By Eric Heisig
A federal judge in Cleveland pushing for a settlement in hundreds of lawsuits filed by local and state governments against drug manufacturers and distributors over the nation's opioid crisis has raised the possibility of some of the cases going to trial. -
Judge overseeing hundreds of opioid lawsuits proposes 'test trials' as settlement talks stall
Mar 7, 2018 | Columbus Business Journal (OH)
By Carrie Ghose
The Cleveland judge overseeing the mega-case of opioid lawsuits against drugmakers and distributors is suggesting a series of test trials to see which side is prevailing as settlement talks have reached an impasse. -
National spotlight shines on Judge Polster again in opioid fight
Mar 7, 2018 | Cleveland Jewish News (OH)
By Amanda Koehn
Judge Dan Aaron Polster of the Northern District of Ohio is presiding over a case involving more than 400 federal lawsuits brought by communities around the country against drug companies and pharmacy chains for their role in perpetuating the opioid epidemic. -
For Arthritis Pain, Tylenol Works as Well as Opioids
Mar 7, 2018 | New York Times
By NIcholas Bakalar
Opioids are no better than over-the-counter pain relievers for treating the chronic pain of osteoarthritis, a clinical trial has found. -
Opioids Unnecessary After Surgery in Some Cases
Mar 7, 2018 | MedScape
By Laird Harrison
After carpal tunnel or stenosing tenosynovitis release surgery, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and oxycodone work equally well for pain relief, researchers report. -
Study: Over-the-Counter Meds More Effective For Chronic Back Pain Than Opioids
Mar 7, 2018 | TheStreet
By Bill Meagher
A new study published March 7 by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is sure to launch more debate in the already overheated world of opioids. -
What Happens If The DOJ Joins The Opioid MDL?
Mar 7, 2018 | Law360
By Jeff Overley & Emily Field
If the U.S. Department of Justice enters multidistrict litigation about the opioid crisis, it could strengthen the negotiating position of local governments but also siphon off some of the money they seek, plaintiffs lawyers say. -
DOJ Civil Division Pick Promises A False Claims Focus
Mar 8, 2018 | Law360
By Michael Macagnone
President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Division pledged to keep his work independent of political influence Wednesday, telling a Senate panel he would bring to the job a renewed focus on fraud. -
Lawmakers set to approve massive opioid bill, but it could have been bigger
Mar 7, 2018 | Miami Herald (FL)
By Lawrence Mower
The Florida Legislature is set to approve sweeping measures to combat a growing opioid epidemic, the state’s first wholesale response to a crisis that is killing 6,000 people a year. -
Opioid Crisis Gets Washington’s Attention
Mar 8, 2018 | The Wall Street Journal
By Stephanie Armour
President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders are pressing ahead with an array of opioid-related efforts in coming weeks, teeing up bills and spending measures, while Democrats are calling the GOP actions belated and insufficient. -
Deputy AG Asks For Insurers' Help To End Opioid Crisis
Mar 7, 2018 | Law360
By Emily FIeld
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Wednesday called on health insurers to aid law enforcement's efforts to end the nation's massive opioid epidemic, saying they can play a part in preventing needless prescribing of opioids. -
The Opioid Crisis Is Surging In Black, Urban Communities
Mar 8, 2018 | NPR
By Marisa Penaloza
The current drug addiction crisis began in rural America, but it's quickly spreading to urban areas and into the African-American population in cities across the country. -
Targeting the evolving opioid threat requires tireless work to save lives (Opinion)
Mar 8, 2018 | The Hill
By Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD)
During my campaign for governor in 2014, I traveled across Maryland with my running mate, Boyd Rutherford, asking voters one question: Which issue facing your community are you most concerned about? The answer we heard again and again, in every corner of our state, was heroin and opioid addiction. -
Danbury hires Ventura Law to pursue lawsuits against opioid makers
Mar 7, 2018 | Westfair Online (CT)
By Kevin Zimmerman
Danbury’s Ventura Law firm has been hired by the city to consider lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies involved in the sale, distribution and marketing of opioids. -
Medford Sues Opioid Manufacturers, Distributors
Mar 7, 2018 | Medford Patch (MA)
By Alex Newman
The city of Medford has filed a public nuisance lawsuit against a number of opioid manufacturers and distributors, Mayor Stephanie M. Burke announced in February. The city is suing five of the largest manufacturers of prescription opioids and their related companies and three wholesale drug distributors for failing to comply with their duties under the Controlled Substances Act, according to a press release. -
County to Join Opioid Lawsuit
Mar 7, 2018 | Cleveland County Herald (NC)
By Staff
Reversing a decision it made earlier this year, the Cleveland County Quorum Court voted Monday night to join other counties across the state in a lawsuit being filed against the pharmaceutical companies that make opioids, a type of pain medication that has led to widespread addictions across the U.S. -
City sues opioid companies
Mar 8, 2018 | Winston-Salem Chronicle (NC)
By Todd Luck
The City of Winston-Salem is suing opioid distributors and manufacturers. -
Richmond County seeks recoup expenses for opioid responses in lawsuit
Mar 7, 2018 | Richmond County Daily Journal (NC)
By Gavin Stone
The lawsuit Richmond County is filing against the corporations that make up the pharmaceutical industry is part of a reaction across the nation to the perceived carelessness with which prescription opiates have been marketed — downplaying addictive properties and highlighting their broad applications. -
County may join opioid lawsuits
Mar 7, 2018 | Chiefland Citizen (FL)
By Sean Arnold
In a scene reminiscent of the successful lawsuits against Big Tobacco in the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies have become a target for their role in the opioid crisis. -
County commissioners join federal opioid lawsuit
Mar 8, 2018 | The Garrett County Republican (WV)
By Renee Shreve
Garrett County has joined Montgomery County in litigation seeking compensation for “damage caused by the production and distribution of opioids,” the Garrett County commissioners announced during their public meeting Monday afternoon. -
Tribes file opioid lawsuit: Jamestown S’Klallam, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Suquamish tribes take action
Mar 8, 2018 | Peninsula Daily News (WA)
By Jesse Major
The Jamestown S’Klallam, Port Gamble S’Klallam and Suquamish tribes are taking on pharmaceutical companies and drug distributors, claiming the companies flooded their reservations with deadly opioids. -
Athens County To Attack Opioid Companies In The Courtroom
Mar 7, 2018 | WOUB (OH)
By Staff
Athens County is jumping into the legal fight against opioid manufacturers and distributors. The county commissioners have retained a law firm in Columbus to file the federal lawsuit. -
Fox Morning News
Mar 8, 2018 | Myrtle Beach, SC
By WFXB (Fox)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33391920?token=f88b1523-4d90-4c35-b2ab-f0dba69af809 -
Eyewitness News Daybreak 5:00
Mar 8, 2018 | Charlotte, NC
By WSOC (ABC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33391922?token=f88b1523-4d90-4c35-b2ab-f0dba69af809 -
FOX 17 This Morning
Mar 8, 2018 | Nashville, TN
By WZTV (Fox)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33391924?token=f88b1523-4d90-4c35-b2ab-f0dba69af809 -
News 19 at Noon
Mar 7, 2018 | Columbia, SC
By WLTX (CBS)
VIdeo Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33392019?token=f88b1523-4d90-4c35-b2ab-f0dba69af809
MDL
Commentary and FYIs
Northeast (CT, MA)
Southeast (NC, FL, WV)
Northwest
Midwest
Broadcast Media Coverage
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U.S. judge says opioid settlement roadblocks may prompt trials
Mar 7, 2018 | Reuters
By Nate Raymond
A federal judge pushing for a settlement in lawsuits by state and local governments against drug companies over their roles in the U.S. opioid epidemic said on Wednesday that trials may be needed after both sides identified barriers to reaching a deal.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland in an order said the parties at a hearing on Tuesday to discuss the status of settlement talks indicated that a “limited litigation track” was needed.
Polster said that would include motions and so-called bellwether trials, essentially test cases used in mass litigation in the United States to help both sides gauge the range of damages and define settlement options.
“The parties reported important and substantial progress on several fronts, but also identified various barriers to a global resolution,” Polster wrote in an order.
The development signals that a quick settlement may not be feasible in the litigation despite the pro-active push by Polster, who is overseeing more than 355 lawsuits blaming corporations for helping fuel the opioid epidemic.
The judge at a hearing in January said he wanted “do something meaningful to abate this crisis and to do it in 2018.”
Johnson & Johnson, one of the corporate defendants, in a statement said it is “committed to being part of the ongoing dialogue and to doing our part to find ways to address this crisis.”
Representatives for the other companies and plaintiffs either did not immediately respond to requests for comment or declined comment on Wednesday.
In 2016, the last year with publicly available data, 42,000 people died from opioid overdoses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The lawsuits have generally accused the drugmakers of deceptively marketing opioids and allege distributors ignored red flags indicating the painkillers were being diverted for improper uses.
The defendants include opioid manufacturers Purdue Pharma LP, Johnson & Johnson, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Endo International Plc and Allergan Plc and drug distributors AmerisourceBergen Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and McKesson Corp.
Polster has pushed for a global settlement. To facilitate that, he has invited state attorneys general who have cases in state courts not before him or who are conducting a multistate investigation to participate in those talks.
While Polster in Wednesday’s order said some litigation will now take place, he directed three special masters appointed to facilitate settlement talks to continue participating in negotiations and scheduled another settlement hearing for May.
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Opioid Judge Allows Trial Prep as Settlement Talks Hit Snag
Mar 7, 2018 | Bloomberg
By Jef Feeley & Jared S Hopkins
A push to resolve more than 350 lawsuits against the makers and distributors of opioid painkillers has hit a snag, so a federal judge cleared the way for lawyers to start collecting evidence for trials.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland said Wednesday “substantial progress’’ has been made in talks between U.S. cities and counties and Purdue Pharma LLP and other opioid makers and distributors, but both sides have found “barriers to a global settlement.’’
Allowing local governments’ and opioid makers’ attorneys to get ready to go to trial is the “quickest way to surmount at least some of those barriers,’’ Polster said in an order the day after the most recent negotiating session.
“We are pleased Judge Polster is pursuing settlement possibilities while simultaneously allowing for litigation steps to be taken,’’ Paul Hanly, a New York-based lawyer helping to lead the case on behalf of cities and counties. “Hopefully, the two tracks converge in a global resolution.’’
The judge is backing away from an earlier decision to put litigation efforts on hold while lawyers for Purdue, Johnson & Johnson, McKesson Corp., Endo International Plc, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and other companies talked with cities’ and counties’ attorneys about settling the cases.
Polster has made clear he wants a “meaningful’’ resolution of cases blaming the companies for creating a public-health crisis that is claiming the lives of more than 100 Americans every day. The judge has said he wants a deal addressing the companies’ business practices and the roots of the crisis.
Opioid Crisis Point Man Is Cleveland Judge in Midst of Epidemic
City and county officials contend Purdue and other opioid makers downplayed the painkillers’ health risks and oversold their benefits through hyper-aggressive marketing campaigns. They are seeking to recoup the societal costs of dealing with opioid addictions and overdoses as part of a settlement similar to the 1998 Big Tobacco accord that generated $246 billion.
“We are committed to being part of the ongoing dialogue and to doing our part to find ways to address this crisis,” said Jessica Castles Smith, a spokeswoman for J&J’s Janssen unit.
Teva spokeswoman Kaelan Hollon declined to comment. Purdue spokesman John Puskar declined to comment. Heather Zoumas Lubeski, an Endo spokeswoman, declined to comment
The companies also have been in settlement talks with a group of states attorneys general, some of whom have already sued opioid makers and distributors seeking to recoup tax dollars spent to address the crisis. Polster also has had some AGs involved in his settlement negotiations.
Polster has said if the federal opioid cases must be weighed by juries, he’d set the state of Ohio’s claims for trial in 2019. Oklahoma has a May 28 trial date set for its claims against Purdue and the other companies in state court.
Mike DeWine, Ohio’s attorney general, hasn’t said how much he wants from pharmaceutical companies and distributors to address the crisis in his state, but noted an Ohio State University study found that opioids cost the Buckeye State as much as $8 billion annually.
Polster is giving lawyers for both sides until March 16 to come up a litigation plan for the consolidated cases and will hold the next negotiating session on May 10. As with others, the session won’t be open to the public.
The case is In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation, 17-cv-2804, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio (Cleveland).
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Opioid Settlement Talks Hit Headwinds
Mar 7, 2018 | The Wall Street Journal
By Sara Randazzo
A federal judge’s push for a quick resolution of hundreds of lawsuits filed against drugmakers over their alleged role in the opioid crisis hit a roadblock this week, with both sides opting to seek more information to help value a global settlement.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster said in a Wednesday order the cases will now move forward on a “limited litigation track,” setting up the possibility for test-case trials in the coming year.
The move comes after Judge Polster aggressively pushed for a somewhat unconventional approach to resolving the suits: settlement discussions before the facts of the case had been fully aired in court.
Judge Polster said early on in the case that “we don’t need briefs and we don’t need trials.” He even invited parties to his court to join the talks who didn’t have cases in front of him, including attorneys general pursuing their own deceptive-marketing suits against the drugmakers in state courts.
Settlement talks will continue, but the parties will also move forward with document discovery, further briefing and the scheduling of bellwether trials, according to Wednesday’s order. Judge Polster said in the order the parties reported on some progress during a Tuesday settlement conference, “but also identified various barriers to a global resolution.”
More than 450 cities, states and counties have filed suits in the past year against drugmakers and distributors, claiming their aggressive marketing and distribution of opioid painkillers has caused widespread addiction and overdose deaths.
The defendants, including Purdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Endo International, have denied the allegations and said they are dedicated to being part of the resolution of the drug crisis. Purdue said in February it would stop promoting OxyContin and other opioids to doctors, though it would continue selling the drugs.
Distributors targeted by the suits, including AmerisourceBergen and McKesson Corp., have similarly disputed the legal claims but said they are committed to solutions to the crisis.
So far, 16 states, including Ohio, South Carolina and Kentucky, have individually sued drugmakers or distributors. A coalition of states representing most of the rest of the nation are jointly pursuing their own investigation but haven’t sued.
One hurdle stalling settlement discussions has been the production of data from the Drug Enforcement Administration on exactly where drugs flowed into communities. Plaintiffs’ lawyers say the data will help them pinpoint other companies that should potentially be sued.
The federal agency this week agreed to turn over the names of manufacturers and distributors that sold 95% of the opioids in each state from 2006 to 2014, including the aggregate amount of pills sold and market share of each company.
The cooperation from the DEA came soon after the Justice Department asked the court to give it 30 days to decide whether they would participate in the case. The Justice Department said in the March 1 filing that the federal government, like the other municipalities pursuing suits, has borne substantial costs related to the opioid epidemic. It cited an estimate of the total economic burden associated with opioid overdose, abuse and dependence at $78.5 billion for 2013 alone.
Judge Polster encouraged all sides to continue settlement talks with the help of court-appointed special masters. The parties are due back in court for a settlement conference May 10.
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Opioid Judge Allows Some Discovery, Motions to Go Forward in MDL
Mar 7, 2018 | The National Law Journal
By Amanda Bronstad
Following two months of settlement talks, a federal judge overseeing hundreds of opioid lawsuits has allowed lawyers to proceed with some discovery and motion filings.
In a minute order on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland told lawyers in the multidistrict litigation to come up with a plan by March 16 over the scope and timing of a “litigation track.”
“The parties reported important and substantial progress on several fronts, but also identified various barriers to a global resolution,” he wrote. “To varying degrees, the parties agreed that the quickest way to surmount at least some of these barriers is to put into place a limited litigation track, including discovery, motion practice and bellwether trials.”
It’s a marked shift for Polster, who has focused almost entirely on settling the cases. At a Jan. 9 hearing, he told lawyers he wasn’t interested in “a whole lot of finger-pointing,” discovery, trials or answers to “interesting legal questions.” But Polster also directed special masters to continue settlement talks with dozens of lawyers in the MDL. He’s also scheduled a settlement conference for May 10.
Plaintiffs lawyers with opioid cases said Polster’s order, which followed a hearing on Tuesday, acknowledged that a settlement could not happen without the pressure of trial.
“The parties all pretty much agreed that the settlement efforts to try to do something now that would specifically address the continued marketing, sale and use of opioids is one thing that everybody’s interested in,” said Joe Rice of Motley Rice, who is co-lead counsel in the opioid MDL. “But there’s still another piece of the puzzle: That is, there are claims for damages for past conduct.”
He added “the defendants legitimately believe there are some legal defenses that as a matter of law they should be able to put forth, and plaintiffs believe there has to be more transparency in discovery related to what has taken place. And both parties believe you have to use the tools the court has available to allow the parties to develop both their affirmative claims and their defenses.”
Plaintiffs lawyers have pressed for a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration database that would indicate which defendants sold most of the prescription painkillers, and in what amounts. The U.S. Department of Justice haggled over the request for months. On Monday, less than a week after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the DOJ’s new opioid task force, government lawyers agreed to release the data as long as it was confidential. Polster approved that protective order.
A lot more discovery is needed, lawyers say.
“We want to go back and get the internal minutes, documents, emails, any type of meeting,” said Jere Beasley of Montgomery, Alabama’s Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, which filed the state of Alabama’s opioid lawsuit against Purdue Pharma last month in federal court. “And whether they had industrywide communication as to some type of claims.”
He expected Polster’s discovery orders to be aggressive.
“He recognizes the magnitude of the problem,” Beasley said. “He would prefer a quick settlement, but he’d have to realize it’s not going to be a quick settlement. He knows discovery has to take place.”
Rice wouldn’t say what discovery or motions would be the focus of the litigation track. Generally, he said, plaintiffs attorneys in such cases would ask for documents, emails and other communications from the defendants and talk to third parties, such as doctors, “about what they were told about the drugs.”
With cases involving a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, such as opioids, plaintiffs lawyers anticipate issues such as federal pre-emption and standing, he said.
In fact, both of those issues were among the myriad arguments raised in a motion to dismiss that several opioid manufacturers filed before Suffolk County Supreme Court Judge Jerry Garguilo, who is overseeing cases brought by New York counties. He has scheduled a motion-to-dismiss hearing for March 19.
Garguilo also has allowed some discovery to go forward.
“Judge Garguilo has recognized—and as recently as last week talked about —the discovery needs to be ongoing so that the parties understand the information that’s out there to be able to frame a proper settlement,” said Paul Napoli of Napoli Shkolnik, whose firm is co-lead counsel in cases brought by the New York counties. “Not many cases that I can think of in my 20-year career have settled without the threat of trial. And, particularly with so much information out there, and so many different parties, we need that information to frame an appropriate settlement.”
Napoli has asked the judge to conduct four bellwether trials in New York this fall. In a March 1 letter to the judge, he wrote that the plaintiffs, as governmental entities, have trial preference under New York law. The manufacturing defendants, in a letter on Tuesdaywritten by Purdue Pharma attorney Mark Cheffo, a New York partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, said an expedited trial is “contrary to the orderly procedures the court has set to guide how these cases should proceed.”
On Wednesday, Neil Roman, a lawyer for McKesson Corp. and a partner at New York-based Covington & Burling, joined that argument in his own letter on behalf of his client and two distributor defendants: Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp.
“They don’t want the day of reckoning to come, and we think it needs to come sooner or later, and we’re prepared to put our resources in the case between now and November,” Napoli said. “If he does try a case in November, it’ll be the first case to go to trial in the United States, and it will be an important turning point in the litigation.”
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Opioid MDL To Get Litigation Track Amid Settlement Talks
Mar 7, 2018 | Law360
By Jeff Overley & Emily Field
Multidistrict litigation over the opioid crisis will enter an active stage of discovery, motions and bellwether trials to boost the prospects of ongoing settlement talks, an Ohio federal judge said Wednesday.
The announcement from U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster represents an important development in the MDL. So far, the judge has largely blocked the parties — mainly local governments and drug companies — from submitting substantive filings in the case, directing them instead to focus on settlement negotiations.
Wednesday’s development stemmed from a gathering on Tuesday in which lawyers on both sides, as well as representatives of state attorneys general, discussed the status of settlement talks. In an order Wednesday, Judge Polster said that the attendees Tuesday “reported important and substantial progress on several fronts, but also identified various barriers to a global resolution.”
“To varying degrees, the parties agreed that the quickest way to surmount at least some of these barriers is to put into place a limited litigation track, including discovery, motion practice and bellwether trials,” the order said.
In his order, Judge Polster directed the parties to submit ideas by March 16 regarding the scope and timing of the litigation track, identification of test cases, sequencing of discovery, and a schedule for submitting motions.
But Judge Polster also said that “active settlement negotiations” should continue. He scheduled another settlement conference for May 10.
Attorneys involved in the case largely declined on Wednesday to divulge details about either progress toward or barriers to settlement. They noted that Judge Polster had issued a gag order requiring “strict confidentiality” about the contents of settlement discussions.
Baron & Budd PC shareholder Burton LeBlanc, who represents local governments in the MDL, told Law360 that rulings on various motions could help the parties move past some sticking points.
“The defendants would like to have some dispositive motions heard in order to have a better understanding of what the concrete contours of a settlement would look like,” LeBlanc said.
Motley Rice LLC co-founder Joe Rice, a lead attorney for the local governments, said Wednesday that allowing motions and discovery could resolve stubborn differences between the parties.
“Any time there’s clarification of the law or facts, it helps,” Rice said.
Jack Smith, a Flaherty Sensabaugh & Bonasso PLLC member and lead defense negotiator in the MDL, told Law360 that the parties are still diligently seeking common ground.
“We’re following the judge’s directive and working very hard,” Smith said. “A lot of time and effort is going into it.”
At a January hearing, Judge Polster made waves by declaring his desire to avoid the sort of protracted litigation usually seen in MDLs, arguing that the severity of the opioid crisis demands quick action.
“I don't think anyone in the country is interested in a whole lot of finger-pointing at this point, and I'm not either,” Judge Polster said at the time. “People aren't interested in depositions and discovery and trials.”
But at that hearing, defense lawyers cautioned that certain issues may not be amenable to settlement talks. As one example, Williams & Connolly LLP partner Enu Mainigi, a lead defense negotiator in the MDL, told Judge Polster about “certain threshold issues” that might need to be resolved before a settlement could be reached.
“We actually think that the resolution of some of those issues would be extremely helpful in then moving forward with discussions about what can be done in a variety of ways about this problem,” Mainigi said at the time.
In an interview Wednesday, LeBlanc said that the creation of a litigation track does not spell trouble for settlement prospects.
“I think this is an opportunity to get clarity on some of the issues that probably all of the parties are struggling with,” LeBlanc said. That clarity “could help us further define what a settlement might look like."
The case is In re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation, case number 1:17-md-02804, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. -
Judge trying to settle opioid lawsuits says trials may be possible to overcome hurdles in talks
Mar 7, 2018 | Cleveland.com (OH)
By Eric Heisig
A federal judge in Cleveland pushing for a settlement in hundreds of lawsuits filed by local and state governments against drug manufacturers and distributors over the nation's opioid crisis has raised the possibility of some of the cases going to trial.
The revelation came a day after attorneys convened in Cleveland for another round of settlement talks, and was put in a court filing U.S. District Judge Dan Polster issued Wednesday.
Both sides "reported important and substantial progress on several fronts, but also identified various barriers to a global resolution," the judge wrote. They all agreed the quickest way to clear at least some of the barriers is to use a "limited litigation track," which includes discovery and motions.
This plan also includes so-called bellwether trials that would serve as test cases of how the litigation could play out. In other words, both sides could see how judges or juries react to their evidence and arguments, which could then be used as a predictor for future trials or to help dictate settlement talks.
Polster was appointed by a federal panel in December to hear the cases, which are filed by local and state governments against companies such as Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson. The suits allege 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 painkillers.
The city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County have both filed suits, as both have seen hundreds of opioid overdose deaths annually over the past few years.
Polster has historically shown a proclivity to resolve cases and avoid trials. He said at the first hearing in January that he envisioned a global settlement to resolve the cases in front of him and in state courts nationwide.
The judge's ultimate goal is to "dramatically reduce the number of the pills that are out there and make sure that the pills that are out there are being used properly," he told a room full of lawyers on Jan. 9.
Wednesday's order, however, appears to signal that crafting a settlement is more complicated and will take more time to broker than perhaps originally envisioned.
Joe Rice, a South Carolina attorney representing local governments and other entities in the litigation, would not talk about the impasses between his clients and the defendants, citing a gag order the judge imposed regarding settlement talks.
But he said he does not think holding bellwether trials means settlement efforts have been abandoned.
Rather, Rice said there are two issues at hand: what to do about the opioid problem now and how to address potential liability over the defendants' past conduct.
He said the parties understand they have "an obligation to address the immediacy of the problem," while at the same time they have a desire to try to see how legal arguments would fare and how claims of past misconduct would be perceived at trial.
Attorneys and representatives for drug manufacturers and distributors did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
The judge ordered the parties to submit a plan by March 16 that includes what cases could go to trial, how discovery and motion practice would take place and how long the process would last.
Rice said he did not know which lawsuits would be litigated. He also did not know where the cases would be tried. Absent an agreement from the parties, such cases are generally sent back to the court where they were first filed for trial, Rice said.
Polster directed three special masters he appointed in the case to continue aiding in settlement negotiations. He set another settlement conference in Cleveland for May 10.
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Judge overseeing hundreds of opioid lawsuits proposes 'test trials' as settlement talks stall
Mar 7, 2018 | Columbus Business Journal (OH)
By Carrie Ghose
The Cleveland judge overseeing the mega-case of opioid lawsuits against drugmakers and distributors is suggesting a series of test trials to see which side is prevailing as settlement talks have reached an impasse.
About 300 federal cases filed by cities, counties, states and Native American tribes have been consolidated before U.S. District Judge Dan Polster. They accuse the manufacturers, including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP, of overstating the benefits while misleading doctors on the addictive nature of the drugs.
The lawsuits say distributors, including Dublin-based Cardinal Health, failed in their duty to flag and prevent suspicious shipments.
Polster immediately urged the parties into settlement talks, asking them to craft real solutions instead of just cash payments, The New York Times reported in a profile of the judge's unorthodox style leading into this week's settlement conference.
No plan emerged Tuesday.
"The parties reported important and substantial progress on several fronts, but also identified various barriers to a global resolution," Polster wrote in an orderfor next steps. "To varying degrees, the parties agreed that the quickest way to surmount at least some of these barriers is to put into place a limited litigation track."
That will include "bellwether trials," in which representative cases from the consolidated group are tried individually, which then would shape settlment negotiations.
Polster ordered the sides to submit suggestions for the scope and timing to manage the case, and set the next settlement conference for May 10. There are 10 lead attorneys.
Other distributors in the lawsuit are AmerisourceBergen Corp. of Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania, (NYSE:ABC) and San Francisco-based McKesson Corp. (NYSE:MCK).
Cardinal (NYSE:CAH) and others separately face cases filed in state courts, most recently by its home state. The company has denied wrongdoing, saying it has improved its controls over narcotics shipments and launched several initiatives to combat the crisis, but expressed willingness to settle.
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National spotlight shines on Judge Polster again in opioid fight
Mar 7, 2018 | Cleveland Jewish News (OH)
By Amanda Koehn
Judge Dan Aaron Polster of the Northern District of Ohio is presiding over a case involving more than 400 federal lawsuits brought by communities around the country against drug companies and pharmacy chains for their role in perpetuating the opioid epidemic.
The case and Polster, a member of Congregation Shaarey Tikvah in Beachwood and Park Synagogue in Cleveland Heights and Pepper Pike, were covered March 6 in a front-page story in The New York Times. The story discussed Polster’s urging of lawyers to efficiently settle the case in a way that will provide meaningful solutions to the crisis rather than focusing on a trial and “finger-pointing,” and how that stance has caused an uproar in the legal community.
“I don’t think anyone in the country is interested in a whole lot of finger-pointing at this point, and I’m not either,” Polster said, according to a Jan. 9 legal transcript of the first hearing. “People aren’t interested in depositions, and discovery and trials.”
Polster told the Cleveland Jewish News that his view of the world through a Jewish lens – and the Jewish obligation to help others – has conditioned him to try to make an impact and affects how he goes about his work.
“I take our obligation of tikkun olam very seriously,” he said, adding that what he said at that first hearing best reflected how those intentions of helping others may apply to these lawsuits.
“I requested that everyone try and work together to come up with some steps that we can take this year, in 2018, to begin to abate the crisis, because we are losing 50,000 people or more a year,” he said.
The transcript read: “With all of these smart people here and their clients, I’m confident we can do something to dramatically reduce the number of opioids that are being disseminated, manufactured and distributed. Just dramatically reduce the quantity, and make sure that the pills that are manufactured and distributed go to the right people and no one else, and that there be an effective system in place to monitor the delivery and distribution, and if there’s a problem, to immediately address it and to make sure that those pills are prescribed only when there’s an appropriate diagnosis, and that we get some amount of money to the government agencies for treatment.”
The lawsuits allege that drugmakers used deceptive marketing to push the sale of opioids and targeted vulnerable populations, such as the elderly and veterans, despite knowing the drugs are addictive. They are also accused of negligent product oversight and ignoring suspicious, large orders of the drugs, according to the Associated Press.
On March 6, the city of Cleveland was added to the list of cities filing lawsuits against drug manufacturers and distributors, including other Ohio cities, the state and Cuyahoga County.
The city and county have been disproportionately affected by the opioid epidemic. According to
Dec. 31 2017, data projections from the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner; 822 people died from drug overdoses in 2017. Of those deaths, 522 died from heroin, fentanyl or a combination. For context, the county saw 666 overdose deaths in 2016 and 370 drug deaths in 2015, according to the medical examiner.
By filing lawsuits, the city and county aim to acquire financial reparations for the costs the city has faced due to the epidemic.
Drugmakers targeted in the lawsuits include Allergan, Johnson & Johnson and Purdue Pharma and three large drug distribution companies, Amerisource Bergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson. Drug distributors and manufacturers named in the lawsuits have said they don’t believe litigation is the answer but have pledged to help solve the crisis, the AP reported.
The Times article said Polster was chosen by a judicial panel to hear the case based on Ohio being hard hit by the crisis, its central location to defendants and his experience with multidistrict litigation, or consolidation of many similar cases.
Polster told the Cleveland Jewish News that the Times reporter, Jan Hoffman, shadowed him while he tutored a third-grader through the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s Public Education Initiative, among other legal engagements he had that day. He said she “got a pretty accurate picture of me, my strengths and weaknesses.”
Most recently, the lawyers involved in the case and Polster met March 7 in a closed meeting. According to court documents, “the parties reported important and substantial progress on several fronts, but also identified barriers to a global resolution.”
“Everyone is working hard,” Polster said.
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For Arthritis Pain, Tylenol Works as Well as Opioids
Mar 7, 2018 | New York Times
By NIcholas Bakalar
Opioids are no better than over-the-counter pain relievers for treating the chronic pain of osteoarthritis, a clinical trial has found.
Researchers randomized 240 patients with moderate to severe chronic back pain or hip or knee osteoarthritis to either an opioid (morphine, oxycodone or hydrocodone) or to a nonopioid pain reliever (Tylenol or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). The study, in JAMA, used 11-point pain and function scales to measure the effect of treatment, with higher scores indicating poorer results. This is, the authors write, the first randomized trial of opioid therapy to report long-term pain and function outcomes.
At the end of 12 months, the opioid group scored an average 3.4 on the function scale, and the nonopioid group 3.3, an insignificant difference. On the pain scale, the nonopioid group did slightly better — 3.5, compared with 4.0 for the opioid group.
Unsurprisingly, there were significantly more medication-related symptoms in the opioid group than in those who took Tylenol or NSAIDs, but there was no difference between the groups in adverse outcomes.
“Should we use opioids if nonopioids don’t work?” asked the lead author, Dr. Erin E. Krebs of the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System. She answered her own question: “No. We tried four different nonopioids — don’t give up on them too soon — and we should also be using exercise and rehab for most osteoarthritic pain.”
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Opioids Unnecessary After Surgery in Some Cases
Mar 7, 2018 | MedScape
By Laird Harrison
After carpal tunnel or stenosing tenosynovitis release surgery, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and oxycodone work equally well for pain relief, researchers report.
"It's become standard that if you have any procedure, you get opioids," said investigator Asif Ilyas, MD, from the Rothman Institute in Philadelphia. "We're trying to challenge that dogma."
"Orthopedic surgeons are one of the highest-volume prescribers of opioid medications," he told Medscape Medical News. "Our intentions are good, but there are a lot of unintended consequences."
In fact, one study showed that about 6% of patients given opioids for the first time were still using them 90 days after a surgical procedure (JAMA Surg. 2017;152:e170504). Americans consume vastly more opioids per capita than people in the rest of the world, said Ilyas, and these drugs are now the leading cause of death among young people in the United States.
Counseling patients about the uses and abuses of opioids can also significantly reduce the use of these medications, according to a separate study, also presented by Ilyas here at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) 2018 Annual Meeting.
The findings suggest practical ways that orthopedists can reduce the risk that their patients and others will be harmed by the diversion and misuse of opioids.
To see whether other analgesics could be substituted for opioids, Ilyas and his colleagues randomly assigned 75 patients undergoing carpal tunnel release and 37 undergoing stenosing tenosynovitis release to 10 doses of one of three analgesics: oxycodone 5 mg, ibuprofen 600 mg, and acetaminophen 500 mg.Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen vs Oxycodone
All 10 doses were provided in the form of unmarked opaque capsules, so patients were blinded to their treatment group.
Differences in the number of pills taken and requests for stronger pain relief were not significant for the three regimens. The only significant difference was on the first day after surgery, when patients in the oxycodone group reported slightly more pain.
Patients in the acetaminophen and ibuprofen groups were less likely than those in the oxycodone group to experience gastrointestinal adverse events (3% vs 3% vs 15%).
This study shows that "you don't have to have an opioid to manage patients' postoperative pain," Ilyas said.
In the second study, Ilyas and Todd Alter, also from the Rothman Institute, randomly assigned 40 patients undergoing carpal tunnel release to counseling about opioids or to no counseling.
Ilyas met one-on-one with each patient in the counseling group for about 5 minutes to discuss what opioids are, the risks and benefits, the opioid crisis, how many opioids are typically needed for this type of procedure, and other safe ways to manage pain.
On the day of surgery, patients who received counseling consumed fewer opioid pills than those who did not (0.65 vs 1.90). And patients who received counseling took fewer pills during the 3 days after surgery (1.4 vs 4.2; P < .05).
Pain reported by the patients was not significantly different between the two groups. "Just educating patients significantly reduces postoperative opioid consumption," Ilyas said.
It is not necessary for physicians to do this type of counseling themselves, he pointed out. Allied health providers, such as nurses and physicians assistants, can do it. In his own practice, he has created a 10-minute video on opioids and other topics that patients watch before surgery. "I find that to be efficient," he reported.
After research showed that physicians in his practice were prescribing far more opioid pills than patients were consuming, he changed his practice and now only prescribes the average number of pills that patients use for a given procedure, rather than the maximum.
"I don't give more than five opioid pills — oxycodone or codeine — after these smaller surgeries," he said. And he tells patients they do not need to fill the prescription at all. "I encourage them to take a nonopioid instead."
One reason physicians give for prescribing larger numbers of opioids is the concern that patients will return to request refills. "Once we started educating patients, that has not been the case at all," said Ilyas. "We're not seeing an increase in phone calls."
The small number of pills that patients took in these two studies, especially in the counseling study — where some patients apparently took no pills at all — is striking, said David Ring, MD, from the University of Texas at Austin, who is chair of the AAOS quality and patient safety committee.
"I find that really compelling," he told Medscape Medical News.
In his own practice, Ring said he has stopped prescribing opioids for patients who undergo carpal tunnel and stenosing tenosynovitis release procedures.
Instead, he discusses pain strategies with his patients, starting by asking them what pain relief measures they used the last time they had surgery. If they didn't need any opioids, that makes it easy to avoid an opioid prescription for the new procedure. He gives patients his cell phone number and offers to write them an opioid prescription electronically if they need one. So far, he reported, only two patients have requested the opioids.
By making himself available, he shows patients that he cares, and that gives them a sense of control over their pain, said Ring. "The best pain relief is peace of mind."
If a patient used a lot of opioids after a previous surgery, that can open the door to a broader discussion about emotional needs and support systems.
"For so long, we and our patients have thought about orthopedics as just a mechanical thing — find the problem and do a little carpentry on it," he explained. "But now we're realizing that we have to treat the whole patient."
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Study: Over-the-Counter Meds More Effective For Chronic Back Pain Than Opioids
Mar 7, 2018 | TheStreet
By Bill Meagher
A new study published March 7 by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is sure to launch more debate in the already overheated world of opioids.
The randomized study examined how 240 patients in Veterans Affairs clinics with chronic back pain, hip or knee osteoarthritis, reacted to doses of opioids versus non-opioid medications in terms of their effectiveness in treating pain.
Following 12 months of treatment and research, the study concluded that the use of opioids did not give patients significantly better pain-related function, with the average age of patients in the study being 58. The study results showed that over-the-counter medications such as Tylenol, lidocaine and ibuprofen delivered more pain relief than opioid-based meds such as oxycodone, morphine and Vicodin.
"Overall, opioids did not demonstrate any advantage over non-opioid medications that could potentially outweigh their greater risk of harms," the report said.
The study showed that patients taking the opioids were more likely to experience side effects associated with those drugs, including opioid-induced constipation, physical dependence and nausea. The study was undertaken because of the growing opioid addiction crisis as well as more reports of overdose deaths across the country.
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the same day as the JAMA study echoes the concerns of the VA as the rate of opioid overdoses showing up in emergency rooms across the nation jumped from 14 to 18 per 100,000 ER visits. But those numbers are likely low since the CDC only tracks about 60% of the ER visits, and not all overdoses end up treated at an emergency room.
"This is a very difficult and fast-moving epidemic and there are no easy solutions," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, acting director of the CDC in a statement.
CDC data shows that opioid-related deaths in the U.S. now total 115 people a day. The crisis has resulted in cities, counties and states suing opioid manufactures for costs related to treatment and those deaths. A legal action in federal court in Cleveland has joined more than 400 of those lawsuits against companies that include Purdue Pharma, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) , Action Alerts Plus holdingAllergan (AGN) , McKesson (MCK) , Cardinal Health (CAH) , Endo International PLC (ENDP) and AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp. (ABC) .
The Trump administration has come under fire for its lethargic response to the opioid epidemic, having declared a national health emergency regarding opioids, but taking no action and making no funds available to tackle the crisis.
In recent days, the administration has tried to make up for lost time by announcing that the Justice Department intends to aid those bringing the actions in Cleveland by chasing down documents and making them available. The feds also will file a legal action so that if there is a financial settlement, Uncle Sam will get a cut to cover costs that Attorney General Jeff Sessions says have impacted the government.
In addition, Sessions has announced that the DOJ and the DEA intend to look at how opioid manufacturers and distributors have contributed to the opioid crisis.
Senator Claire McCaskill, D-MO, is not waiting for the federal government to dig in. Along with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, she has gone after some opioid makers since last year to turn over documents showing how the drugs have been distributed and monitored.
But on March 7, McCaskill singled out Teva for what she says is its failure to turn over documents despite repeated requests and interaction with McCaskill's office. She charged that the Israeli company's "refusal to cooperate with Congressional requests strongly suggests they have something to hide."
Teva defended itself from the Senator's charges, saying it has ceased to promote all opioid products, worked to educate healthcare providers regarding prescription use and complied with all federal and state regulation regarding opioids.
A generic specialist, Teva has woes beyond McCaskill's probe, including opioid-related lawsuits, an ongoing restructuring and a weakened balance sheet. According to McCaskill, Teva responded to the Senator's office in a series of communications. But the Senator wanted more details than the pharma company wanted to furnish, telling the office that the requested documents could pose a problem for the company in pending litigation.
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What Happens If The DOJ Joins The Opioid MDL?
Mar 7, 2018 | Law360
By Jeff Overley & Emily Field
If the U.S. Department of Justice enters multidistrict litigation about the opioid crisis, it could strengthen the negotiating position of local governments but also siphon off some of the money they seek, plaintiffs lawyers say.
The DOJ revealed last week that it may join the MDL and requested 30 days to decide. Attorneys say they’re unsure whether the DOJ is genuinely interested in getting involved and taking the case seriously or is merely trying to appear engaged with the opioid crisis. The crisis involves hundreds of thousands of fatal overdoses in recent years of prescription painkillers, heroin and illicit fentanyl.
“We would welcome them at the table, everyone would, if they’re coming in to do something and not playing politics,” Motley Rice LLC co-founder Joe Rice, a lead attorney for the local governments, told Law360.
To the extent that the DOJ is being sincere, the prospect of its involvement is tantalizing for some plaintiffs lawyers. The DOJ has been somewhat wary of punishing corporate wrongdoing too harshly, and if the agency decides that joining the MDL makes sense, that could suggest that the drug companies really are on shaky legal ground.
“This is a conservative Department of Justice. It’s a conservative administration, and for them to join this fight goes to show you how strong this position is,” said Hunter J. Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik PLLC, a plaintiffs lawyer in the MDL.
Paul Geller of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, who also represents local governments in the MDL, offered a cautiously optimistic view of last week’s overture from the DOJ.
“We’ll have to see how things play out,” Geller said, “but I was both enheartened and encouraged by the federal government’s desire to assist state and local efforts to combat the tragic epidemic our nation faces.”
Regardless of the DOJ's actual positions on legal issues, its presence in the case could be beneficial because U.S. District Judge Dan A. Polster, who is overseeing the MDL, is seeking a broad settlement that covers as many parties and claims as possible.
Law360 sought comment from six defense attorneys representing opioid manufacturers and distributors in the MDL. None of the attorneys had any comment on the possible impact of the DOJ joining the litigation.
The MDL is targeting some of the world’s richest pharmaceutical companies, including Allergan PLC, AmerisourceBergen Corp., McKesson Corp. and Johnson & Johnson. Plaintiffs lawyers say that damages could rival the $246 billion tobacco industry settlement that was struck two decades ago.
But the same lawyers say that involvement by the federal government might sap money from local governments, as well as hospitals and Native American tribes, that have spearheaded the litigation so far.
“The drug companies do not have unlimited funds,” said Paul J. Hanly Jr. of Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC, a lead plaintiffs attorney in the MDL. “And therefore if you assume that it's a limited fund, which everybody assumes, then an additional 800-pound gorilla is obviously potentially going to gobble up some significant portion of what would otherwise be the recoveries for the existing plaintiffs.”
It is unclear how much money the DOJ might seek if it intervenes. In a statement of interest last week, the DOJ described hundreds of billions of dollars in economic costs tied to the opioid crisis. But the statement mainly focused on smaller costs related to health care, such as U.S. Department of Defense spending on addiction treatment.
In an interview, Rice argued that the DOJ should focus mainly on settlement terms that would help ease the opioid crisis — a key priority of Judge Polster's.
“They talk about their attempt to recoup damages, and I wish they would talk about their participation to stop the epidemic, not getting money back,” Rice said. “The thing we have to do is get these pills off the street … and get the road straightened out going forward.”
If it does join the case, the DOJ will probably carve out its own track for negotiations and motions, plaintiffs lawyers say. But those lawyers add that the government’s simple presence in the case could tip the balance more in their favor.
“[The] full weight of the U.S. government on these defendants can only help the cause that we’re all fighting for,” Shkolnik said.
The case is In re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation, case number 1:17-md-02804, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. -
DOJ Civil Division Pick Promises A False Claims Focus
Mar 8, 2018 | Law360
By Michael Macagnone
President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Division pledged to keep his work independent of political influence Wednesday, telling a Senate panel he would bring to the job a renewed focus on fraud.
Joseph H. Hunt, the longtime DOJ attorney tapped to lead the Civil Division last year was a director in the division’s Federal Programs branch for 15 years before becoming Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ chief of staff and senior counselor. As part of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that also featured several judicial nominees, Hunt pledged to hold to the DOJ rules for contact with the executive.
“It is very important as part of the executive branch that we maintain our independence,” Hunt said.
Democrats on the committee have raised concerns about Trump’s contacts with U.S. attorneys and nominees, as well as the president’s conversations with FBI Director James Comey before his firing. Hunt said he would hold to his own recusal in the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as well as the department’s rules on contact with the White House.
Hunt said he is “very excited” on what the civil division can do on the fraud front, with a focus on elder abuse and the opioid epidemic. He said he would like to see the DOJ make further use of the False Claims Act in pursuing those who encouraged the opioid epidemic.
“We can use the False Claims Act as an effective tool for us to take a look at enforcing that with respect to the distribution chain, from manufacturers to hospitals to distributors and pharmacies and doctors,” he said. “I intend for us to devote resources to that.”
The panel also featured testimony from John B. Nalbandian, a litigation partner and lead appellate lawyer at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, who was tapped by Trump for a Sixth Circuit vacancy.
Nalbandian has done stints as a Fifth Circuit clerk, a board member of the State Justice Institute, a special justice on the Kentucky Supreme Court, and as a member of the Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, according to the White House announcement.
Most of the questions to Nalbandian focused on his interpretation of Supreme Court precedents like Roe v. Wade on the right to privacy and abortion and Loving v. Virginia that overturned anti-miscegenation statutes.
When asked by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., about how to square Loving with the Founding Fathers' views on race, Nalbandian said the current understanding of originalism goes to more “abstract” concepts about the public understanding of certain principles than “the specific intent of the adopters on a specific issue,” like interracial marriage.
Nalbandian also got into an extended exchange with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., about whether Roe v. Wade and unenumerated rights cases were “correctly decided” by the Supreme Court. Nalbandian said it would not be appropriate for him to comment on Roe, to which Blumenthal objected.
“I fail to understand why Roe v Wade is less well-established, less well-accepted, less well-entrenched in our law than Loving v. Virginia,” Blumenthal said. “You’re saying it may be challenged in your court and therefore you want to maintain neutrality on whether it was correctly decided.”
Nalbandian responded that he did not want to tip his hand on future cases on those legal issues, rather than Roe specifically.
“The court’s unenumerated rights jurisprudence, especially the Fifth and 14th amendments is subject to some controversy and could still come before me,” Nalbandian said.
Nalbandian also pushed back when asked by Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, about his feelings on whether voter identification laws could have a discriminatory impact. He demurred to a set of studies authored about a particular law in Indiana.
The committee also heard testimony from Connecticut Superior Court Judge Kari A. Dooley, nominee for a district court seat in Connecticut; Arizona district court nominee Dominic W. Lanza, who serves as the chief and executive assistant U.S. attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona; and Jill A. Otake, assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Hawaii and nominee for the District of Hawaii.
Otake was part of a wave of nominees in December that came from Democratically represented states and had the backing of both home state senators. Hirono said that was the result of substantial communication between the White House and senators in those states about the potential new judges.
“When there has been a meaningful consultation between Democrats and the White House it is possible for agreement on non-ideological nominees,” Hirono said.
Law360 is tracking the nominations of more than 50 judicial nominees as they make their way through the Senate. -
Lawmakers set to approve massive opioid bill, but it could have been bigger
Mar 7, 2018 | Miami Herald (FL)
By Lawrence Mower
The Florida Legislature is set to approve sweeping measures to combat a growing opioid epidemic, the state’s first wholesale response to a crisis that is killing 6,000 people a year.
The package is largely unchanged since it was proposed by Gov. Rick Scott last year: $53 million for life-saving drugs and treatment, limits on opioid prescribing and training for doctors who prescribe opioids.
But with the bill expected to reach Scott’s desk this week, some lawmakers are left believing they should have done more.
The $53 million is widely considered a modest response to a statewide drug crisis that is killing at least 16 people a day. For seven years, lawmakers did little as heroin overdoses skyrocketed. And of that $53 million, more than half is coming from a federal grant.
There was some hope in a late bipartisan effort in the Senate to spend an additional $25 million, but it fizzled on Feb. 14 when a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
“I didn’t give up easily,” state Sen. Lisbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers, said on the Senate floor Wednesday, “but there have been circumstances that have taken place in the state … that allows for no additional money to be put in.”
Lawmakers are set to spend $400 million responding to the Parkland shooting. Of that, $67 million is going to train and arm school staff through the highly controversial “marshal” program.
Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, who was working with Benacquisto to add more money for treatment, was going to propose an amendment Wednesday that would do so, but he withdrew it at the last minute, knowing it was pointless.
“The priorities speak,” Rouson said afterwards. “I could have really argued it today. I could have debated it today. I could have talked about the passion of the families left behind from the lives that are dying through overdosing, but it wasn’t going to change anything right this moment.”
The legislation would still do a number of things that advocates have long sought.
Millions would be spent on methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone, the three drugs that help people recover from heroin addiction. Another $6 million would go to treat people going through the courts. And $5 million in naloxone, the drug that reverses overdoses, would go to police and firefighters combating the epidemic.
Most controversially, it would also put limits on opioid prescribing, something that other states do but that doctors in Florida have resisted. For acute pain, doctors would be limited to prescribing three-day supplies of schedule II opioids, like Vicodin. A doctor who notes it’s medically necessary could issue a seven-day supply.
The limits would not apply to people with long-term pain and — to appease doctors and some patients — lawmakers carved out exceptions for people with cancer, terminal illnesses and some serious traumatic injuries.
But the bill also does other things that make it easier to combat the crisis. It requires doctors to get two hours of training on opioid prescribing. And it requires them to use the prescription drug monitoring program, to identify people who might be addicted.
It also substantially upgrades the drug monitoring program, making it integrate with patient records and other state systems. It requires the state to purge records in the system after four years.
And lawmakers look poised to pass other bills that address the crisis. After years of asking, they will give the Florida Association of Recovery Residences $300,000 to screen and certify sober homes. An effort to allow needle exchange programs in Palm Beach and Broward counties also appears likely to pass, after years of trying.
“It’s the first coordinated, deliberate and substantial movement to address the opioid epidemic,” said Mark Fontaine, executive director of the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association.
There are some things the Legislature did not do. It did not resurrect a statewide Office of Drug Control, which Scott eliminated when he took office in 2011. It also did not help medical examiners modernize their databases, so police and others could react faster to the ever-changing drugs causing the overdoses. Both were recommended by the Statewide Drug Policy Advisory Council last year.
Fontaine acknowledged that pre-Parkland, he and others were hoping for far more money to treat the epidemic.
“While that didn’t come to reality, you still have to be very thankful for the resources that were put on the table,” he said.
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Opioid Crisis Gets Washington’s Attention
Mar 8, 2018 | The Wall Street Journal
By Stephanie Armour
President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders are pressing ahead with an array of opioid-related efforts in coming weeks, teeing up bills and spending measures, while Democrats are calling the GOP actions belated and insufficient.
On Thursday, a bipartisan group of governors will testify before the Senate Health Committee on opioid addiction in their states. The White House also met with a number of governors last week and held a recent opioid summit to highlight steps it has taken.
“Every single governor has it at the top of his or her list, even more than Congress because they’re seeing it,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) said in an interview. Mr. Alexander chairs the Senate Health committee, which is holding its sixth hearing on opioids Thursday in an effort to pass legislation tackling the epidemic.
In the House, the Energy and Commerce Committee recently considered eight bills on opioids and plans to vote on them by spring. Congress allocated $6 billion for opioid addiction and mental health treatment as part of a bipartisan budget deal.
The White House budget requested more than $3 billion in new funding in fiscal 2018 and $10 billion in 2019 to battle the opioid problem.
Governors of both parties, however, say more action is needed. Kentucky’s Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, speaking at a recent forum on opioids, said his state suffered 1,400 overdoses last year.
“We are not seriously enough addressing the problem,” Mr. Bevin said.
Chris Christie, former Republican governor of New Jersey who headed a presidential commission on opioids, said the federal effort to battle the crisis has been hampered by a delays in filling key vacancies in agencies that tackle the opioid crisis and a reluctance in Congress to allocate more funding.
“Congress has fallen short on the funding, the administration has fallen short in getting the personnel to make it happen,” he said, adding that pressure now “is coming from Republican governors in the main. But if you’re a Republican governor, you’re always going to be cautious about being critical.”
Democrats say the GOP efforts focus too heavily on law enforcement and not enough on treatment. They say the White House hasn’t called for enough funding, and that it hasn’t moved swiftly to fill openings at federal agencies that tackle opioids. There is still no permanent drug czar to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy, for example.
At the behest of Senate Democrats, the Government Accountability Office will investigate the White House response to the opioid problem.
The opioid issue is playing into a coming special U.S. House election in Pennsylvania. Democrat Conor Lamb has called for investment in prevention and a crackdown on dealers, saying government “has been slow to take effective action.” Republicans have run an ad claiming Mr. Lamb will be soft on opioids and crime.
In October, Mr. Trump declared the opioid crisis a public-health emergency, a designation that has since been extended. Democrats note that declaration didn’t free up any money, and—while the president’s budget seeks money for future years—he hasn’t asked Congress for emergency funding.
Funding for the Office of the National Drug Control Policy would be cut under Mr. Trump’s fiscal 2019 budget by 95% to $17.4 million, and the administration has yet to implement many of the recommendations made in November by a presidential commission on opioids.
Oregon Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, who will testify at Thursday’s Senate hearing, said Mr. Trump hasn’t devoted enough resources to the opioid problem, especially to treatment.
“A criminal justice approach doesn’t solve this problem,” she said in an interview.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar spent hours in late February meeting with almost two dozen governors to discuss the opioid problem. He has supported waivers that would ease limits on where people on Medicaid can get drug treatment, a high-priority item for some governors.
Mr. Azar is reviewing funding being spent at HHS and may make a recommendation to allocate more existing funds to opioids, Mr. Christie said. The White House is also gearing up to launch an advertising campaign targeting the dangers of opioids.
The Food and Drug Administration is looking at the way opioids are prescribed and could require three- or six-day blister packs, which officials hope would encourage doctors to prescribe the drugs for these shorter durations. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in February announced a task force targeting opioid manufacturers and distributors.
The administration has doled out almost $500 million in state grants to help fight opioids, although that money came from the 21st Century Cures Act passed under former President Barack Obama.
These efforts show, Republicans say, that they are tackling the problem aggressively.
“Combating the opioid epidemic requires an all-hands-on-deck response, and we have a strong partner in the Trump administration,” said Rep. Greg Walden (R., Ore.), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Still, GOP governors say privately they are eager for more help from Washington, though they are loath to criticize the Trump administration publicly. “We lost more than 800 people to opioid abuse in the last 18 months,” Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey said recently.
“This is the top issue for governors, and 33 are Republican,” said Robert Blendon, a health policy professor at Harvard University. “The heat [Mr. Trump] is taking is from Republican governors. They’re saying, ‘We don’t want to run in 2018 not having done a lot to open up treatment programs.’ ”
Mr. Trump last week promised new initiatives on opioids but didn’t specify what they would be, beyond bringing legal action against opioid manufacturers.
He also talked about the need for punitive measures. “Some countries have a very, very tough penalty—the ultimate penalty—and by the way, they have much less of a drug problem than we do,” Mr. Trump said. “So we’re going to have to be very tough on penalties.”
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Deputy AG Asks For Insurers' Help To End Opioid Crisis
Mar 7, 2018 | Law360
By Emily FIeld
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Wednesday called on health insurers to aid law enforcement's efforts to end the nation's massive opioid epidemic, saying they can play a part in preventing needless prescribing of opioids.
Speaking to an audience of health insurers at a conference in Washington, D.C., held by trade association America's Health Insurance Plans, Rosenstein said the DOJ is using all the tools it has to curb the crisis by holding people accountable for their roles in the crisis, including criminal and civil penalties, and is targeting the crisis at every level of the opioid distribution chain.
"We also need your help," Rosenstein said. "Health insurers can help prevent excessive medical use of opioid drugs and also can detect fraud and other potentially illegal conduct and report it to law enforcement."
Rosenstein attributed the epidemic, in part, to the actions of medical professionals, noting that the prescribing rate for prescription opioids among adolescents and young adults nearly doubled from 1994 to 2007.
"The misuse of pharmaceutical opioid drugs contradicts the fundamental pledge of the medical profession: First, do no harm," Rosenstein said. "Those drugs have caused a lot of collateral damage."
Rosenstein said the DOJ’s goal is to stop the increase in opioid addiction and overdoses this year.
"Through close cooperation among federal, state and local law enforcement and the private sector, we are confident that we can achieve that," Rosenstein said. "We intend to see to it that the drug overdose death totals decline."
The climb in drug overdose deaths has been primarily driven by opioids, including prescription painkillers, heroin and, increasingly, synthetic drugs like fentanyl, Rosenstein said. In 2016, opioid overdoses killed 42,000 Americans, five times more than the number of overdose deaths 17 years ago.
The CDC on Tuesday also released data showing a large spike in opioid overdoses in the span of a year. Between July 2016 and September 2017, visits to emergency rooms for opioid overdoses rose 30 percent in all parts of the country, according to the data.
Rosenstein outlined the steps that the DOJ is taking to combat the crisis, such as the recent creation of a task force, the Prescription Interdiction & Litigation Task Force, that will work with law enforcement and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to crack down on opioid makers and distributors.
The federal government is also working with China to stem the flow of illegal fentanyl and fentanyl analogues into the U.S., Rosenstein said.
The DOJ is also mulling entering the massive multidistrict litigation over the crisis, and in a statement of interest this week asked for 30 days to decide one way or the other. -
The Opioid Crisis Is Surging In Black, Urban Communities
Mar 8, 2018 | NPR
By Marisa Penaloza
The current drug addiction crisis began in rural America, but it's quickly spreading to urban areas and into the African-American population in cities across the country.
"It's a frightening time," says Dr. Edwin Chapman, who specializes in drug addiction in Washington, D.C., "because the urban African-American community is dying now at a faster rate than the epidemic in the suburbs and rural areas."
Dr. Chapman is on the front line of the opioid epidemic crippling his community in the Northeast section of Washington. He heads the Medical Home Development Group, a clinic specializing in addiction medicine.
About a dozen patients sit in the lobby of his clinic on a recent Monday morning. The clinic is on a busy street and even on the second floor, you can hear blaring ambulances whiz by — Dr. Chapman says often they stop right outside his building.
"Sometimes we'll have a cluster of folks outside selling drugs," he says. "We've had overdoses right outside, right under the building, right next door to the building."
According to the Office of the Medical Examiner in Washington, D.C., overall opioid overdose deaths among black men between the ages of 40 and 69 increased 245 percent from 2014 to 2017.
Nationally, the drug death rate is also rising most steeply among African-Americans. Among blacks in urban counties, deaths rose by 41 percent in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
African-American communities are in the midst of a drug epidemic and the culprit is fentanyl, says Dr. Melissa Clarke, who works with Dr. Chapman at Medical Home.
"African-Americans are falling victim to fentanyl and carfentanyl because they are so much more potent than heroin," she says. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is often laced in heroin and other street drugs, says Dr. Clarke.
"People who've even been life-long heroin users are dying because they don't understand how to titrate those doses," she says. That's a huge part of the challenge. It's always been impossible for addicts to know the potency of street drugs, but with fentanyl in the mix, they're even more dangerous now. "We feel like we have a fire underneath us — people are dying every day," she says.
This epidemic started in white suburban and rural areas where people are overdosing mostly with prescription medicine like Percocet and OxyContin. Dr. Chapman says that African-American patients have historically been less likely to be prescribed pain narcotics.
"The theory is that African-Americans tolerate pain better. That's a myth," Dr. Chapman says. But it probably saved blacks from falling victim to the initial opioid crisis, he says.
On a recent Saturday morning, a crowd of mostly health professionals and a handful of patients gather at Dr. Chapman's clinic. He's organized an event to discuss this current drug crisis and to encourage people to come up with solutions to the epidemic. Dr. Chapman is warm and laughs easily, but he's serious about tackling this epidemic head-on. His urgency comes from experience. Like many here, he's a graduate of the historically black Howard University's College of Medicine. He's been practicing medicine for close to 40 years and for 12 years he ran the methadone clinic at the D.C. General Hospital.
"Those patients were very segregated from the community and only their substance abuse was treated," he says. That experience taught him many lessons including the need to address patients' overall health, not just their addiction. He also learned about the effects of incarceration on drug addiction — many addicts cycle in an out of prison, he says. His patient population is largely made up of African-American, long-term heroin users — many with a history of poverty and mental health problems.
"I'm always asked, 'Why do you treat these folks?' " he says. " 'Aren't you afraid to have people like that come into your office?' "
He says he sees drug addiction like any other chronic disease and treats a full load of patients with Suboxone, a medication that keeps his patients' relentless cravings in check. He's certified by the Drug Enforcement Administration to prescribe the drug, but by law he can only treat up to 275 patients annually due to federal provider treatment caps.
His treatment model works, he says. His clinic has a 78 percent retention rate a year — that's the percentage of patients who stay with him annually, keeping their drug addiction in check. Abstinence therapy has a 10 percent retention rate nationwide.
One of the challenges is debunking myths — "this is a chronic disease and not a moral failing," he says, noting that science shows drug addiction is a brain disorder and some are more predisposed to it than others.
Dr. Chapman is soft-spoken, but his determination to fight this current drug crisis in his community is unwavering. He has partnered with several groups, including Howard University and the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute to share information and raise awareness. Fighting stigma is a big part of the battle against this epidemic, he says.
"Seventy-eight percent of the overdoses in the district are African-Americans," says Dr. Chapman. "It's just that the population has been totally ignored, they are invisible."
He mentors young physicians to work with addicts. Doctors like Dr. Melissa Clarke, who is also certified to prescribe Suboxone. She says finding him wasn't easy.
Not enough doctors
"Oh, like a needle in a haystack," she says, "there are not a lot of practices out there that have fully embraced as much as Dr. Chapman has that medical home approach to care."
She admires his dedication, saying, "He's always had the vision, he's always had the understanding of opioid addiction is a chronic disease."
Dr. Chapman's father worked with the Urban League in Gary, Ind., where he fought hard to get black physicians hospital privileges in the 1940s. Chapman credits his father for his career choice and work ethic. He says he's on a mission to debunk drug-related myths and fight stigma.
Larry Bing has been a patient of Dr. Chapman's for two years now.
"I'm 64," he says, "I'm an addict and spite of being on Suboxone and in therapy, every day ain't a good day for me."
Mr. Bing is tall, handsome and he's been to prison about seven times. He started using when he was 15. He's tried to get off drugs several times before with methadone, a more conventional treatment offered by the D.C. government, but he relapsed four times. "Had I known about the Suboxone before the methadone, I would have tried it first," he says.
But it still isn't easy. "When you talk about addiction it ain't necessarily just the drug," he says. "It's that lifestyle too that you crave."
Larry Bing heard about Dr. Chapman on the streets from an addict friend who later died from an overdose. His treatment is covered by Medicaid and Medicare and he knows he's lucky to have the support of his wife Evelyn. The Bings have been married for 22 years.
Evelyn Bing a, 67-year-old native Washingtonian who is fond of stylish hats, says her husband was already struggling with addiction when they met in 1992. Evelyn didn't know. When she found out, she chose to stick by him, but she doesn't wish that experience on anybody. "It was a horrific experience sometimes, it wasn't easy. It was hard, it was sad, it was ugly."
Often he'd go get cigarettes, she says, "and going to get cigarettes lasted for five days."
"I was terrified that something really happened to him."
Unable to sit at home and wait, she prowled dark streets looking for him, she says, and her biggest fear was that he'd end up back in prison or dead. Though she's grateful her husband found Dr. Chapman, she knows many in her community aren't as lucky, she says. "I don't think we as African-Americans are getting the best resources."
And as the opioid crisis spikes in D.C., she says many African-Americans are desperate for help. "I'd like to see more Dr. Chapman's, drugs off the street, crime stopped, more schools, more programs to educate on what using drugs do to people."
Evelyn Bing says her husband's life is improving and for that, she credits Dr. Chapman. "He listens and cares for his patients' overall health" she says.
Dr. Edwin Chapman wants to galvanize his community to fight this drug epidemic. "It's going to be what we do at the grass-roots level, on the ground, more so than what the federal government is doing," he says. "This is very urgent."
Dr. Chapman is unassuming, but forthright and passionate about his work. At 71, he says he can't think about retirement — "not when my city is right in the middle of a raging epidemic."
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Targeting the evolving opioid threat requires tireless work to save lives (Opinion)
Mar 8, 2018 | The Hill
By Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD)
During my campaign for governor in 2014, I traveled across Maryland with my running mate, Boyd Rutherford, asking voters one question: Which issue facing your community are you most concerned about? The answer we heard again and again, in every corner of our state, was heroin and opioid addiction.
It was by far the number one issue we heard about, from urban areas to nearly every suburban neighborhood and rural small town. We quickly realized how widespread the heroin and opioid crisis was throughout Maryland, and how many communities, families and lives this scourge was tearing apart.
Immediately after taking office, we set up a Heroin and Opioid Emergency Task Force, chaired by Lt. Gov. Rutherford, which developed 33 specific recommendations focused on a four-pronged approach: education, prevention, enforcement and treatment. We have acted to address or move forward on nearly all of these recommendations.
In March 2017, Maryland became the first state in the nation to declare a full-scale state of emergency in response to the heroin, opioid, and fentanyl crisis. In order to truly treat this crisis as we would a natural disaster or public safety emergency, we activated an Opioid Operational Command Center to more rapidly coordinate between state and local agencies, and dedicated an additional $50 million in funding over the next five years. In total, we have spent nearly half a billion in state and federal funding to combat opioid and substance use disorders.
Through legislation we have taken positive strides, we’ve expanded our state’s Good Samaritan Law and Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, imposed strict penalties on individuals distributing fentanyl, and passed legislation limiting the amount of opioids a health care provider can prescribe. This past June, our Department of Health issued a standing order allowing all Marylanders to be able to receive the life saving drug Naloxone from pharmacies, and in January, I authorized our attorney general to file suit against opioid manufacturers and distributors that have helped create the addiction crisis gripping our state and nation.
Yet, in spite of all of our efforts, in spite of us fighting with every tool we have at our disposal, this crisis continues to evolve, particularly with the threat of fentanyl and other synthetic additives, which can be 50 times to 100 times stronger than heroin.
While we’re seeing a slight drop in overdose deaths related to heroin and prescription opioids, fentanyl is now the most deadly controlled dangerous substance in our state. Of the 1,705 drug and alcohol-related deaths across Maryland in the first nine months of 2017, over 1,500 were opioid-related, and nearly 1,200 deaths were related to fentanyl. That’s a spike of more than 70 percent from the same period in 2016.
Combatting a crisis of this scale requires all levels of government working together. No state or community can go it alone. The majority of the deadly fentanyl is being shipped in from China or smuggled in from Mexico and we need the federal government to step in and stop this poison from ravaging our state and our nation.
That is the message I will be delivering to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee today, on behalf of Maryland and all the states and governors across our nation struggling to turn the tide on this crisis and prevent the senseless deaths of our citizens.
Maryland is working tirelessly to fight this epidemic, alongside our counties and municipalities, in neighborhoods and schools, with public health, human services and public safety. We need greater federal support, especially more targeted and aggressive federal enforcement efforts for fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.
Ultimately, this is about saving lives. It will take all of us to do that.
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Danbury hires Ventura Law to pursue lawsuits against opioid makers
Mar 7, 2018 | Westfair Online (CT)
By Kevin Zimmerman
Danbury’s Ventura Law firm has been hired by the city to consider lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies involved in the sale, distribution and marketing of opioids.
A number of other Connecticut cities – including Bridgeport, Fairfield, Newtown and Shelton – joined together as part of a lawsuit filed in Waterbury Superior Court by Waterbury firm Drubner, Hartley & Hellman in January. New York City’s Simmons Hanly Conroy is also representing those plaintiffs as part of a national multidistrict litigation against many of the same pharmaceutical companies, including Stamford’s Purdue Pharma.
Danbury officials said they preferred to go with a local firm rather than join that larger effort. Ventura lists pharmaceutical/medical device claims as one of its areas of expertise.
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Medford Sues Opioid Manufacturers, Distributors
Mar 7, 2018 | Medford Patch (MA)
By Alex Newman
The city of Medford has filed a public nuisance lawsuit against a number of opioid manufacturers and distributors, Mayor Stephanie M. Burke announced in February. The city is suing five of the largest manufacturers of prescription opioids and their related companies and three wholesale drug distributors for failing to comply with their duties under the Controlled Substances Act, according to a press release.
The law, designed in the 1970s, gave a select few wholesalers the right to deliver opioids in exchange for them to "monitor, identify and report suspicious activity in the size and frequency of opioid shipments to pharmacies and hospitals," the release stated. Medford is one of many city and county governments nationwide that are taking action against drug manufacturers and distributors for contributing to the opioid crisis.
"We are determined to do everything in our power to stop this epidemic from further destroying the lives of the people of Medford. Ending this crisis is going to take a major collective effort that involves municipal, state and federal leaders, lawmakers, doctors, law enforcement and health officials coming together to find workable solutions," Burke said in a statement. "But until we address the source of this epidemic and force drug makers and distributors to follow the law, our cities and towns will continue to face an uphill battle."
According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2,069 people died from opioid-related overdoses in 2016, up 15 percent from the previous year. With that comes an increase in the cost of treatment for addiction, education and law enforcement, according to Burke.
"We are committed to put an end to this opioid driven epidemic and recoup the costs that the taxpayers of Medford have been forced to expend," Attorney Robert Bonsignore said.
The City has hired the law firms Levin, Papantonio, Hill, Peterson; McHugh Fuller; and Bonsignore PLLC, which have experience in legal action against the pharmaceutical industry.
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Mar 7, 2018 | Cleveland County Herald (NC)
By Staff
Reversing a decision it made earlier this year, the Cleveland County Quorum Court voted Monday night to join other counties across the state in a lawsuit being filed against the pharmaceutical companies that make opioids, a type of pain medication that has led to widespread addictions across the U.S.
Meanwhile, County/Circuit Court Clerk Jimmy Cummings told the quorum court that he is in need of an additional staff person due to an increasing workload, and the fact that one of his deputy clerk’s is expected be out for an extended period this fall.
Both matters were addressed during the quorum court’s regular monthly meeting Monday night.
In January, County Judge Gary Spears informed the quorum court of a letter he received from the Association of Arkansas Counties (AAC) asking the county to join in on a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical companies, claiming the companies marketed opioid-based pain killers knowing patients would become addicted to them.
Spears told the court in January that he personally did not like the idea of suing someone, especially considering that the pharmaceutical companies only make the drugs, and that the doctors are the ones prescribing them. He also pointed out that Cleveland County has the second-lowest rate of opioid prescriptions in the state.
On that, the quorum court took no action on the letter.
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Mar 8, 2018 | Winston-Salem Chronicle (NC)
By Todd Luck
The City of Winston-Salem is suing opioid distributors and manufacturers.
The City Council voted on Monday, March 5, to declare the opioid crisis in the city a public nuisance and hire law firms to represent Winston-Salem in the lawsuit. Like the county’s opioid lawsuit, the law firms will be paid 25 percent of any monetary recovery, so the lawsuit won’t cost taxpayers money. Also, like the county’s lawsuit, it will be grouped together with other similar suits in multi-district litigation, but will not be a class-action case.
The overuse of legal prescription opioids is being widely blamed for the current crisis of opioid addiction that is taxing first responders, jails and social services across the nation. Opioids are highly addictive and are easy to accidentally overdose on. The number of opioid related deaths in Forsyth County jumped from 13 in 2005 to 52 in 2015. According to a city memo from Feb. 27, the overdose reversal drug Narcan has been administered 31 times to 32 local patients in 2018 and there has already been six opioid related deaths. Nationally, there were 42,000 opioid related deaths in 2016.
“One of the most effective things that we as a city can do to attack this problem is to ensure that that incentive to over recommend, over distribute, and ending in the result of over prescription of these drugs, is to change the economic situation, remove the incentive to do that,” said City Council Member Dan Besse.
Besse and City Council Member Denise “D.D.” Adams both supported the suit, but recused themselves on the vote that selected the law firm to avoid the appearance of impropriety since they may have received campaign contributions from the parties involved.
The city hired local attorney Garry Whitaker and McHugh Fuller Law Group, a Mississippi-based firm, along with a consortium of about six other law firms, for the lawsuit. Attorney Garry Whitaker said that the city is among more than 200 government entities that filled lawsuits against opioid companies.
“There are established laws on the books regarding reporting requirements to the Drug Enforcement Administration and those were rules that were broken and as a consequence, we say folks are dying,” said Whitaker. “We certainly know the addiction rates have increased exponentially over the last 20 years.”
The lawsuits are being overseen by U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Ohio, who is pushing to have the DEA provide both sides in the lawsuits with information about legal opioid distribution, though that information won’t be made public unless there’s a trial. The lawsuits say that manufacturers overstated benefits and downplayed the risks of opioids while distributors failed to properly monitor and report suspicious orders of prescription painkillers.
The Healthcare Distribution Alliance, which represents distributors, is pushing back against the lawsuits, saying that distributors do not drive demand for the drugs. The trade association also said the companies involved complied with the DEA’s rules and reported every opioid order to the DEA.
“Those bringing lawsuits would be better served addressing the root causes, rather than trying to redirect blame through litigation,” said John Parker, the Alliance’s senior vice-president of communication.
Also during the meeting, the City Council approved $147,834 in incentives over five years to Clearing House Payments Company LLC to expand its local facility in the Southeast Ward and create 50 new jobs with an average wage of $98,361 a year.
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Richmond County seeks recoup expenses for opioid responses in lawsuit
Mar 7, 2018 | Richmond County Daily Journal (NC)
By Gavin Stone
The lawsuit Richmond County is filing against the corporations that make up the pharmaceutical industry is part of a reaction across the nation to the perceived carelessness with which prescription opiates have been marketed — downplaying addictive properties and highlighting their broad applications.
The county is one of about 400 governmental entities involved what is known as a multi-district litigation, distinct from a class-action lawsuit in which the damages would be divided up among the plaintiffs, according to The New York Times.
“The opioid lawsuit is just one step that can be taken to try and solve our problem,” Commissioner Ben Moss said in a text. “It’s too easy to get opioids … I’ve seen personally what it can do to people’s lives. Many steps need to be taken to rid our community of this.”
There are 22 defendants in the case representing each point along the supply chain, from drug manufacturers, like Teva Pharmaceuticals and Johnson and Johnson, to retailers like CVS and Walgreens. The plaintiffs allege that these corporations have neglected their duty to protect consumers and report suspicious orders for their products as required under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.
“They’re just flooding the country with pills,” said Paul Coates, an attorney with Pinto Coates Kyre and Bowers, PLLC, who is representing Richmond County in the case.
The county is seeking compensation for extra expenses used to respond to the effects of widespread access to opioids, though there is no estimation of how much money could be awarded should the plaintiffs win the case. Coates said there will be a better idea of how much the plaintiffs could receive once the Ohio court handling the case settles a smaller sample size of cases.
There are dozens more plaintiffs in North Carolina, according to Coates. The contract between Richmond County and the McHugh Fuller Law Group, under which Coates is operating, states that if there is no recovery won in the case, the county will not owe any legal fees.
The Board of Commissioners voted in February to declare an opioid crisis in Richmond County.
The county is currently ranked fourth in the state in opiate pills per resident at 132.2 which is well above the state average of 78.3, according to statistics from the County Leadership Forum on Opioid Abuse. The county’s rate of unintentional medication and drug overdose rates are also significantly higher than the state average at 18.8 deaths per 100,000 residents compared to 12.2 statewide, according to the N.C. State Center for Health Statistics.
“It’s terrible what these drugs do to a person and their loved ones,” Moss said.
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County may join opioid lawsuits
Mar 7, 2018 | Chiefland Citizen (FL)
By Sean Arnold
In a scene reminiscent of the successful lawsuits against Big Tobacco in the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies have become a target for their role in the opioid crisis.
The Levy County Commission on March 6 signaled its intent to join in on the action in order to recover costs that the opioid addiction has wreaked on local services and healthcare. The lawsuits, both federal and state, contend that the drug makers have knowingly misled users about the harmful effects of their painkillers, leading to widespread addiction and long-term health problems.
County attorney Anne Bast Brown said at the meeting she has consulted with other counties that have reached agreements with firms to join in lawsuits, and has spoken with law firms seeking business from counties. She says counties like Alachua and Osceola have signed onto agreements with firms that avoid any costs up front for the counties, and those counties are shielded through the agreements from counter-suits from the pharmaceuticals.
“These attorneys have developed formulas for how they can figure out what each county’s healthcare costs are (related to opioid addiction),” Brown said.
With a motion from Lilly Rooks, and a second from Rock Meeks, the commission directed Brown to move forward in her research and make a recommendation for an agreement with a law firm.
Brown said the county should join with a firm that is filing a state lawsuit, since the county would automatically be included in a federal lawsuit, and any federal settlement funds would be divvied up throughout the country.
She said there has been some urgency by counties to reach agreements with legal firms because the State Attorney General’s Office could file its own suit at any time. Such a move would preclude any counties that have not already filed a lawsuit from having representation at the bargaining table. Instead, the state would determine how any recovery awards are allocated for those counties.
“Once you’re foot’s in the door, then you can be at the table for any settlement,” Brown said.
Board chairman John Meeks said the costs from the opioid crisis have been extensive, as addiction to painkillers often leads to the use of more more deadly drugs.
“Once their prescription gets cut off, because they can’t function in society, they lose their job, their insurance, and they seek their fix or pain relief in other ways, through heroin or Fentanyl or whatever it may be,” Meeks said. “I think there has been a lot of deception from the pharmaceutical companies, not only with the length of use and the addiction, but the damage it does to your body.
“We have all these problems that are created from drugs and drug abuse – there’s a very real cost. It’s not only a cost financially, there’s a cost from resources being tied up. Whenever we talk about writing off $200,000 a quarter in ambulance costs, a lot of them circle around the drug abuse. (This is) an opportunity for us to maybe recover some of those expenses.”
Marcia Wheatley, director of operations for Mending Fences, a substance abuse treatment facility based in Morriston, who was at the meeting to garner support for a drug court in Levy County, offered some recent statistics on the uptick in drug-related deaths.
She cited a 2016 report by the Florida Medical Examiners that showed opioid-related deaths increased by 35 percent from 2015 to 2016. Fentanyl-related deaths saw an increase of 97 percent for that period, while 40 percent of the individuals who died had at least one prescription drug in their system related to their death.
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County commissioners join federal opioid lawsuit
Mar 8, 2018 | The Garrett County Republican (WV)
By Renee Shreve
Garrett County has joined Montgomery County in litigation seeking compensation for “damage caused by the production and distribution of opioids,” the Garrett County commissioners announced during their public meeting Monday afternoon.
“This is a public health crisis affecting nearly every community in the county,” Commission Chairman Paul Edwards said. “After speaking with our legal counsel, this is the route that we wanted to go.”
Garrett and Montgomery counties are being represented by Robbins, Gellar, Rudman & Dowd, a national law firm with offices in Washington, D.C.
“There are certain counties across the state where the numbers are much larger, but we are seeing increases in the last year alone,” Edwards said. “It doesn’t change the need and impact we have here. We believe a good start is to aggressively confront one of the root causes of this national epidemic: The pharmaceutical companies and those paid by the pharmaceutical companies who put profits before public health and safety.”
He noted that every county in Maryland and every county in the country will probably end up filing a lawsuit, as well.
“We’re going to pursue this and see what happens,” Edwards said.
The county’s claim will be part of an existing multi-district litigation taking place in federal court. The lawsuit seeks as damage the recovery of costs, expenses, and other damages incurred by the county as a result of the “opioid epidemic.” Fourteen defendants in three foreign countries and seven states are listed in the lawsuit, including Purdue Pharma, Cephalon, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Endo International.
Edwards said any amount of compensation received would depend upon a community’s crime rate, hospitalization data, Narcan and treatment expenses, and other factors.
“Anything that took money from the public coffers to fight the surge of the opioid (problem),” Edwards said. “For Garrett County, that’s probably going to look different from Montgomery County.”
He indicated that Montgomery County has incurred more expenses.
The commissioners also announced Tuesday that interviews would begin this week for the economic development director position. Edwards said the county received 21 applications.
The county’s selection committee, composed of representatives from a wide range of groups, will interview three applicants today, he said.
“We’re pretty excited about the prospects,” Edwards said.
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Tribes file opioid lawsuit: Jamestown S’Klallam, Port Gamble S’Klallam, Suquamish tribes take action
Mar 8, 2018 | Peninsula Daily News (WA)
By Jesse Major
The Jamestown S’Klallam, Port Gamble S’Klallam and Suquamish tribes are taking on pharmaceutical companies and drug distributors, claiming the companies flooded their reservations with deadly opioids.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, is similar to hundreds of others across the nation — including a suit by Clallam County — and names Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and other manufacturers and distributors as defendants.
It claims the companies are responsible for the opioid epidemic that has disproportionately affected tribes locally and across the country.
“We have the same concerns of our sister tribes and other entities with regard to the way pharmaceuticals have been advocating and promoting these various opioid drugs that are causing all kinds of problems,” said Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe based in Blyn, on Wednesday.
“We think the way they promote them and the way they encourage doctors in various clinics to prescribe them is a significant portion of the negligence that we’ve been witnessing.”
Negligence is only one of the tribes’ many accusations described in the lawsuit.
The tribes accuse the pharmaceutical companies of fraud, negligence, unjust enrichment, civil conspiracy, of being racketeer-influenced, organizations and several other accusations.
“We want to make sure tribes are at the table because tribes are being disproportionately impacted by the [opioid] crisis,” said Ed Goodman, a Portland, Ore., attorney representing the tribes.
“If there’s a settlement, we want to make sure the tribes are sitting at the table and a part of that negotiation … and helping resolve the impacts on Indian Country.”
Native Americans and Alaskan Natives die from opioid overdoses at higher rates than any other ethnic group in the state.
According to the state Department of Health, Native Americans and Alaskan Natives died from opioid overdoses at a rate of 34.4 per 100,000 between 2011 and 2015, nearly three times the rate white and black people died from opioid overdoses during that period.
The lawsuit blames the opioid epidemic on the pharmaceutical companies and distributors “who made billions of dollars off the epidemic.
“The Tribes have seen child welfare and foster care costs associated with opioid-addicted parents skyrocket; their health services have been overwhelmed; education and addiction therapy costs have substantially increased; and almost every tribal member has been affected,” the complaint says.
“These costs could have been — and should have been — prevented by the opioid industry.”
Goodman said the more than 400 lawsuits — filed by cities, counties and tribes across the nation — are being consolidated in a federal court in Ohio and the proceedings will be overseen by Judge Dan Aaron Polster.
Polster is encouraging the plaintiffs and defendants to reach a settlement sooner rather than later, with hopes of coming to a resolution that addresses the national crisis by the end of the year, The New York Times reported Monday.
The 110-page complaint filed Monday outlines the impact opioids have had for tribes.
The lawsuit cites increasing prescriptions and deceptive marketing among the causes of the epidemic. In Clallam County there were 1,164 opioid prescriptions per every 1,000 residents and in Jefferson County there were 819.6 opioid prescriptions per 1,000 residents, according to the lawsuit.
“Each Pharmaceutical Defendant developed a well-funded marketing scheme based on deception to persuade doctors and patients that opioids can and should be used for treatment of chronic pain, resulting in opioid treatment for a far larger group of patients who are much more likely to become addicted,” the lawsuit says.
This included deceptive marketing, false or misleading advertisements, false or misleading direct-to-physician marketing, false or misleading materials, speaker programs, webinars and brochures, and false or misleading unbranded advertisements, according to the lawsuit.
The tribes are seeking an award for all damages, an amount that would be determined at trial. Among the requests is for the pharmaceutical industry to fund an “abatement fund” that would be used to abate the “public nuisance caused by the opioid epidemic.”
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Athens County To Attack Opioid Companies In The Courtroom
Mar 7, 2018 | WOUB (OH)
By Staff
Athens County is jumping into the legal fight against opioid manufacturers and distributors. The county commissioners have retained a law firm in Columbus to file the federal lawsuit.
The Athens County prosecutor’s office will serve as co-counsel. The state of Ohio is also suing prescription drug makers, as are several other states counties, and municipalities across the country.
Dr. James Gaskell, The Health Commissioner of the Athens City-County Health Department says there is value in suing the pharmaceutical industry, “The tobacco issue was approached by suing the tobacco companies. And we had a huge tobacco settlement. And that was really helpful in preventing tobacco use and treating tobacco addiction.”
Gaskell adds, “I think suing the manufacturers, the distributors of opioids is a similar plan. If they can get more funding, then we can tackle the opioid problem in a more aggressive manner.”Commissioner Lenny Eliason says the county chose to be a part of the lawsuit to recoup some of the money lost from the epidemic and “the more parties the better.”
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Mar 8, 2018 | Myrtle Beach, SC
By WFXB (Fox)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33391920?token=f88b1523-4d90-4c35-b2ab-f0dba69af809
Rough Transcript: matt two more south carolina counties sued major drug companies because of opioid abuse cases. greenville and spartanburg counties filed the suits. it says.. the counties spend millions in health-care costs and services each year because of deceptive practices... and the addictive effects of the painkillers. matt earlier this year... horry and marion counties sued three major drug manufacturers. the suit accuses the companies of fueling the opioid epidemic with lethal overshipments of prescription drugs. data from the c-d-c says.. horry and marion counties had more opioid prescriptions than people. the suit asks the companies to pay for things like first responder costs.
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Mar 8, 2018 | Charlotte, NC
By WSOC (ABC)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33391922?token=f88b1523-4d90-4c35-b2ab-f0dba69af809
Rough Transcript: more local county officials are joing the lawsuit against opioid manufacturers. the city council voted tuesday night to sue companies in an effort to recuperate all of the money spent writing the cris. richmond county leaders still have to sign off on a contract. they would join mecklenburg, burke and caldwell counties in the efforts.
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Mar 8, 2018 | Nashville, TN
By WZTV (Fox)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33391924?token=f88b1523-4d90-4c35-b2ab-f0dba69af809
Rough Transcript: this morning two tennessee counties are suing pharmaceutical companies over the opiod epidemic...this is an attempt to hold drug manufacturers and distributors responsible.the knoxville news sentinel reports that government leaders in campbell and scott counties have authorized filing lawsuits u-s district court.both east tennesseee counties have logged more opioid prescriptions than people.in 2016, campbell county ranked among the nation's top 10 counties for prescription rates.each lawsuit is trying to prove that big pharma companies lied about opiate properties.. and lobbied for loose regulations under false pretenses.individual companies have previously denied such claims
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Mar 7, 2018 | Columbia, SC
By WLTX (CBS)
VIdeo Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33392019?token=f88b1523-4d90-4c35-b2ab-f0dba69af809
Rough Transcript: when the upstate greenville county is filing a lawsuit targeting big pharmaceutical counties to hold them accountable for the role in the drug epidemic. the cdc says that opioid overdoses have increased by 30% across the country. the county is seeking damages for the cost of creating medical care and therapy related to opioid -related addiction or disease. this also includes overdosed us. -- overdose deaths.
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