Preview Newsletter
Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report - 3/23/18
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Opioid Drugmakers, Distributors Sued Over Addicted Babies
Mar 22, 2018 | Bloomberg Big Law Business
By Julie Steinberg
The adoptive family of a toddler born addicted to opioids filed a proposed class suit against drugmakers and distributors seeking money to cover the costs of the children’s care. -
Congress’s omnibus bill adds $3.3 billion to fight the opioid crisis. It’s not enough. (Opinion)
Mar 22, 2018 | Vox
By German Lopez
Congress’s new spending deal commits more money to combat an opioid epidemic that’s led to hundreds of thousands of drug overdose deaths since the late 1990s. But while experts and advocates welcome the funding, there are a few reasons for caution. -
4 Highlights From Congress' Two-Day Opioid Hearing
Mar 22, 2018 | Law360
By Emily Field
Changes to opioid packaging and labeling were among the topics Wednesday and Thursday at hearings on the opioid crisis before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which received input from federal health officials, health care providers and industry on two dozen bills aimed at curbing the massive opioid crisis. -
In Florida, Jeff Sessions talks opioids, death penalty for drug traffickers
Mar 22, 2018 | Tampa Bay Observer (FL)
By Lawrence Mower
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday called again for federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against drug traffickers who cause overdose deaths. -
Are Physicians The Key To Curbing The Opioid Crisis?
Mar 23, 2018 | The Fix
By Beth Leipholtz
The key to curbing the opioid crisis could lie in the very hands that write the prescriptions: the physicians. -
Why Greater Lafayette is filing lawsuits against opioid industry, and how they can succeed
Mar 23, 2018 | Journal & Courier (IN)
By Jeong Park
Recent headlines would suggest nearly every city, county and state is suing pharmaceutical companies and distributors for their roles in an opioid epidemic. -
Martinsville files lawsuit against opioid manufacturers
Mar 23, 2018 | Indiana Daily Student (IN)
By Nyssa Kruse
The City of Martinsville announced this week it would sue multiple opioid manufacturers, joining a wave of similar lawsuits from across the country and state, including here in Bloomington. -
Strongsville Suing Opioid Manufacturers, Distributors
Mar 22, 2018 | Strongsville Patch (OH)
By Chris Mosby
The city of Strongsville is following the example of the state of Ohio and other communities in suing the manufacturers and distributors of prescription painkillers. Other communities with similar lawsuits include Cleveland, Brunswick and Parma. -
Stark County joins opioid lawsuit vs. drug companies
Mar 23, 2018 | The Alliance Review (OH)
By Robert Wang
Stark County intends to join cities and counties across the country that have filed federal lawsuits against drug companies, blaming them in part for the opioid crisis and tens of thousands of overdose deaths. -
AR Cities, Counties Unite to Sue Opioid Industry
Mar 22, 2018 | The Crime Report
By Staff
In what state officials described as unique among efforts to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for the opioid epidemic, 72 counties and 210 cities in Arkansas have banded together to file a single lawsuit against the drug industry. -
Town of Man joins lawsuit against multiple drug distributors
Mar 23, 2018 | Williamson Daily News (WV)
By Nancy Peyton
The town of Man recently filed a lawsuit against multiple drug manufacturers and distributors in the U.S. District Court of Southern West Virginia, joining a wave of other municipalities that have recently alleged the defendants failed to follow state and federal law to prevent the distribution and abuse of prescription pain medication throughout the Mountain State. -
Lewis County Considers Joining Lawsuit Against Opioid Makers
Mar 22, 2018 | The Chronicle (WA)
By Natalie Johnson
Lewis County is considering joining several Washington counties and cities following the state Attorney General’s Office’s lead in suing opioid drug manufacturers, accusing the companies of pushing doctors to overprescribe the drugs while downplaying their addictive nature. -
McKee confident municipalities will gain in opioid suit
Mar 22, 2018 | Johnston Sunrise (RI)
By John Howell
Lt. Gov. Daniel McKee is confident that the more than 25 municipalities that have joined “hundreds” of municipalities across the country in a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical companies and distributors of opioids will receive payments, either as the result of a settlement or a judgment. -
Special Report With Bret Baier
Mar 22, 2018 | National Programming
By Fox News
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33774382?token=e7425e6f-2936-402b-b25f-b1561fee139b -
Sunrise 7
Mar 23, 2018 | Wausau, WI
By WSAW (CBS)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33773850?token=e7425e6f-2936-402b-b25f-b1561fee139b -
13 WMAZ Mornin'
Mar 23, 2018 | Macon, GA
By WMAZ (CBS)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33773853?token=e7425e6f-2936-402b-b25f-b1561fee139b -
5 News This Morning at 4:30 AM
Mar 23, 2018 | Ft. Smith, AR
By KFSM (CBS)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33773867?token=e7425e6f-2936-402b-b25f-b1561fee139b -
News 12 Connecticut
Mar 23, 2018 | Hartford & New Haven, CT
By N12CT (News 12)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33774388?token=e7425e6f-2936-402b-b25f-b1561fee139b
Commentary and FYIs
Midwest (IN, OH)
Southeast (AR, WV)
Northwest (WA)
Northeast (RI)
Broadcast Media Coverage
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Opioid Drugmakers, Distributors Sued Over Addicted Babies
Mar 22, 2018 | Bloomberg Big Law Business
By Julie Steinberg
The adoptive family of a toddler born addicted to opioids filed a proposed class suit against drugmakers and distributors seeking money to cover the costs of the children’s care.
Prenatal exposure to opioids causes severe withdrawal symptoms and lasting developmental impacts, Darren and Elena Flanagan allege in a suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
The suit is part of a new group of similar would-be class actions stemming from the opioid crisis. The epidemic affects thousands of infants in the United States, the complaint says.
Manufacturer defendants include Oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma LP and Johnson & Johnson unit Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., maker of Duragesic fentanyl skin patches.
Distributor defendants include Cardinal Health Inc., AmerisourceBergen Corp., and McKesson Corp.
They rejected the allegations.
The plaintiffs’ goal is a protected, court-administered fund that will provide money to meet the children’s needs throughout their lives, Celeste Brustowicz, one of their attorneys, told Bloomberg Law.
Brustowicz, of the Cooper Law Firm, LLC in New Orleans, said her firm is involved in eight suits so far, and more are expected.
The Flanagans’ suit is expected to be transferred to multidistrict opioid proceedings at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
Baby K.L.F., now 2, was diagnosed at birth with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, a condition suffered by babies born to opioid-addicted mothers, the complaint alleges.
She spent weeks in a neonatal intensive care unit to undergo detoxification, the suit says. Her mother was prescribed opioids before she became pregnant, the complaint says.
The Flanagans demand medical monitoring to track developmental issues that will arise as the children grow older, and funding for education and counseling services and treatment.
They also seek costs associated with providing care for children whose parents suffer from opioid-related disability or incapacitation, including foster care services. They seek to represent Tennessee children diagnosed with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.
In recent years, there has been a dramatic rise in the proportion of infants who have been exposed to opioids, the complaint alleges.
Manufacturers minimized the risks of addiction, the plaintiffs say. Distributors failed to monitor, report, and stop suspicious orders, resulting in the diversion of addictive drugs to the illicit market, the plaintiffs allege.
The defendants could have, and should have, prevented the NAS epidemic and its consequences, the Flanagans say.
Other Suits Pending
Similar proposed class suits on were initially filed in federal courts in West Virginia, Missouri, California, and Illinois. Three have been transferred into federal multidistrict proceedings and the fourth is expected to be transferred, joining suits by hundreds of cities and counties.
Three proposed class suits are also pending, in state courts in Tennessee and Lousiana, Brustowicz said.
The defendants and a trade group pushed back against the litigation.
“We vigorously deny these allegations and look forward to the opportunity to present our defense,” Purdue Pharma said.
Janssen said that labels for its prescription opioid pain medicines include information about risks and benefits.
“The allegations made against our company are baseless and unsubstantiated,” it said.
Healthcare Distribution Alliance, the national trade association representing wholesale distributors, said the opioid epidemic is a complex public health challenge.
“Those bringing lawsuits would be better served addressing the root causes, rather than trying to redirect blame through litigation,” John Parker, Senior Vice President, HDA, said in a statement sent to Bloomberg Law.Cooper Law Firm, LLC, Thompson Barney Law Firm, and others represent the plaintiffs.
The case is Flanagan v. Purdue Pharma, L.P., W.D. Tenn., No. 18-2194, complaint 3/21/18.
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Congress’s omnibus bill adds $3.3 billion to fight the opioid crisis. It’s not enough. (Opinion)
Mar 22, 2018 | Vox
By German Lopez
Congress’s new spending deal commits more money to combat an opioid epidemic that’s led to hundreds of thousands of drug overdose deaths since the late 1990s. But while experts and advocates welcome the funding, there are a few reasons for caution.
The omnibus bill adds $3.3 billion to address the opioid and mental health crisis in fiscal year 2018, with a focus on public health efforts. Here are some of the big programs:$1.4 billion will go to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, including $1 billion for a new State Opioid Response Grant program and a $160 million increase in the Mental Health Block Grant$500 million for the National Institutes of Health for more opioid addiction research$350 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for opioid overdose prevention, surveillance, and improving state prescription drug monitoring programs$415 million for the Health Resources and Services Administration to, among other efforts, improve access to addiction treatment in rural and other underserved areas$100 million to the Administration for Children and Families to help children whose parents misuse drugsAn additional $299.5 million to the Department of Justice’s anti-opioid grant fundingAn additional $500 million to the Department of Veterans Affairs for mental health programsAn additional $94 million to Food and Drug Administration efforts to inspect mail for illicit drugs
All of this is on top of the $500 million in fiscal year 2018 approved in the 21st Century Cures Act to combat the opioid epidemic.
The concern here, as usual, is that even this large commitment of money is not enough. When Congress first announced its spending deal — to add $6 billion over two years to combat the opioid crisis — earlier this year, Sarah Wakeman, the medical director at the Massachusetts General Hospital Substance Use Disorder Initiative, told me that “[i]t’s hard to imagine $6 billion being enough, especially when you think about the annual budget for other illnesses like HIV, which is $32 billion.”
Any increase is, of course, welcome. But when dealing with one of the worst public health crises in history, Congress will have to go really big — and it’s just not there yet.The opioid epidemic demands big, sustained funding
It’s difficult to overstate the scope of the opioid crisis, which is now the deadliest drug overdose epidemic in US history. Nearly 64,000 people died of drug overdoses in the US in 2016, and at least two-thirds of those deaths were linked to opioids such as fentanyl, heroin, and prescribed painkillers. The total drug overdose deaths were higher than the number of deaths linked to guns, car crashes, or HIV/AIDS during any single year in America. Based on preliminary data from the CDC, 2017 was even worse.
This, advocates say, requires a massive solution. To put it in context, the New York Times recently asked 30 experts how they would spend $100 billion over five years to address the epidemic — a number comparable to how much the US spends domestically on HIV/AIDS. That sounds like a lot of money, but some experts cautioned that even that amount of cash may not be enough.
The good news is we have a fairly good idea what that money would go to: more treatment (particularly opioid addiction medications like methadone and buprenorphine), more harm reduction (such as better access to the opioid overdose antidote naloxone), fewer painkiller prescriptions (while ensuring the drugs are available to those who really need them), and policies that can help address the root cause of addiction (like mental health issues and socioeconomic despair).
One of the key issues to address is lack of access to treatment in the US. According to a 2016 report by the surgeon general, about 10 percent of people in the US with a drug use disorder get specialty treatment. And even when treatment is available, other federal datasuggests that fewer than half of facilities offer opioid addiction medications like methadone and buprenorphine, which are considered the gold standard of treatment and studies show cut mortality among opioid addiction patients by half or more.
Fixing this will require more money — but just as crucially, it will require sustained funding. Over the past few years, Congress has approved one-off boosts to funding for the opioid crisis with few guarantees that the money will be there in the next spending deal. That’s a problem: It’s going to be harder to justify building a clinic if you don’t know if you’ll be able to keep it open the next year.
“I used to work in the local level, and sometimes we wouldn’t even ask for federal grant funding because we had no way of funding these programs after a year or two,” Regina LaBelle, who served in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy during the Obama years, told me. “That’s a serious concern for states that have limited budgets.”
To deal with this, Dr. Leana Wen, the health commissioner of Baltimore, has suggested “a Ryan White for the opioid epidemic” — a reference to the program, launched in the 1990s, that created a health care safety net for people with HIV and communities hit hardest by the disease. The idea is to create a source of funds that officials on the ground know they would be able to rely on for years to come.Congress needs a bigger, bolder strategy
Besides the budget deal, Congress is also working on a slew of bills that attempt to tackle the opioid crisis. There is enormous variety in these efforts — they can focus on treatment, regulating opioid painkillers, finding non-opioid alternatives to treating pain, education and awareness efforts, and more. (For a sampling of the House bills, check out the official list.)
While all of these efforts, including the new budget deal, are welcome, some experts and advocates have complained that this all seems to be a scattershot approach rather than a coherent plan.
“There’s no strategy here,” LaBelle said, noting that this is an area in which some leadership from the White House would help. “These can be hard things to do. You need to start with a plan.”
The concern is that the opioid crisis is now so far-reaching — and has exposed such major problems in how America deals with addiction treatment — that federal lawmakers really should be discussing broader reforms instead of one- or two-year funding boosts and one-off tweaks.
Wen drew a comparison to past disease scares, such as Ebola and Zika. These crises led hospitals and doctors, with government support, to retrain and restructure so they were properly built to handle any patients that came in with potential problems related to these diseases.
“We are now dealing with an epidemic of opioid overdose and addiction,” Wen said. “Why shouldn’t we require all doctors and all hospital systems to treat the disease of addiction?”
For example, hospital systems could require that a certain percentage of doctors are trained to prescribe buprenorphine. Methadone treatment could be provided on-site or nearby. Every opioid painkiller prescription could be paired with a naloxone prescription.
There are also comprehensive models that states could adopt, such as Vermont’s hub and spoke system, to really integrate addiction treatment into the rest of health care.
This goes much further than just putting one or two years of funding toward the problem or, as one in-the-works House bill recommends, helping hospitals set up discharge protocols for opioid overdose patients. It’s about fundamentally changing how health care systems work to mitigate the risk of opioid overdose and addiction at every level and ensure patients have readily available care options — just as we expect patients to be able to go to a hospital and quickly get full care if they have, say, problems with diabetes or heart disease.
Consider the counterfactual: What if, like addiction, only 10 percent of people with diabetes or heart disease got treatment? It’d be widely considered a public health disaster — and it’d demand a huge revamp of America’s approach to health care.
Experts argue that Congress needs to start thinking of the opioid epidemic on this bigger scale. Once it does, the more sweeping reforms and bigger, more sustained funding plans should naturally follow. Until then, what federal lawmakers do on the crisis may help, but it will ultimately fall short.
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4 Highlights From Congress' Two-Day Opioid Hearing
Mar 22, 2018 | Law360
By Emily Field
Changes to opioid packaging and labeling were among the topics Wednesday and Thursday at hearings on the opioid crisis before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which received input from federal health officials, health care providers and industry on two dozen bills aimed at curbing the massive opioid crisis.
Here are the highlights from that two-day meeting:
FDA Mulling Opioid Packaging, Labeling Changes
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is exploring ways to change how opioids are packaged and labeled to better manage how they’re prescribed and for how long, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told the committee.
Packaging opioids in blister packs could encourage health care providers to prescribe opioids for shorter terms, limiting the number of opioids dispensed to patients, according to Gottlieb. This would also cut down on the number of leftover pills in medicine cabinets that could be inappropriately taken by family members and children.
The FDA is also weighing the feasibility of including new prescribing information on opioid labels, Gottlieb said. For example, if medical professional societies created evidence-based guidelines on how to appropriately prescribe opioids for different medical needs and then the FDA found that those guidelines were backed by science and sufficient to support updating product labels, it could adjust product labeling accordingly, Gottlieb said.
“One of the things we’re also considering is steps to require sponsors to ensure prescribers provide specific documentation for a prescription above a specified amount,” Gottlieb told the committee. “Such a framework would be based on evidence-based guidelines that define the proper length of treatment for a given indication.”
FDA Wants More Seizure Authority Over Unlabeled Drugs
Gottlieb described a “virtual flood” of dangerous pills entering the U.S. through the mail, in unlabeled or partially labeled boxes. Some pills come in blister packs but many are simply thousands of loose pills in boxes, Gottlieb said.
The FDA is required to find evidence of a drug’s intended use in order to destroy it or refuse entry, and when there’s no evidence of its intended use, the package is often shipped back to the sender, Gottlieb said.
According to Gottlieb, the FDA inspected about 5,800 packages suspected to contain illegal prescription or counterfeit drugs or dietary supplements between September and January. In that four months, about 375 contained controlled substances, including opioids.
“It’s not uncommon to see the same package again and again as shippers resend the same box package a second, even a third time,” Gottlieb said. “This process is not a deterrent.”
If the FDA had the authority to detain and destroy unlabeled imported drugs that contain active ingredients or analogues to FDA-approved drugs, it could more quickly remove potentially dangerous products from the supply chain, Gottlieb said.
The FDA also wants to change its seizure authority so it can act more quickly to grab suspicious packages. Currently, it has to initiate a lawsuit and go through a multi-week process to establish probable cause so it can seize and destroy such packages.
This is particularly a problem as the FDA is seeing more shipments composed of multiple packages contained in one box. Currently, it has to initiate a proceeding against each individual box.
Gottlieb suggested reverting to how the FDA worked before 2006, when it could seize packages it deemed to be an imminent public health hazard.
“That’s a gap that people who are intent on shipping drugs to us are unfortunately exploiting,” Gottlieb said.
How to Spur Development of Pain, Addiction Drugs
An executive with BIO, the world’s largest biotechnology trade association, Cartier Esham proposed ways to encourage the development of better and safer ways to treat pain and addiction, noting that companies working on novel pain therapies have received 17 times less venture funding than companies working on cancer drugs, with even less investment going to addiction treatments.
“There are currently 220 clinical stage drug programs, with 125 testing novel chemical entities, 87 percent of which are for non-opioid receptors,” Esham said in her prepared testimony. “While promising, when compared to the 2,617 clinical development programs in oncology, it is clear the full potential of innovation in improving care for patients suffering from pain or addiction has not been realized.”
Most of the group’s companies are small and depend on venture capital funding, Esham said.
The trade group is backing three bills being considered by the committee, including one that would direct the FDA to explain what kinds of clinical data are needed to show that a new treatment reduces pain and opioid use, and another that would tell it to issue guidance on how it would accelerate the approval of new addiction and safer pain drugs. A third would grant the National Institutes of Health more authority to fund research and work with industry to respond to a public health threat.
BIO is also recommending that the FDA work with industry on how to address regulatory barriers to the development of new pain and addiction therapies, such as by discussing how to more effectively evaluate the benefits and risks of a drug.
The trade group also wants the agency to discuss how to develop non-opioid alternatives for pain and how to design clinical trials to speed up the development of new, safer non-opioid drugs for pain and addiction.
Gaps in Treating Addiction in Native American Communities
Chief Beverly Cook of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, speaking on behalf of the National Indian Health Board, called on the committee to make sure that tribal nations weren’t left out of funding for opioid addiction prevention and treatment.
“As the federal, state, and local governments are working together to ensure a coordinated, comprehensive response, tribal nations are frequently excluded from these efforts,” Cook said. “Failure to include tribal nations when seeking solutions to the opioid epidemic will result in major gaps in the ability of the United States to eradicate opioid addiction in this country.”
One of the proposed bills is the Tribal Addition Recovery Act. It would correct an error in the 21st Century Cures Act, which provided $1 billion in funding for two years to states and territories to combat the crisis, since tribes were not eligible to be funded, Cook said. Some states allocated CURES funds to tribes, but forcing tribes to go through the states for funding erodes tribal sovereignty, Cook said.
“Time and again, we have seen that when tribes are given funding directly, outcomes are better and funds are used more efficiently,” Cook said. “When state priorities are driving the programming decisions, the unique needs of tribal communities are often left out.”
Cook also called on Congress to provide funding, including Medicaid reimbursement, for traditional healing methods.
“Tribal communities have been healing their people for thousands of years, and these strategies are highly effective in the communities where they are employed and engaged,” Cook said. “Yet, it is often the case that traditional healing practices do not meet mainstream criteria for data collection under federal grants, which puts tribes at a disadvantage when applying for and administering federal programs. -
In Florida, Jeff Sessions talks opioids, death penalty for drug traffickers
Mar 22, 2018 | Tampa Bay Observer (FL)
By Lawrence Mower
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday called again for federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against drug traffickers who cause overdose deaths.
"These gangs murder people on whims sometimes, deliberately providing drugs that result in deaths," he said to a room of local, state and federal police in Tallahassee's federal courthouse. "We will not hesitate to bring a death penalty when it's appropriate."
His remarks come a day after he issued a memo to federal prosecutors reminding them that they should pursue capital punishment against some big-time drug traffickers, following orders from President Donald Trump.
"As President Trump has said, career drug traffickers can take more lives than even a mass murderer," Sessions said.
The memo prompted alarm and comparisons to strongmen like Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, whose brutal war on drugs has killed thousands. Trump has praised Duterte for doing an "unbelievable job" combating that country's drug crisis.
"He is proposing outrageous, dictatorship-style sentences like capital punishment for drug offenders," state Rep. Shevrin Jones, D-West Park, said in a statement before Sessions' remarks.
But death penalty cases against drug dealers are likely to be rare. In his memo, the Attorney General said prosecutors could seek the death penalty under the federal "kingpin statute," which applies to unusually large traffickers. A Justice Department official told CNN Wednesday that they have never used it to seek the death penalty.
However, Sessions reminded law enforcement officials that their local state attorneys can also seek the death penalty against drug dealers in Florida.
At least 16 people die a day in Florida because of opioids, according to estimates. Still, it's rare for federal or state prosecutors to pursue murder charges against drug dealers.
One reason why is that it's difficult for medical examiners to determine precisely how someone died — overdose victims are often found to have a variety of drugs in their system — and it's also hard to find who gave them the drugs in the first place.
Federal prosecutors in Florida have brought such charges against at least two drug dealers who were blamed for overdose deaths. One dealer, in Lakeland, is facing a life sentence, and another, in Palm Beach County, was given a 30-year sentence.
Sessions also used Thursday's stop, which was on the way to his home state of Alabama, to outline what federal authorities are doing to combat the crisis.
He said he was sending 250 Drug Enforcement Agency agents, dozens of analysts and a dozen specialized prosecutors to "hot spots" across the country to bring charges against traffickers, doctors and pharmacies. Those federal personnel would work with state and local police.
The Attorney General specifically mentioned sending a federal prosecutor to handle cases in the Orlando and Tampa Bay regions.
Sessions also said he was sending an "opioid coordinator" to every federal district in the country — there are three in Florida — and he emphasized using data from the newly created Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit to help alleviate the problem.
"(Let's) especially hit this fentanyl," he told police, referring to the exceptionally powerful opioid that has been linked to thousands of deaths across the country. "Let's trace it back to, Where's it coming from? Who are the higher-ups? Let's go after them."
Sessions also said he was considering suing opioid manufacturers and distributors. He said doctors are prescribing too many opioids, and he wanted the number of pills prescribed to drop by 30 percent over the next three years.
This year the Florida Legislature passed a bill limiting opioid prescriptions to 3 and 7 days for patients with short-term pain, matching recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sessions said Congress is spending billions to tackle the scourge of opioid abuse: "A lot of that will be treatment, prevention — not just law enforcement."
Despite the tough talk, Sessions at times seemed relaxed and jovial, cracking jokes about the University of Alabama (he got his law degree there in 1973) and Washington politics. He made no mention of his most recent trouble — news that the FBI had investigated him for perjury last year.
"It's great to be here, a little better climate," he said. "I'm talking about weather and politics in Washington, D.C. It's a rough bunch up there. I don't even have a dog in that forsaken place."
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Are Physicians The Key To Curbing The Opioid Crisis?
Mar 23, 2018 | The Fix
By Beth Leipholtz
The key to curbing the opioid crisis could lie in the very hands that write the prescriptions: the physicians.
While not all opioids are prescription painkillers, they are said to play a large role in the crisis. In fact, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) states that each day, about 40 people die due to prescription opioid overdoses.
A recent USA Today editorial highlights the issue, stating, “Far too many physicians haven't changed their prescribing habits, even in the face of government guidance, state restrictions, heavy news coverage and studies showing the advantages of other painkillers.”
The editorial outlined President Trump’s talking points from a recent speech he gave in New Hampshire. While the president’s thoughts on the idea of instituting the death penalty for some drug dealers garnered the most attention, he also spoke about preventing opioid use in the first place.
In his speech, Trump stated, “The best way to beat the drug crisis is to keep people from getting hooked on drugs to begin with.”
Additionally, Trump mentioned a specific goal for the coming years.
“We’re going to cut nationwide opioid prescriptions by one-third over the next three years,” he said in the speech. “We’re also going to make sure that virtually all prescriptions reimbursed by the federal government follow best practices for prescribing.”
As the editorial states, much of this starts with physicians. Unfortunately, the editorial board points out, not all physicians seem inclined to play a role in combating the crisis. In fact, some physicians—often those who prescribe large quantities of opioids—have been paid a great amount by opioid manufacturers for speaking and consulting.
“At the very least, shouldn’t money from manufacturers that originally marketed these drugs as non-addictive, and helped produce a generation of addicts, be considered off-limits?” the USA Today editorial board asks. “Shouldn’t doctors and their associations be embarrassed by such relationships and call for them to end?”
As for those physicians who believe prescribing opioids is in the best interest of a chronic pain patient, the editorial board points out that recent studies have proven that some over-the-counter pain relievers are as effective as opioids for certain chronic pain conditions.
Some states have taken the initiative to control the overprescription of opioids. According to USA Today, “Several states have passed laws limiting initial opioid prescriptions for acute pain to about a week.” Such states include New Jersey and Kentucky.
In the end though, it all comes back to where opioid access starts, says the board.
“Prescription opioids, dangerous in their own right, have become gateways to heroin, to illicit fentanyl and too often to death,” the editorial reads. “A top priority for any new strategy is to keep more people from walking through that door in the first place.”
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Why Greater Lafayette is filing lawsuits against opioid industry, and how they can succeed
Mar 23, 2018 | Journal & Courier (IN)
By Jeong Park
Recent headlines would suggest nearly every city, county and state is suing pharmaceutical companies and distributors for their roles in an opioid epidemic.
And it would be somewhat accurate.
Taft Stettinius & Hollister is representing more than 300 local and state government entities, including Tippecanoe County, in its lawsuits, said Manny Herceg, an attorney for the firm.
Indianapolis-based law firm Cohen & Malad is representing Lafayette, West Lafayette and dozens of cities and counties in the state. Other firms are representing dozens more government entities around the nation.
"Joining the lawsuits adds more strength," said West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis, who said on March 1 that the city plans to file its own lawsuit.
But will those lawsuits work? Even some of the firms aren't sure.
"There is no easy solution and no precedent for such an action," Taft Stettinius & Hollister and other firms told Tippecanoe County this month in their memorandum of understanding to represent the county in its lawsuit.
But the local government entities say they see no choice but to file those suits.
"A lawsuit is no more difficult than solving the problem itself," said Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski, whose city filed the lawsuit in November.
Where did it begin?
Purdue sociology professor Brian Kelly has studied prescription drug misuses, including opioids, for years.
"The seeds for what we have now were planted in the 1990s," Kelly said.
TV commercials for drugs took off in 1997 with the Food and Drug Administration relaxing its regulation. The ways doctors and patients looked at pain had also changed, Kelly said.
"Physicians were encouraged to think about pain more," Kelly said. "(And) patients were asking for those medications."
Taking prescription painkillers became more normalized. Spikes in heroin and other illicit drug usages followed.
Costs keep adding up
The epidemic did not spare Greater Lafayette. By earlier this decade, government entities began to recognize the full extent of the crisis. Overdose calls and emergency room visits added up. So did the number of drug-related arrests and the number of hepatitis C cases.
Roswarski estimated that the city's police department had to increase its budget by $5 million over the last five years mostly to deal with the epidemic's effects.
"It's a huge financial drain," he said.
Dennis said he can't put a number on how the epidemic has been affecting the city's budget. But from buying Narcan and protective gear to buying and training K-9 dogs, the costs add up, he said.
"We are combating an issue we have no control of," he said. "A lot of the cost is absorbed by the whole community."
Tippecanoe County hired more than a dozen public defenders last year. The county is considering an addition of a court and an expansion of its jail to handle the increases in inmates and caseload.
All of those costs have led local officials to consider something they hadn't done for decades: call for a new income tax. The 0.1 percent tax would fund public safety needs arising from the crisis.
The local officials are still in very early discussions about the new tax. The majority of three entities — Lafayette, West Lafayette and Tippecanoe County — has to agree for the tax to be enacted.
"Having a conversation... is worth having," Dennis said.
Roswarski said he thinks the city has been taking the correct initiatives to address the crisis. But the crisis will affect the city for years, he said, which is why he supports the idea of the tax.
"We are at a critical time," he said. "We are going to have to sustain (our efforts) for years to get to where we want."
But will the lawsuits succeed?
Lafayette's lawsuit filed in November has been consolidated with dozens of cases across the nation to the Northern District of Ohio and Judge Dan Aaron Polster.
It is expected that West Lafayette and Tippecanoe County's lawsuit, when filed, will join those cases.
Polster called for settlement discussions as soon as the consolidated lawsuits began in early January.
“About 150 Americans are going to die today, just today, while we’re meeting," Polster told the lawyers in the case.
Herceg said his firm hasn't had any settlement offers from the drug manufacturers or distributors.
Purdue Pharma, one of the pharmaceutical companies listed as the defendants, told the IndyStar in 2017 that it "vigorously denies these allegations." Purdue Pharma has no affiliation with Purdue University.
Healthcare Distribution Alliance, which represents pharmaceutical distributors including some targeted in the lawsuits, also challenged some of the claims made in the lawsuits.
"Given our role, the idea that distributors are responsible for the number of opioid prescriptions written defies common sense," said John Parker, the alliance's senior vice president, in a statement.
Parker told the J&C that the lawsuits show the lack of understanding in how the supply chain works.
"We are not clinicians. People don't want us to make clinical decisions," he said. "We are distributors. We are logistics experts."
Parker added, until recently, the Drug Enforcement Administration had approved significant increases in how much opioid the drug manufacturers could produce and had offered the distributors little guidance in how the drugs should be distributed.
"DEA is the only entity that has the full picture of the supply and demand, " said Jill Courtney, spokesperson for the alliance. "Distributors only know what they are shipping to a particular pharmacy."
Parker's claims about the DEA are part of why Kelly is skeptical of the lawsuits, although Kelly stressed that he is not a legal expert.
"We got multiple institutions that got involved in oversight of this (epidemic)," Kelly said. "It leads to diffusion of responsibility."
It's not just the pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors who are to blame for the epidemic, he said.
"This is a story of multi-institution failure," Kelly said. "There are multiple institutions that could have sound the alarm but didn't."
The lawsuits make other allegations that increase their chances of success, said Nicolas Terry, a professor at Indiana University's Maurer School of Law and the executive director of the Hall Center for Law and Health.
The defendants would have a higher chance of losing the lawsuits on the claim that they had ignored signs of suspiciously large orders or had exaggerated long-term benefits and minimized addictive risks of the drugs, Terry said.
Furthermore, Terry said the sheer magnitude of the lawsuits may encourage the distributors and manufacturers to settle.
"Even though the cases aren't the easiest to win, if you have this many plaintiffs and lawsuits that seem to be this well funded, that creates an extreme risk for pharmaceutical companies," Terry said. "I would be extremely surprised if this does not end in a settlement."
Terry expects the settlement to come sooner, perhaps by next year. But local officials are gearing up for a potentially longer fight.
"If it takes five or six years, so be it," Roswarski said.
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Martinsville files lawsuit against opioid manufacturers
Mar 23, 2018 | Indiana Daily Student (IN)
By Nyssa Kruse
The City of Martinsville announced this week it would sue multiple opioid manufacturers, joining a wave of similar lawsuits from across the country and state, including here in Bloomington.
Defendants in the suit include Purdue Pharma, Cephalon Inc., Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., Actavis Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Mallinckrodt PLC.
“The opioid epidemic did not happen by accident,” the city wrote in its lawsuit.
The city alleges the epidemic was caused by manufacturers using misleading marketing, encouraging doctors to prescribe opioids for long-term pain relief and downplaying the possible risks of prescribing opioids.
The opioid prescription rate in Morgan County, where Martinsville is located, hit 110.9 per 100 persons in 2016, significantly above the median rate for states, 82.5, according to the lawsuit.
The number of nonfatal opioid-related emergency visits has also steadily increased in Morgan County since 2011. In 2015, the city saw about 95 emergency visits per 100,000 people.
Bloomington and Monroe County joined a similar class-action lawsuit against opioid manufacturers in December 2017.
Like the Martinsville suit, the Bloomington lawsuit alleges false marketing by manufacturers, among other claims.
"In the past, the view of the medical profession toward opioids was the view that we all hold — they're dangerous and they're addictive," IU alumnus and Indianapolis attorney Richard Shevitz said to the IDS in 2017. "That medical approach left a very narrow market for these opioids ... opioids were not used for common back pain, workplace injuries, sports injuries and that kind of thing."
Hundreds of other state and local lawsuits have been filed across the country in recent months.
Many cases, including the lawsuit Bloomington joined, were consolidated in Ohio into a multidistrict litigation, which aims to simplify the process of resolving similar, complex cases by bringing them before one judge in one district.
In February, United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced an opioid task force and support for the Ohio litigation.
“We are also ordering the task force to examine existing state and local government lawsuits against opioid manufacturers to determine if we can be of assistance,” Sessions said.
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Strongsville Suing Opioid Manufacturers, Distributors
Mar 22, 2018 | Strongsville Patch (OH)
By Chris Mosby
The city of Strongsville is following the example of the state of Ohio and other communities in suing the manufacturers and distributors of prescription painkillers. Other communities with similar lawsuits include Cleveland, Brunswick and Parma.
"These companies have made substantial profits while fueling the prescription drug epidemic," Strongsville Law Director Neal Jamison said in a post on the city's website.
Like other lawsuits filed against the prescription pain killer drug makers, Strongsville's lawsuit will now seek a specific monetary compensation, leaving the sought after total unspecified. It says the compensation being sought is for cost
The city is hiring two law firms — Climaco, Wilcox, Peca & Garofoli, a Cleveland law firm, and Napoli Shkolnik, a professional limited liability company in New York – to pursue the lawsuit. However, Strongsville will not pay legal fees to the firms unless it wins the lawsuit and receives a monetary award. Then the attorneys would receive a percentage.
The city's online post did not say specifically which companies would be targeted. Instead, the city only said the lawsuit will "take aim at companies that have created "a public nuisance to the citizens of our community through their massive sales and distribution of millions of doses of highly addictive, commonly abuses prescription painkillers," according to Jamison.
Strongsville unveiled an initiative to stymie the flow of opioids into the city, and to help those battling addiction, during the summer of 2017. The city announced it would offer a "Safe Passages" initiative for individuals seeking assistance for addiction. Those people will be able to walk into the police station and ask for help.
The Ohio State Higway Patrol has also assumed primary enforcement and response duties along I-71. That allows Strongsville officers to concentrate on policing neighborhoods.
Finally, the city rolled out a Quick Response Team. Police, fire departments, and the Strongsville faith community will send a team of specialists to meet with overdose survivors and their families. The specialists will go over treatment options, referrals, recovery support and other options for people battling addiction.
Last month, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced the state of Ohio was filing a lawsuit against four opioid manufacturers: McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health and its subsidiaries, AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation and Miami-Luken, Inc.
The companies are specifically accused of oversupplying millions of prescription opioid pills in the state, some of which were diverted away from legal sales and into the hands of people battling addiction. DeWine wants the companies to pay punitive damages, as well as compensatory damages to the state for its increased spending on healthcare, criminal justice, social services and education. The lawsuit also wants the four companies to comply with reporting requirements for suspicious orders and to undertake more complete reporting to the DEA and the Ohio Board of Pharmacy, along with the Ohio Attorney General's Office.
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Stark County joins opioid lawsuit vs. drug companies
Mar 23, 2018 | The Alliance Review (OH)
By Robert Wang
Stark County intends to join cities and counties across the country that have filed federal lawsuits against drug companies, blaming them in part for the opioid crisis and tens of thousands of overdose deaths.
On Wednesday, Stark County commissioners approved an agreement between the county prosecutor and the law firms of Motley Rice in Mount Pleasant, S.C., and the Canton law firms Tzangas Plakas Mannos and the Ferrucio Law Firm along with Brenna Manna and Diamond in Akron.
County Prosecutor John Ferrero said his office doesn’t have the in-house attorneys and funds to hire experts to pursue a lawsuit. Under the agreement, the law firms get nothing if the county’s lawsuit isn’t successful.
The county would not have to pay any money. The attorneys would get 28 percent of any funds awarded to the county from a settlement. Of this money, Motley Rice, which is also representing other governments in the litigation, would get 62 percent, Brennan, Manna and Diamond would get 14 percent, Tzangas Plakas would get 14 percent and the Ferrucio Law Firm would get 10 percent. The firms also would advance the money to retain experts and cover other expenses and would be reimbursed from the settlement but that would be capped at half of any money recovered.
The county would file a federal lawsuit against several drug companies such as Perdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn.; Janssen Pharmaceuticals, whose parent company is in Belgium; Endo International in Malvern, Pa.; and Allergan PLC in Dublin, Ireland. The complaint, which would be drafted by the law firms, would claim that these companies and others marketed medications they knew were addictive that led to patients becoming addicted to opioid drugs like heroin and fentanyl. The companies have denied the allegations.
The county is expected to claim that the drug companies are liable for the immense cost county agencies such as the sheriff’s office, the coroner’s office, Stark County Common Pleas Court and the Stark County Department of Job and Family Services have expended to address the crisis.
In December, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated hundreds of similar lawsuits across the country into one case that’s being heard by U.S. District Judge Dan A. Polster in Cleveland. The New York Times reported earlier this month that the judge is aggressively seeking a universal settlement. Ferrero said he expects the county’s suit, once filed, would be consolidated with that case.
“I think Stark County, we need to get involved in this litigation,” Ferrero said in a presentation to commissioners. “This has been going on so long. I think we need to get involved in the lawsuit now.”
Common Pleas Judge Frank Forchione, who was at the meeting for a separate matter, told commissioners that if the county recovers money it should be spent on treatment options such as a holding facility with 20 to 30 beds. Judges could send addicts who are low-level offenders rather than have them take up beds in the county jail. He also said the money could be spent on transitional housing, like a halfway house, where addicts could live temporarily after completing treatment.
“The jail’s become a holding cell for heroin addicts. Because we, as judges, when we sentence them and try to get them into our treatment facility, if we let them go home, they’re going to overdose and kill themselves,” Forchione said. “So we’re holding them at the jail until we can find a (treatment) bed somewhere.”
He added that the commissioners should look into whether the former Affinity Hospital building in Massillon might be a possible site.
Ferrero said he could not predict how much money the county could recover. But he said the local law firms would assist the county in assessing the damages to the county that’s resulted from opioid abuse.
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AR Cities, Counties Unite to Sue Opioid Industry
Mar 22, 2018 | The Crime Report
By Staff
In what state officials described as unique among efforts to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for the opioid epidemic, 72 counties and 210 cities in Arkansas have banded together to file a single lawsuit against the drug industry.
The suit represents 90 percent of the state’s population, according to a statement released to the press Wednesday.
“Instead of fighting and competing with each other on critically needed settlement dollars for our cities and counties, all of the cities and counties are working together to do what’s best for Arkansas,” said Chris Villines, executive director of the Association of Arkansas Counties.
The lawsuit names 59 companies and six individuals, including Purdue Pharma, Cephalon, Endo, Janssen, and Teva Pharmaceuticals.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Arkansas ranks second in the nation for ages 12-17 in misuse of opioids—behind Alabama, which is also the only other state with a higher opioid-prescribing rate than Arkansas.
The number of fatal drug overdoses in the state has increased by 300 percent since 2000, according to the statement.
“Neither the state or any county or city is big enough alone; this litigation approach ensures that recovered damages remain in Arkansas,” said Don Zimmerman, executive director of the Arkansas Municipal League.
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Town of Man joins lawsuit against multiple drug distributors
Mar 23, 2018 | Williamson Daily News (WV)
By Nancy Peyton
The town of Man recently filed a lawsuit against multiple drug manufacturers and distributors in the U.S. District Court of Southern West Virginia, joining a wave of other municipalities that have recently alleged the defendants failed to follow state and federal law to prevent the distribution and abuse of prescription pain medication throughout the Mountain State.
Among the defendants are drug companies named in previous suits filed by other local governments in the state. The 17 listed in the suit from the town of Man include AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, Cardinal Health, McKesson Corporation, H.D. Smith Wholesale Drug Co., and The Harvard Drug Group.
The complaint states the town made the decision to file the suit in order to "eliminate the hazard to public health and safety, to abate the public nuisance caused by the opioid epidemic in Man, West Virginia, and to compensate The Town of Man for the damages sustained as a result of the opioid epidemic proximately caused by Defendants."
The town discussed the lawsuit during its council meeting Monday night. According to Mayor Jim Blevins, in recent weeks other towns involved in the suit have received letters from attorney Charles "Rusty" Webb about the litigation and requesting resolutions passed by councils about the topic.
Eleven other lawsuits against the manufacturers and distributors were filed last week from Quinwood, Rupert and Rainelle, all in Greenbrier County, Milton, Smithers, Sutton, Logan, Summersville and Parkersburg. The county commissions for Nicholas and Braxton counties also filed lawsuits in federal court.
Nationally about 200 lawsuits have been filed, alleging the wholesale distributors and others breached their duty to monitor, detect, investigate, refuse and report suspicious orders of prescription opiates coming into the states over the past several years - a duty the lawsuits claim companies have under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.
According to the complaint from Man, the defendants are known to have sold over 35.3 million doses of prescription opiates, namely hydrocodone and oxycodone, to pharmacies across Logan County between 2007 and 2012.
Together, the lawsuit states that West Virginia has an opioid pain reliever prescription rate of 137.6 per 100 people, ranking it third in the United States, which has a higher rate than any other country, and the state's benzodiazepine prescription rate of 71.9 per 100 people ranks first in the nation.
The town is being represented by Rusty Webb of Webb Law Centre in Charleston and John Hurst of Motley Rice in Morgantown, according to court records.
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Lewis County Considers Joining Lawsuit Against Opioid Makers
Mar 22, 2018 | The Chronicle (WA)
By Natalie Johnson
Lewis County is considering joining several Washington counties and cities following the state Attorney General’s Office’s lead in suing opioid drug manufacturers, accusing the companies of pushing doctors to overprescribe the drugs while downplaying their addictive nature.
“The manufacturers of controlled substances … they’re not just the maker, they’re also the marketer and they will go out and basically convince doctors to prescribe … and in some cases they overprescribe,” said Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer in a meeting with the Board of Lewis County Commissioners Tuesday.
Commissioner Bobby Jackson expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of suing drug manufacturers for the overprescribing of their drugs.
“When you started that conversation, you said this is a class action lawsuit against the manufacturer. What’s the endgame in that?” Jackson asked. “The manufacturer, or who’s writing prescriptions? If you limit it to manufacturers, that’s a pipe dream.”
Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who filed suit in September 2017 against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, explained at the time that the root of the lawsuit was the argument that the drug maker engaged in a “deceptive marketing campaign.”
Lewis County Civil Deputy Prosecutor Eric Eisenberg explained the strategy.
“There’s been national news coverage about lawsuits that were based on the idea that OxyContin was marketed as being not addictive, that there’s a line in the literature of the medication that suggested it was less addictive than other opiates,” he said. “The argument is that was wildly misrepresented.”
According to the AG’s Office, opioid prescriptions and sales increased 500 percent in Washington between 1997 and 2011, peaking in 2011 when 112 million daily doses were dispensed — which according to the AG’s Office is enough for a “16-day supply for every woman, man and child in Washington.”
Meanwhile, Purdue increased sales visits to doctors despite documented concerns about overprescribing, according to the AG’s Office.
Ferguson has asked for civil penalties, injunctive relief and damages and has asked the company to surrender its profits made in Washington.
In addition to the AG’s Office, Washington counties including King, Clallam, Pierce and Skagit and cities including Seattle and Everett have also filed suit against opioid manufacturers.
“Purdue ignored warning signs and their own studies while targeting high-prescribing doctors in Washington state,” Ferguson said in a statement in January. “It’s time they are held accountable for the devastation this epidemic has caused.”
Meyer said he was meeting with other counties’ representatives to research possible law firms Lewis County could use to join the suit.
“They all seem very happy,” he said. “ The good news is it’s basically a class action type of suit … so there’s no money out of pocket for us … I hope to have something by the next meeting.”
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McKee confident municipalities will gain in opioid suit
Mar 22, 2018 | Johnston Sunrise (RI)
By John Howell
Lt. Gov. Daniel McKee is confident that the more than 25 municipalities that have joined “hundreds” of municipalities across the country in a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical companies and distributors of opioids will receive payments, either as the result of a settlement or a judgment.
“Oh, yeah, they’re talking,” McKee said Wednesday when asked if there is any progress to report on the suit brought in January. “There’s no guarantee of a settlement,” he said, adding, “The fact of the matter is there’s going to be some settlement or judgment.”
McKee said manufacturers and distributors have a responsibility of tracking drug use trends and knew the impact of opioids.
“They’ve known for years that addiction levels are significantly higher than they said,” he said.
McKee said he was astounded to learn from Rhode Island attorney Eva Mancuso, who is coordinating the Rhode Island effort, that 70 out of 100 prescriptions written in the state are for opioids.
McKee has met with leaders from municipalities participating in the lawsuit. He said this is not a class action suit, and should there be a settlement or judgment any funds would not go to the state, as was the case with the tobacco settlement, or divided between select municipalities, as was the case with Google. Rather, he believes, the money would be going to the municipalities based on population and other factors.
Not all of McKee’s efforts in the fight against addiction are being directed in procuring resources for municipalities. He said more than 30 municipal leaders have already agreed to attend a meeting on March 28 where those working to address the opiod epidemic, including groups like the Boys and Girls Clubs that have made this an objective, will outline what they are doing. He said the lawsuit wouldn’t be discussed at that meeting.
The lawsuit has generated positive responses from municipal leaders who see firsthand what is happening in their communities.
“It’s going to be a national lawsuit in which Rhode Island will participate, and it files a lawsuit against the drug companies for the opioid overdoses,” said Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena. “Being a person who has done CPR on my own brother who I found with a drug and alcohol overdose, this is something that is important to me. Our youth and our citizenship is being destroyed by this epidemic, and I believe this is an epidemic.”
In a release issued after McKee announced the lawsuit, Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian outlined his motivation for joining the suit.
“In the last three years alone, 80 residents in my community lost their lives to overdoses. That’s 80 of our friends, neighbors and co-workers. It’s heartbreaking and it’s unacceptable,” he said. “As mayor, it’s my job to fight for the safety of every citizen.”
Avedisian also said through a release that he had created a city committee to discuss what could be done with any proceeds potentially to be won and distributed to the plaintiff communities.
“I have created a five-member committee chaired by Police Chief Colonel Stephen McCartney and my Chief of Staff Raymond Studley, the retired Lt. Colonel of the Rhode Island State Police; Captain Joseph Hopkins of the Warwick Police Department; Councilwoman Donna Travis, who has been a long-time leader of our Substance Abuse Task Force; and Patricia Seltzer, our community wellness nurse,” Avedisian said. “This diverse group of people brings knowledge from a variety of backgrounds, all of which have directly dealt with this crisis. I am confident that any funding we are able to obtain will be used wisely to help treatment and prevention of opioid misuse.”
McKee alleges that the manufacturing companies pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids, falsely representing to doctors that patients would only rarely succumb to drug addiction, while the distributors breached their legal duties to monitor, detect, investigate, refuse and report suspicious orders of prescription opioids.
Because prescription opioids are a highly addictive substance, in 1970 Congress designed a system to control the volume of opioid pills being distributed in this country. It let only a select few wholesalers gain the right to deliver opioids. In exchange, those companies agreed to halt suspicious orders and control against the diversion of dangerous drugs to illegitimate uses. But in recent years they failed to do that, the suit states, and today communities across Rhode Island are paying the price.
McKee and municipal leaders are working with a consortium of law firms to “hold pharmaceutical wholesale distributors accountable for failing to do what they were charged with doing under the federal Controlled Substances Act” – and monitor, identify and report suspicious activity in the size and frequency of opioid shipments to pharmacies and hospitals.
“As lieutenant governor and a former municipal leader, I am determined to do everything in my power to stop this epidemic from further destroying the lives of the people of Rhode Island. 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,” McKee said. “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.”
Rhode Islanders continue to bear the burden of the cost of the epidemic, as the costs of treatment for addiction, education and law enforcement have continued to rise. In 2016, 336 Rhode Islanders died from drug overdose deaths, the majority of which involved opioids.
“As municipal leaders, our job is to look out for the safety and wellbeing of the people who call our communities home,” said North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi. “While we bear the burden of this epidemic, multi-billion dollar companies are turning a profit and ignoring the crisis they caused. On behalf of all North Providence residents, I will do everything I can to hold these companies accountable.”
The wholesale drug distributors listed as defendants in the lawsuit include McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen Drug. The manufacturers listed as defendants in the lawsuit include Perdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and its subsidiary Cephalon, Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Endo Health Solutions, Allergan, Activis and Watson Pharmaceuticals.
Municipal leaders have hired expert law firms, experienced in holding the powerful pharmaceutical industry accountable. Those firms include the local law firm of Hamel, Waxler, Allen & Collins; Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Rafferty & Proctor; Baron & Budd; Greene Ketchum Bailey Farrell & Tweel; Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler; and McHugh Fuller Law Group.
Rhode Island joins a list of other states, including New York, California, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia filing suits against such manufacturers and distributors. Over 200 of these suits – referred to as multidistrict litigation – have been filed in these states thus far, according to U.S. News.
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Special Report With Bret Baier
Mar 22, 2018 | National Programming
By Fox News
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33774382?token=e7425e6f-2936-402b-b25f-b1561fee139b
Rough Transcript: tonight, an exclusive look behind the scenes at the national institutes of health. the agency has its hands full dealing with many issues, the lingering effects of obamacare, a heavier than normal flu season, and a growing opioid abuse crisis. this evening, my colleague bret baier talks with health and human services secretary alex azar about the opioid strategy. >> the president laid out a historic vision, funding, and first-ever benchmarks about what the goals for success are. first, prevention. we need to keep people from getting addicted in the first place. second, preventing the illicite supply of these illegal opioids and third, effective treatment for individuals who are trapped in the cycle of addiction and 6:29 PMhow we can help them get out of it and stay out of. >> it's a massive problem. the statistics are through the roof. >> it's shocking. 116 americans die every day as a result of opioidoverdose. >> every day. >> every single day. that's why we're approaching this as, frankly, a war campaign. you know, i was out in -- near the dayton area in ohio a couple of weeks ago. i met a young girl, 17 years old. her sister died of overdose, her mother died of overdose, her father died of overdose. the grandmother that she was put in the care of died of complications from opioid use. she is addicted. she is in recovery and thank god seven weeks clean and hoping to get her high school diploma next year. >> just shocking. >> multigenerational. impacts every community. >>bret: how much should we put on drug makers and how much responsibility falls across the board? >> there are elements of this across the board, across the medical profession, across our payment systems, just how we deal with pain and think about pain. absolutely, there's accountability and should be accountability there on anyone who conducted themselves improperly or illegally. we continue to work on this, so the attorney general, jeff sessions, recently filed what we call a statement of interest where the united states is joining in litigation being brought by state attorneys general against many manufacturers of these legal opioids. will be uncompromising if we determine unethical or improper conduct.
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Mar 23, 2018 | Wausau, WI
By WSAW (CBS)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33773850?token=e7425e6f-2936-402b-b25f-b1561fee139b
Rough Transcript: the menominee indian tribe of wisconsin files a lawsuit against major manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioid drugs, the complaint blames the companies for an opioid epidemic... claiming they minimized the addiction risk when marketing the drugs... and failed to follow federal prescription drug laws intended to prevent the diversion of prescription opioids and prevent their abuse. in a statment-- a tribal spokesperson said quote "our families in menominee know all too well what the realities of this crisis looks and feels like, and this action is needed to protect our tribal community from this epidemic." the drug companies have not yet responded.
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Mar 23, 2018 | Macon, GA
By WMAZ (CBS)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33773853?token=e7425e6f-2936-402b-b25f-b1561fee139b
Rough Transcript: another central georgia county is joing a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers... this week... we told you bibb county commissioners voted to join the lawsuit representeded by an athens law firm... now twiggs county says they will become part of that suit... the lawsuit targets more than 20 companies that manufacture and distribute opioids... the suit claims those companies misrepresented the drugs benefits... and their addictive risks. the law firm represents more than a dozen georgia counties that have agreed to join the lawsuit... and that it won't cost them anything unless the suit succeeds.
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5 News This Morning at 4:30 AM
Mar 23, 2018 | Ft. Smith, AR
By KFSM (CBS)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33773867?token=e7425e6f-2936-402b-b25f-b1561fee139b
Rough Transcript: an arkansas coalition files a lawsuit against 65 opiod makers and distributors. 5news reporter seth stephenson sits down with a woman who lost two relatives to addiction. police are also weighing in on what its like to see action against the opioid cris. robyn walters says two relatives of hers died because of an opioid addiction. she is surprised something like this lawsuit didnt happen sooner. robyn walters, lost family to opioid addiction 'i mean you can punish the people who are addicted but that doesnt solve the problem. i mean that is a part of the problem but it doesnt solve the problem.' a problem seen all over the state. prairie grove police officer jeff obrien 5:36 AMsays they see the addiction in many people with various backgrounds. he is just happy now to someone do something about it. capt. jeff obrien, prairie grove police department 'whether this is the answer, i dont know but someone is taking a step forward to do something about the addiction problem we all know is happening.' he adds this addiction has led to an uptick in petty crimes as people try to pay for their addiction. just recently the department had a case where a person claimed they fell... losing items from their purse. obrien 'and they were able to regather all of their belongings back into their purse but the only thing they are missing is those hydrocodones and those opioids, a large quantity of it that went missing and the only way their doctor is going to refill that medication is if they present a report showing that it has been lost or stolen.' an attempt that obrien says is used by many who are addicted and need more. as someone who lost loved ones to these drugs, walters says its about time these makers and distributers are held responsible. walters 'theyre basically legal drug dealers and they need to be held accountable for what they are doing and i would love to see the money from this lawsuit go towards prevention and maybe also for those who are addicted to get them some help.' 5:37 AMin washington county covering news where you live seth stephenson 5 news. laura- the lawsuit accuses drug manufacturers of using deceptive statements to market opioids.... and failing to disclose the known risks of long-term opioid use. laura- republican senator tom cotton of arkansas is pushing for stronger penalties for distribution and trafficking of fentanyl... cotton spoke alongside senators lindsey graham and john kennedy. he's stressing the need for a new approach that will also introduce new treatment and prevention options for addicts. the group stressed the drug's unique dangers. small quantities of fentanyl can be deadly. cotton compared it to a weapon of mass destruction. :46-1:01 "there was a 100-l bust of fentanyl in new jersey. by some estimates, that could kill 18 million people. more fatalities than any nuclear weapon known to man - and the drug dealer only got 6 years. laura- the proposed legislation would increase mandatory minimums and impliment new border security measures. it's an effort to make the drug harder to get into the united states.
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Mar 23, 2018 | Hartford & New Haven, CT
By N12CT (News 12)
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/33774388?token=e7425e6f-2936-402b-b25f-b1561fee139b
Rough Transcript: calls for the justice department to support the fight against opioids is coming from mayor ganim and senator blumenthal. they're urging the trump administration to join the lawsuit against opioid manufacturers that is being pursued by cities and states. senator blumenthal says that he will work to further a collaborative effort between states and the federal government on the issue.
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