Preview Newsletter
Opioid Litigation Daily Media Report - 4/12/18
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Opioid MDL Judge Sets Litigation Plan, Bashes DEA
Apr 11, 2018 | Law360
By Jeff Overley and Emily Field
The Ohio federal judge supervising multidistrict litigation over the opioid crisis created a detailed briefing and trial plan Wednesday and hammered the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for resisting disclosure of data about opioid transactions. -
U.S. judge schedules 2019 trial in opioid litigation
Apr 11, 2018 | Reuters
By Nate Raymond
A federal judge pushing for a settlement in lawsuits seeking to hold drug companies responsible for their roles in the U.S. opioid epidemic on Wednesday set an aggressive schedule that would have the first trial take place in March 2019. -
GOP rep grills Zuckerberg on opioid sales on Facebook
Apr 11, 2018 | The Hill
By Julia Manchester
Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) grilled Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday over opioid dealers using the social media giant to distribute drugs, saying the platform was hurting its users. -
Mark Zuckerberg takes heat over illegal opioid sales on Facebook
Apr 11, 2018 | CNN Money
By Sara Ashley O'Brien
Rep. David McKinley, a Republican from West Virginia, was one of those who pressed Zuckerberg on why Facebook hasn't done more to remove posts from sellers offering illicit opioids. -
Facebook is 'enabling' illegal opioid sales, says GOP lawmaker
Apr 11, 2018 | Washington Examiner (DC)
By Pete Kasperowicz
Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., charged Wednesday that Facebook is making the nation's opioid addiction worse in the U.S. by allowing online pharmacies to sell drugs illegally on the social media site. -
McKinley rips into Zuckerberg over on-line pharmacy ads
Apr 11, 2018 | Metro News (WV)
By Staff
Members of West Virginia’s Congressional Delegation took their turns raising questions with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week. As members of the United States Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees grilled Zuckerberg in the Senate on Tuesday, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) used her turn to raise issue about Facebook’s connection to the opioid crises. -
Democrat worries House panel moving too fast on opioid bills
Apr 11, 2018 | Washington Examiner (DC)
By Robert King
Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., questioned the blistering pace of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s consideration of more than 50 opioid bills Wednesday. -
In opioid epidemic, some cities strain to afford OD antidote
Apr 12, 2018 | Associated Press
By David McFadden
On a Baltimore street corner, public health workers hand out a life-saving overdose antidote to residents painfully familiar with the ravages of America’s opioid epidemic. But the training wraps up quickly; all the naloxone inhalers are claimed within 20 minutes. -
Why doctors don’t use alternatives to opioids (Opinion)
Apr 12, 2018 | The Washington Post
By Keith Humphreys
As Congress deliberates how to respond to the surging opioid epidemic, a number of bills have been introduced to support the development and FDA approval of a non-opioid pain medication. But the problem in American medicine is not a lack of alternatives to opioids, but the minimal utilization of the many non-opioid treatments for pain that already exist. -
If you want to kill drug dealers, start with the big pharma (Opinion)
Apr 12, 2018 | Xenia Daily Gazette (OH)
By Domenica Ghanem
Big corporations, not street dealers, are the true authors and profiteers of the opioid crisis. -
Capito, Ohio senator introduce bill to address opioid-caused workforce shortage
Apr 11, 2018 | WV News (WV)
By Michael Lemley
Legislation was introduced into the U.S. Senate Wednesday that aims to address a workforce shortage that has been caused by the opioid epidemic. -
Selectmen Reject Participation In Opioid Lawsuit
Apr 11, 2018 | Cape Cod Chronicle (MA)
By William F. Galvin
On a 3-2 vote, selectmen on Monday night decided not to participate in a lawsuit that alleges pharmaceutical companies are responsible for the opioid epidemic and caused additional expenses to municipalities across the nation. -
Eastham Joins Opioid Litigation
Apr 12, 2018 | CapeCod.com (MA)
By Staff
After hearing from the town’s attorney and police chief, Eastham’s board of selectmen voted to join a statewide lawsuit related to the opioid crisis that targets certain pharmaceutical companies. -
Delaware's Hansen looks to the opioid source to fund addiction recovery
Apr 12, 2018 | Courier Express (DE)
By Amy Cherry
Combating the opioid epidemic takes cash, and one state lawmaker is proposing a new way to get some by looking to the source. -
CT opioid lawsuits advancing in face of settlement effort
Apr 12, 2018 | The CT Mirror (CT)
By Ana Radelat
Nearly two dozen Connecticut cities and towns are scheduled to soon confront Purdue Phama and other opioid makers in court over what they say are the pharmaceuticals’ deceptive practices. -
Woonsocket may join lawsuit against drug companies in opioid epidemic
Apr 11, 2018 | The Valley Breeze (RI)
By Laura Clem
More people die of drug overdoses in this city than in any other Rhode Island community. -
Cleveland, Cuyahoga County's opioid lawsuits set as first cases against drug companies to go to trial, judge says
Apr 11, 2018 | Cleveland.com (OH)
By Eric Heisig
A federal judge in Cleveland on Wednesday set a trial date for next year for three lawsuits filed by Northeast Ohio governments against drug companies over the nation's opioid epidemic. -
County to Sue Pharma Manufacturers Over Opiods
Apr 12, 2018 | Madison 365 (WI)
By Staff
Earlier this week, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and the Dane County Board of Supervisors announced that Dane County has hired a team of attorneys to assist the County in filing a federal lawsuit against the pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and wholesale drug distributors for their role in causing and fueling the opioid epidemic in the Dane County community. -
Our Opinion: Latest move in Hoosier opioid battle (Opinion)
Apr 12, 2018 | South Bend Tribune (IN)
By Editorial Board
Of all the steps taken by state and local governments to rein in Indiana’s growing opioid crisis, the steps being taken by local physicians since 2012 may be most important. -
Navajo Nation latest to sue over opioid epidemic in US
Apr 11, 2018 | Associated Press
By Staff
One of the country's largest American Indian tribes is the latest to sue pharmaceutical companies and drug distributors, alleging their conduct caused the opioid crisis. -
Navajo Nation lawsuit blames opioid makers for overdose deaths, addiction
Apr 11, 2018 | AZCentral (AZ)
By Ken Alltucker
The Navajo Nation on Tuesday filed a sweeping federal lawsuit against opioid makers, distributors and pharmacies for their role in an epidemic blamed for a surge in overdose deaths and addiction. -
Navajo Nation Is Latest To Sue Pharma Cos. Over Opioids
Apr 11, 2018 | Law360
By Adam Lidgett
The Navajo Nation on Wednesday hit a host of drug distributors, manufacturers and pharmacies with a federal lawsuit accusing the companies of causing the opioid crisis, the latest case in a string of lawsuits over the epidemic. -
Kauai County's
Apr 12, 2018 | KITV (HI)
By Eliza Larson
Major corporations like Purdue Pharma, Johnson and Johnson, and McKesson Corporation are going to court. Kauai County is suing them for supplying and advertising opioid pain medications. It's planning to give the money it hopes to win back to police and fire, drug rehab services and similar programs, as well as city parks and recreation. -
Kauai: County Will Sue Big Drug Companies Over Opioid Crisis
Apr 11, 2018 | Honolulu Civil Beat
By Alla Parachini
Kauai’s County Council voted Wednesday to sue the prescription drug industry for alleged liability for the opioid epidemic, choosing to litigate the issue on its own and not wait for the state of Hawaii. The county doesn’t trust the state to share any settlement money equitably. -
Whatcom is suing these drug makers, saying they should help bear the cost of the opioid crisis
Apr 12, 2018 | Bellingham Herald (WA)
By Kie Relyea
Whatcom County is joining a widening legal fight against makers and wholesalers of prescription opioids, saying they have contributed to a public health crisis. -
Eyewitness News Today
Apr 12, 2018 | Albuquerque, NM
By KOB (NBC)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177664?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1 -
KRQE News 13 This Morning
Apr 12, 2018 | Albuquerque, NM
By KRQE (CBS)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177647?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1 -
Fast Money Halftime Report
Apr 11, 2018 | CNBC
By CNBC
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34168555?token=28fa11ea-703f-4b2d-a7ca-3b4773c36a6b -
CBS 8 News at Noon
Apr 11, 2018 | Montgomery, AL
By WAKA (CBS)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177597?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1 -
Fox 13 News Live at Eleven
Apr 11, 2018 | Salt Lake City, UT
By KTSU (Fox)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177601?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1 -
3TV News at 9PM
Apr 12, 2018 | Phoenix, AZ
By KTVK (KTVK)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177687?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1 -
KITV Island News at 5:00
Apr 11, 2018 | Honolulu, HI
By KITV (ABC)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177740?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1 -
WPBF 25 News at 5:00 PM
Apr 11, 2018 | West Palm Beach, FL
By WPBF (ABC)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177802?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1 -
Denver 7 News at 11AM
Apr 11, 2018 | Denver, CO
By KMGH (ABC)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177812?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1 -
CBS 13 News at Noon
Apr 11, 2018 | Portland, ME
By WGME (CBS)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177828?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1
MDL
Facebook Hearing Opioid Mentions
Commentary & FYIs
Northeast (MA, DE, CT, RI)
Midwest (OH, WI, IN)
Southwest (AZ)
West (HI, WA)
Broadcast Media Coverage
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Opioid MDL Judge Sets Litigation Plan, Bashes DEA
Apr 11, 2018 | Law360
By Jeff Overley and Emily Field
The Ohio federal judge supervising multidistrict litigation over the opioid crisis created a detailed briefing and trial plan Wednesday and hammered the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for resisting disclosure of data about opioid transactions.
U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster made the moves in a pair of orders. One order laid out timelines for an active litigation phase that is intended to resolve thorny legal issues and facilitate settlement of the massive case. The other order used striking language in directing the DEA to cough up extensive information about opioid sales.
In the litigation order, Judge Polster consolidated three lawsuits brought against drug companies by Ohio local governments — including the city of Cleveland — and scheduled them for a three-week bellwether trial starting March 18, 2019.
In keeping with his repeated statements about avoiding a drawn-out MDL, Judge Polster said Wednesday he “does not intend to move the trial date” even if discovery takes longer than currently planned.
Attorneys for local governments hailed the timeline on Wednesday.
“This is a defendant's worst nightmare, having a short trial date,” Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik PLLC, a plaintiffs' attorney in the MDL, told Law360 on Wednesday. “They bask in delayed discovery that goes on for years.”
Paul J. Hanly Jr. of Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC, a lead plaintiffs' attorney in the MDL, added: “We’re very pleased because trial dates tend to force settlement — that’s a truism in our world.”
Attorneys for drug manufacturers and distributors in the MDL could not immediately be reached for comment.
In the litigation order, Judge Polster also created schedules for amended complaints and motions to dismiss in other cases brought by local governments in Ohio, West Virginia, Illinois, Michigan and Florida. He did the same for a suit filed by Alabama, and said that schedules will be issued later for suits filed by Native American tribes, hospitals and third-party payors, such as union benefit plans.
After Judge Polster rules on motions in those cases, they could be shipped to other courts for trials. But it’s also possible that rulings on motions to dismiss will make settlements more likely by resolving disputes about how various laws apply to allegations of reckless opioid sales.
In a separate order Wednesday, Judge Polster ordered the DEA to give the plaintiffs voluminous information about opioid sales and suspicious orders from 2006 to 2014 in Ohio, West Virginia, Illinois, Michigan, Florida and Alabama.
The DEA has been reluctant to divulge certain information, saying it could jeopardize corporate trade secrets and compromise law enforcement investigations. But Judge Polster said Wednesday that the agency’s objections “are not well-taken” and that its "bases for refusal to produce the requested data are arbitrary and capricious." The judge even noted that the “plaintiffs assert that part of the reason for the opioid epidemic is lack of law enforcement.”
Strikingly, Judge Polster wrote that “there is overwhelming need for the plaintiffs in this case to learn the truth surrounding marketing and distribution of opioids, including what the manufacturers, distributors, retailers and DEA knew and when they knew it.”
Judge Polster also said the information would reveal “what, if anything, the DEA kept, intentionally or unintentionally, from the states, counties and cities that have filed the MDL lawsuits.”
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, which represents the DEA, could not immediately be reached for comment.
In an interview, Hanly said the plaintiffs are “very supportive” of the DEA, but that the agency has not always been fully aboveboard.
“DEA has tended to be very lacking in transparency in what data they have,” Hanly said, “and what the judge has made clear is there is going to be complete transparency here.”
The transparency, Hanly added, will give the plaintiffs "a clearer picture" of when and where painkillers were sold.
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. -
U.S. judge schedules 2019 trial in opioid litigation
Apr 11, 2018 | Reuters
By Nate Raymond
A federal judge pushing for a settlement in lawsuits seeking to hold drug companies responsible for their roles in the U.S. opioid epidemic on Wednesday set an aggressive schedule that would have the first trial take place in March 2019.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland, Ohio picked three lawsuits by municipalities and counties in the state to be the first cases against drug manufacturers and distributors to face a jury in the sprawling litigation.
The lawsuits accuse the drugmakers of deceptively marketing opioids and allege that drug distributors ignored red flags indicating the painkillers were being diverted for improper uses.
In 2016, 42,000 people died from opioid overdoses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The defendants include opioid manufacturers Purdue Pharma LP, Johnson & Johnson , Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and Endo International Plc and drug distributors AmerisourceBergen Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and McKesson Corp. They have denied wrongdoing.
Polster, who is overseeing at least 433 lawsuits largely by cities and counties, has been pushing for a global settlement and has invited state attorneys general with state court cases or probes not before him to participate in those talks.
But roadblocks have emerged, and Polster in a ruling on Wednesday said the companies have “asserted forcefully that they cannot reach final settlement without litigating certain matters.”
He said his scheduling order was intended to “address this impediment.”
The March 18, 2019 trial date will put the Ohio cases ahead of a May 2019 trial previously scheduled in a lawsuit by Oklahoma’s attorney general in state court. The four drugmakers in that case had sought a 2020 date.
“Getting the cases to trial accelerates an outcome of some sort,” said Archie Lamb, a lawyer for some of the plaintiffs.
Polster said additional trials would be scheduled in lawsuits by local governments in West Virginia, Illinois, Alabama, Michigan and Florida.
The cases were picked for 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.
To help the plaintiffs, Polster on Wednesday also ordered the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration turn over “critical” data that would allow them to assess to what extent the companies sold or distributed drugs in the six states at issue.
The U.S. Justice Department had no immediate comment. Various defendants also did not respond to requests for comment.
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GOP rep grills Zuckerberg on opioid sales on Facebook
Apr 11, 2018 | The Hill
By Julia Manchester
Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) grilled Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday over opioid dealers using the social media giant to distribute drugs, saying the platform was hurting its users.
"Your platform is still being used to circumvent the law, and allow people to buy highly addictive drugs without a prescription," McKinley told Zuckerberg during the tech leader's second day of testimony on Capitol Hill.
"With all due respect, Facebook is actually enabling an illegal activity and, in so doing, you are hurting people. Would you agree with that statement?" the congressman asked.
"I think that there are a number of areas of content that we need to do a better job policing on our service," Zuckerberg replied.
"Today the primary way that content regulation works here ... is that people can share what they want on the service, and then if someone sees an issue they flag it to us, and then we will review it," he continued.
McKinley went on to ask Zuckerberg why Facebook had not taken down posts for opioid markets on the website.
"When are you going to take down these posts that are done with illegal, digital pharmacies?" the congressman said.
"Right now when people report the posts to us, we will take them down and have people review," Zuckerberg said.
"I agree that this is a terrible issue, and respectfully, when there are tens of billion pieces of content that are shared every day, even 20,000 people reviewing it can't look at everything," he continued.
The exchange comes a week after Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb called on social media platforms to eliminate the online opioid trade.
“We find offers to purchase opioids all over social media and the Internet, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Google, Yahoo, and Bing,” Gottlieb said. “But when it comes to opioids, we haven’t seen meaningful, voluntary actions.”
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Mark Zuckerberg takes heat over illegal opioid sales on Facebook
Apr 11, 2018 | CNN Money
By Sara Ashley O'Brien
Rep. David McKinley, a Republican from West Virginia, was one of those who pressed Zuckerberg on why Facebook hasn't done more to remove posts from sellers offering illicit opioids.
"Your platform is still being used to circumvent the law and allow people to buy highly addictive drugs without a prescription. With all due respect, Facebook is actually enabling an illegal activity and in so doing, you are hurting people. You'd agree with that statement?" he asked.
Critics have called out tech companies for not doing enough to crack down on illicit drug sales on their platforms. The issue isn't exactly new. In 2011, Google agreed to pay $500 million to the Department of Justice for showing prescription drug ads from Canadian online pharmacies to U.S. consumers. It stopped the practice in 2009 once it became aware of an investigation by a U.S. Attorney's office.
But sellers are still finding ways of posting about drug sales on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, which critics have accused of being reactive, largely waiting for activists, or the press, to surface issues and help police their platforms.
Content removal across tech platforms has largely been a game of whack-a-mole. Just last week, one woman, Eileen Carey, pushed a Facebook executive to remove "#Oxycontin," among other terms, from Instagram, the photo sharing app owned by Facebook. Carey told CNN that she reached out directly to the exec after failed attempts at flagging the content within the Instagram platform.
Responding to McKinley, Zuckerberg circled the issue by talking about how the company needs to build more artificial intelligence tools. For now, he said, the company largely relies on its security and content reviewers to take down posts that are flagged by users. He has said that it will have 20,000 people in those roles by the end of the year.
"What we need to do is build more A.I. tools that can proactively find that content," Zuckerberg said.
McKinley held Zuckberg's feet to the fire: "You know that they're up there, where's your accountability?"
Zuckberg said that even 20,000 people can't look at all the content on the platform.
Some of the posts McKinley flagged to Facebook have already been taken down.
"Their internal controls don't seem to be adequate ... something should have picked up [posts like these] long before," McKinley told CNN in a call after the hearing on Wednesday afternoon. He said he has been tracking the issue for months and "waiting for an opportunity to talk to Facebook."
At other points in his congressional testimony, Zuckerberg claimed that Facebook has AI systems that can identify and take down 99% of ISIS content before people even see it.
Zuckerberg didn't provide any timeline for when similar tools might be rolled out to help with identifying drug sales on its platforms.
Meanwhile, overdose deaths from prescription and illicit opioids have doubled over the past six years alone -- from 21,089 deaths across the nation in 2010 to 42,249 in 2016.
Rep. John Carter, a Republican from Texas, also brought up the opioid epidemic in questioning Zuckerberg, asking him whether he was aware of various statistics related to the scale of the issue.
Zuckerberg has mused on the gravity of the issue before.
Five months ago, he said that the "biggest surprise" during his recent travels around the US was seeing the "extent of opioid issues."
Last week, FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb specifically called out tech outlets like Facebook and Instagram for not "taking practical steps to find and remove these illegal opioid listings."
Zuckerberg said he wasn't "specifically aware" of Gottlieb's comments, "but I heard he said something."
When Carter mentioned that Gottlieb was planning to meet with tech representatives on the issue, Zuckerberg said: "I will be sure that someone is there."
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Facebook is 'enabling' illegal opioid sales, says GOP lawmaker
Apr 11, 2018 | Washington Examiner (DC)
By Pete Kasperowicz
Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., charged Wednesday that Facebook is making the nation's opioid addiction worse in the U.S. by allowing online pharmacies to sell drugs illegally on the social media site.
At a House committee hearing, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said "of course" it should be illegal for online pharmacies to sell opioids without a prescription. But McKinley said it happens all the time on Facebook.
"Opioids are still available on your site ... without a prescription on your site," McKinley said. "It contradicts what you just said just a minute ago."
"Your platform is still being used to circumvent the law, and allow people to buy highly addictive drugs without a prescription," he added. "With all due respect, Facebook is actually enabling an illegal activity, and in so doing, you are hurting people."
Zuckerberg replied that Facebook needs to do a "better job" policing the content that goes up on the social media site. But McKinley said as of now, Zuckerberg isn't fulfilling the promise he made to take these sites down.
"You said you before you were going to take down those ads, but you didn't do it," he said. "When are you going to take down these posts done with illegal digital pharmacies?"
Zuckerberg explained that objectionable posts are removed once they are flagged, but admitted it's not always easy to police all of the content that goes up.
"I agree this is a terrible issue, and respectfully, when there are tens of billions or 100 billion pieces of content that are shared every day, even 20,000 people reviewing it can't look at everything," he said. "What we need to do is build more AI tools that can proactively find that content."
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McKinley rips into Zuckerberg over on-line pharmacy ads
Apr 11, 2018 | Metro News (WV)
By Staff
Members of West Virginia’s Congressional Delegation took their turns raising questions with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week. As members of the United States Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees grilled Zuckerberg in the Senate on Tuesday, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) used her turn to raise issue about Facebook’s connection to the opioid crises.
Capito sought information about Facebook privacy policies, but also took the opportunity to get Zuckerberg to commit to partnering with the FDA in an effort to cripple the sales of Fentanyl and other opioid drugs over social media and the Internet.
“I know you have policies against this. The commissioner is announcing his intention to convene a meeting of Chief Executives and senior leaders and can I get a commitment from you that Facebook will have a representative with Commissioner Gotlieb at his meeting?’ Capito asked.
“Senator that sounds like an important initiative and we will send someone,” said Zuckerberg.
But Wednesday, during Zuckerberg’s appearance before the House committees, Congressman David McKinley (R-WV 1)was far less diplomatic.
“There are 35,000 on-line pharmacies and the FDA thinks 96 percent of them are operating illegally,” said McKinley as he showed pictures of Facebook ads for on-line pharmacies. “November of last year CNBC had an article saying you were surprised by the breadth of this opioid crises, but as you can see from these pictures opioids are still available on your site.”
Zuckerberg offered no answer to McKinley’s criticism other than to agree Facebook needed to do a better job at policing some of the content on its service, but McKinley wasn’t done.
“We’ve got statement after statement about how you’re going to take those things down in days,” said McKinley. “That picture was from yesterday and it’s still up. My question to you is when are you going to take down these posts on illegal, digital pharmacies? When are you going to take them down?”
Currently if somebody has a concern about content they have seen on Facebook, they can report it and the content will be reviewed by the Facebook team. McKinley argued it should not be up to Facebook users to report illegal activity, and put the responsibility for policing illegal content on Zuckerberg and his staff.
“Congressman, I agree this is a terrible issue,” Zuckerberg countered, “Respectfully when there are a hundred billion pieces of content shared every day, even 20,000 people reviewing it can’t look at everything.”
Capito, during her questioning also thanked Zuckerberg for his visit the Mountain State and offered an off-hand suggestion.
“The next time you visit please bring some fiber, because we don’t have connectivity in our rural areas like we need,” said the Senator.
Although Capito’s remark about connectivity was aside from the point she was making–it drew Zuckerberg’s attention.
“On your point about connectivity, we do have a group at Facebook working on trying to spread Internet connectivity in rural areas and we’d be very happy to follow up with you,” Zuckerberg told Capito. “That’s something I’m very passionate about.”
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Democrat worries House panel moving too fast on opioid bills
Apr 11, 2018 | Washington Examiner (DC)
By Robert King
Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., questioned the blistering pace of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s consideration of more than 50 opioid bills Wednesday.
“I am concerned that the sheer quantity of bills and the chairman’s ambitious timeframe will not give us enough time to get these policies right,” said Pallone, the committee’s top Democrat.
Pallone spoke before the third legislative hearing of the health subcommittee on opioid legislation. The hearing focused on more than 30 bills aimed at reforming Medicare and Medicaid to combat the opioid epidemic.
Pallone said most of the bills don’t include technical assistance or a score from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. He added that the committee hasn’t looked at the vast majority of the more than 30 bills being considered at the legislative hearing Wednesday.
“At times to me this process feels more like an opioids media blitz than a thoughtful discussion of our national crisis,” Pallone said.
Nevertheless, Pallone praised some of the legislation, and added, “Many of the proposals have merit."
Over the last few months, the committee has looked at more than 50 bills that take on different facets of the opioid epidemic that killed more than 64,000 Americans in 2016. Some of the bills deal with expanding treatment options while others seek to bolster enforcement tools.
House Energy and Commerce leaders hope to get all of the bills through the House through the Memorial Day recess. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is also considering major legislation to tackle the epidemic.
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In opioid epidemic, some cities strain to afford OD antidote
Apr 12, 2018 | Associated Press
By David McFadden
On a Baltimore street corner, public health workers hand out a life-saving overdose antidote to residents painfully familiar with the ravages of America’s opioid epidemic. But the training wraps up quickly; all the naloxone inhalers are claimed within 20 minutes.
“We could’ve easily handed out hundreds of doses today. But we only had 24 kits. That goes fast,” said Kelleigh Eastman, a health department worker assisting the city’s bluntly dubbed “Don’t Die” anti-overdose campaign.
Cities like Baltimore are feeling the financial squeeze as they rely on naloxone to try and counteract rising overdose rates. Some hard-hit communities across the country are struggling to pay for dosages even at reduced prices.
With more overdoses driven by synthetic opioids like fentanyl and carfentanil — so potent it’s used as an elephant tranquilizer — naloxone remains pricy enough that Baltimore’s health department is rationing supplies, stretching a dwindling stockpile of inhalers. Last year, the city distributed more than 25,000 doses, up from about 19,000 in 2016.
“Every week, we count the doses we have left and make hard decisions about who will receive the medication and who will have to go without,” said Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, who issued the city’s innovative blanket prescription for the drug in 2015.
Numerous states have since passed laws — including bypassing prescription requirements and establishing community training programs — aimed at expanding use of the medication that restores a person’s breathing while temporarily blocking the brain’s opioid receptors.
“It’s a bit of a pressure-cooker environment for Baltimore but also places in many other states that have been on the front lines of the overdose crisis and where the toll keeps rising. The challenge, on a structural level, is that there’s no clear sustainable funding source for naloxone,” according to Daniel Raymond, policy director for the National Harm Reduction Coalition.
In Charleston, West Virginia, the health department reported Monday that it has only 159 doses remaining, most allocated for community classes in coming days. Kanawha-Charlestown Health Department spokesman John Law said they’ve requested more naloxone auto-injectors from the company that’s donated to them in the past “but we have had no response.”
Last week, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams issued the office’s first national public health advisory in 13 years, calling on more Americans to start carrying naloxone and urging more federal funds be dedicated to increasing local antidote access.
“Costs should not and, in the near future, will not be a barrier to accessing naloxone for anyone in America,” Adams pledged.
A two-dose carton of Narcan — a brand name for naloxone inhalers — has list prices of about $125. First responders and community organizations can purchase Narcan at discounts of $75 per two-dose carton, according to manufacturer Adapt Pharma. The Evzio auto-injector from Virginia-based drugmaker Kaleo currently has list prices of roughly $3,800 for a box with two doses, up from about $690 in 2014.
The surgeon general’s advisory was welcome in Philadelphia, where health officials have debated internally whether “rationing” accurately describes their naloxone situation. The city has one of the highest opioid death rates of any large U.S. metropolis and distributed 25,000 doses from July through December last year.
“Given the tremendous scope of the opioid epidemic and (our) anticipated 1,200 overdoses deaths in 2017, easier — and cheaper — access to naloxone for the general public and public safety agencies has the potential to save hundreds of lives,” Philadelphia Health Department spokesman James Garrow said.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. Growing anecdotal evidence shows that multiple naloxone doses are needed to reverse an overdose caused by synthetic opioids — more than the single dose to reverse a heroin overdose.
Baltimore Fire Deputy Chief Mark Fletcher said first responders have found it takes “two doses or maybe even three doses” to restore respiration if a person used heroin laced with fentanyl or carfentanil.
It’s not yet clear how naloxone saturation is affecting overdose deaths overall. One 2017 study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that laws boosting naloxone access are linked to as much as an 11 percent drop in fatalities.
In a gritty Baltimore neighborhood, Shane Shortt, who is addicted to heroin, said he’s been able to revive five drug companions with Narcan over the past year and swears he never goes anyplace without an inhaler.
“You never know when you’re going to have to use it. It was actually used on me like last week,” Shortt said outside a Baltimore needle-exchange van where about a dozen people showing the ravages of long-term drug use lined up with a few younger people.
An addictions and recovery expert with the National Council for Behavioral Health, Tom Hill, said the bottom line is naloxone is just about “all we have” to battle overdoses.
“Anything to lower the costs of a life-saving drug is a very welcome thing,” he said from Washington.
Wen, who is among the many officials calling on the Trump administration to directly negotiate the price of naloxone with manufacturers, was more blunt: “We are in the middle of a national epidemic. We should not be priced out of the ability to save lives.”
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Why doctors don’t use alternatives to opioids (Opinion)
Apr 12, 2018 | The Washington Post
By Keith Humphreys
As Congress deliberates how to respond to the surging opioid epidemic, a number of bills have been introduced to support the development and FDA approval of a non-opioid pain medication. But the problem in American medicine is not a lack of alternatives to opioids, but the minimal utilization of the many non-opioid treatments for pain that already exist.
Over 200 medications other than opioids have evidence of benefit in at least some pain conditions. These range from the familiar (ibuprofen) to the surprising (gabapentin, an anti-seizure medication, that is FDA-approved for certain types of nerve-related pain). Yet most physicians are not aware how many medications other than opioids have strong evidence of relieving pain.
Beyond medications, many psychological and behavioral interventions have substantial ability to reduce pain and improve function. Yet treatments such as physical therapy, cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, and yoga are prescribed far less commonly than opioids.
Why do so few doctors recommend non-opioid pain treatments to patients? Opioid manufacturers’ ruthlessly effective (and in some cases, fraudulent) marketing has played a role, convincing many physicians to reflexively reach for the opioid prescription pad when confronted with pain. But other factors are also at play. Stanford University psychologist Beth Darnall, the author of multiple books on psychological approaches to pain relief, notes that “Doctors literally get less pain medicine training than veterinarians. If they even know about psychological therapies for pain, they tend to view them as a last resort instead of the first option.”
Better training of physicians, who receive an average of only seven hours of pain management training in medical school, could thus help doctors expand their repertoire beyond opioids. Augmenting insurance coverage for physical therapy and pain-related psychotherapy could also help by stimulating more individuals to practice in those fields, which cannot meet the high level of patient need. “If you are referred to a pain psychologist by your primary care doctor, you might wait nine months for an appointment,” says Darnall.
If Congress simply supports the development of a new non-opioid pain treatment that, like all the others, rarely gets prescribed, it will do little to ameliorate the simultaneous problems of poorly managed pain and opioid overprescribing. It could have a much bigger impact by enhancing insurance benefits (e.g., in Medicaid and Medicare) for psychological and behavioral pain care services provided by interdisciplinary pain management clinics as well as funding training on pain management in medical schools and continuing education programs serving physicians and other health professionals.
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If you want to kill drug dealers, start with the big pharma (Opinion)
Apr 12, 2018 | Xenia Daily Gazette (OH)
By Domenica Ghanem
Big corporations, not street dealers, are the true authors and profiteers of the opioid crisis.
At a recent rally in New Hampshire, Donald Trump called for the death penalty for drug traffickers as part of a plan to combat the opioid epidemic in the United States. At a Pennsylvania rally a few weeks earlier, he called for the same.
Now his administration is taking steps toward making this proposal a reality. Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo on March 21 asking prosecutors to pursue capital punishment for drug traffickers — a power he has thanks to legislation passed under President Bill Clinton.
Time and again, these punitive policies have proven ineffective at curbing drug deaths. That’s partly because amping up the risk factor for traffickers makes the trade all that more lucrative, encouraging more trafficking, not less.
But it’s also because these policies don’t address the true criminals of the opioid crisis: Big Pharma.
If Trump really wanted to help, he’d put the noose around drug-making and selling giants like Purdue Pharma, McKesson, Insys Therapeutics, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, and others.
The president knows this, in a way. These companies “contribute massive amounts of money to political people,” he said at a press conference in October 2017 — even calling out Mitch McConnell, who was standing beside him, for taking that money. Pharmaceutical manufacturers were “getting away with murder,” Trump complained in the same speech.
For once, he’s wasn’t wrong.
The pharmaceutical industry spends more than any other industry on influencing politicians, with two lobbyists for every member of Congress. Nine out of ten House members and all but three senators have taken campaign contributions from Big Pharma.
It’s not just politicians they shell out for.
Opioid pioneer Purdue Pharma, the creator of OxyContin, bankrolled a campaign to change the prescription habits of doctors who were wary of the substance’s addictive properties, going so far as to send doctors on all-expense-paid trips to pain-management seminars. The family that started it all is worth some $13 billion today.
From 2008 to 2012, AmerisourceBergen distributed 118 million opioid pills to West Virginia alone. That’s about 65 pills per resident. In that same time frame, 1,728 people in the state suffered opioid overdoses.
McKesson — the fifth largest company in the U.S., with profits over $192 billion — contributed 5.8 million pills to just one West Virginia pharmacy.
Meanwhile, five companies contributed more than $9 million to interest groups for things like promoting their painkillers for chronic pain and lobbying to defeat state limits on prescribing opioids.
These companies don’t stop at promoting opioids. They also spend big on stopping legislation that would actually help curb opioid use.
Insys Therapeutics, a company whose founder was indicted for allegedly bribing doctors to write prescriptions for fentanyl (a substance 50 times stronger than heroin), spent $500,000 to stop marijuana legalization in Arizona in 2016.
In response, cities and states from New York City to Ohio are suing pharmaceutical companies for their role in the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans every year. It’s time for the federal government to get behind them.
Of course, going after these companies isn’t going to eliminate opioid abuse on its own. That will take combating the root social and economic causes that lead to so many deaths of despair.
But it’s clear who the real profiteers of the opioid epidemic are. If Trump wanted to get real about curbing incentives for selling opioids, he’d turn away from street dealers and target the real opioid-producing industry.
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Capito, Ohio senator introduce bill to address opioid-caused workforce shortage
Apr 11, 2018 | WV News (WV)
By Michael Lemley
Legislation was introduced into the U.S. Senate Wednesday that aims to address a workforce shortage that has been caused by the opioid epidemic.
The bill, the Collectively Achieving Recovery and Employment Act, or CARE Act, was introduced to the senate by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
The bill would combine various grant programs of the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services and create a six-year pilot project to combine job training and addiction recovery services, Capito said in a news release.
The CARE Act would allow counties and tribes to apply for grants directly if they have a qualified local workforce organization and nonprofit addiction treatment organization willing to participate, Capito said. The act would also direct the two departments to establish reporting criteria.
Capito said employers are having trouble finding workers who can pass drug tests and those who struggle with addiction have trouble finding a job.
"For individuals on the road to recovery, reentering the workforce can be a real challenge. At the same time, many employers are having difficulty filling open positions in industries that are critical to growing our economy," Capito said. "This bipartisan legislation will help those who have struggled with addiction get good-paying jobs as they work to turn their lives around and also fill important workforce needs.
"I look forward to continuing to work together with Senator Brown to help these men and women get back on their feet and build a brighter future for themselves."
Brown echoed this sentiment, saying the two issues are prevalent in Ohio as well.
"I hear the same thing from Mayors all across Ohio: Employers can’t fill openings because workers can’t pass drug tests, and Ohioans struggling with addiction can’t find a job to help them get back on their feet," Brown said. "We know addiction treatment and workforce training programs can be successful separately, but this crisis requires them to work together."
Capito said the act builds on and expands the National Health Emergency Dislocated Worker Demonstration Grant pilot program. Those grants are planned to help workers impacted by the opioid crisis acquire new skills and help train drug addiction treatment providers and other professions that address problems related to opioids.
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Selectmen Reject Participation In Opioid Lawsuit
Apr 11, 2018 | Cape Cod Chronicle (MA)
By William F. Galvin
On a 3-2 vote, selectmen on Monday night decided not to participate in a lawsuit that alleges pharmaceutical companies are responsible for the opioid epidemic and caused additional expenses to municipalities across the nation.
Town Counsel John Giorgio made a presentation to selectmen two weeks ago explaining a consortium of lawyers are spearheading the national litigation seeking remuneration for costs relating to the epidemic. Local costs include public safety and EMS responses to overdoses, use of Narcan, ambulance runs and social service impacts, including costs relating to substance abuse and counseling.
The suit is being filed by Massachusetts Opioid Litigation Attorneys (MOLA), a consortium of local and national legal firms. Giorgio said his law firm, KP Law, has joined the litigation team. He told selectmen two weeks ago that several Cape communities have joined the litigation. Giorgio said MOLA will take 25 percent of what is recovered through the litigation.
There were only three selectmen present on the evening of Giorgio's presentation, so Board of Selectmen Chairman Michael MacAskill recommended a decision be put off until Selectmen Larry Ballantine and Jannell Brown had an opportunity to view video of the presentation.
On Monday night, Police Chief David Guillemette, while discussing zoning amendments for the retail sale of recreational marijuana (see separate story), informed selectmen the town had just experienced its third opioid-related death of the year the previous day. There was only one opioid death last year, he said.
Ballantine said Monday night he had read the information and had questions and concerns. He said he was struggling with what the suit was going to achieve by going after the drug companies. He said it should also target others from distributors of opioids down to the users.
Ballantine said he also had questions about how the lawyers are getting paid, noting that the 25 percent share for the attorneys is after “reasonable litigation expenses.” Ballantine said he could see another legal battle if there was a non-monetary settlement. He said he could see the result of this suit placing another burden on health costs with the potential for the awards from the suit to be “pushed down to the consumer.”
Brown said she could see that, noting the settlements in the tobacco industry lawsuits and the $11 to $12 cost today for a package of cigarettes. But she add the town has nothing to lose because it is currently getting nothing. “I'll trust the lawyers on this one,” Brown said.
Selectman Donald Howell said he has a $2.79 check on his kitchen table from a suit against Sylvania Lighting. This will make the lawyers rich, but not give the town more than $2.79, he said.
Ballantine questioned why, if there was unlawful conduct, the state doesn't take legal action. Selectman Julie Kavanagh said if the state files suit the money will go to the commonwealth and not the towns.
“It's an opportunity to let the drug companies know. We should take an action to send a message, “ Kavanagh said. “There were a lot of gains when they took on the tobacco industry. In some way, shape or form something may come out of it that makes the pharmaceutical companies more responsible.”
MacAskill said putting the paperwork together on behalf of the town will tax the staff. Town counsel commented two weeks ago about going after the deep pockets in hopes of a settlement. “It's a way for attorneys to get more wealthy and I can't see it,” MacAskill said.
Howell said the drug companies deluded doctors into believing the opioids were less addictive and totally safe. “But it's hard to believe they're going to come out of this with a moral or monetary victory,” Howell said of MOLA. He put forward a motion to have the town not participate in the lawsuit. MacAskill, Ballantine and Howell supported the motion, while Kavanagh and Brown voted against it.
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Eastham Joins Opioid Litigation
Apr 12, 2018 | CapeCod.com (MA)
By Staff
After hearing from the town’s attorney and police chief, Eastham’s board of selectmen voted to join a statewide lawsuit related to the opioid crisis that targets certain pharmaceutical companies.
Attorney John Giorgio explained how he became aware of the pending litigation.
“We were approached by the Massachusetts Opioid Litigation Attorneys. They are bringing lawsuits against the drug manufactures to recover the costs that have been incurred as a result of the opioid crisis,” he said.
Towns which have already chosen to participate include Provincetown, Sandwich and Truro.
Although there will be no initial cost to the town, MOLA will take 25% of any monies collected, which has some people wary.
Eastham police Chief Ed Kulhawik put forth his idea of how any available funds should be spent. “Assistance for folks who are struggling with this terrible thing. If there were funds, that would be something that I definitely think is needed,” said.
Kulhawik will be the one who decides the amount of the town’s opioid-related expenses.
Some have expressed concern that there could be unintended consequences of the lawsuit, such as doctors worrying that they’ll be next and, as a result, not providing strong painkillers to patients with a genuine need.
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Delaware's Hansen looks to the opioid source to fund addiction recovery
Apr 12, 2018 | Courier Express (DE)
By Amy Cherry
Combating the opioid epidemic takes cash, and one state lawmaker is proposing a new way to get some by looking to the source.
Delaware State Sen. Stephanie Hansen wants to tax opioid manufacturers, who've been sued for creating the opioid epidemic killing hundreds of Delawareans and tens of thousands nationally.
"This is a monster we're dealing with," said Hansen. "We're behind the eight ball in all of this."
In 2017, 345 Delawareans died from drug overdoses, and in January 2018, Delaware joined a growing number of states to sue pharmaceutical companies, which many state attorneys general believe are responsible for the crisis shattering lives.
Late in session last year, State Rep. Helene Keeley proposed a similar tax on opioids, but the bill never came up for a vote.
Hansen's proposed fee, to be officially unveiled next week, would be assessed on the manufacturers by taxing drugmakers at a rate of 1 cent per milligram of Oxycodone, fentanyl, or other forms of opioids produced.
Estimates showed last year, the fee would've raised $9.2 million. She said the bill would contain protections so the fee couldn't be passed on to consumers.
"We have a portion of the bill that is going to address the enforcement of that as well so that it would be able to be enforced by the attorney general's office, and there would be a penalty for doing something like that," said the Middletown Democrat.
Revenue generated from Hansen's fee, if passed, would go towards addiction treatment.
"Things such as funding residential treatment programs and facilities, part of it could be used for services for the underinsured and the over-insured; it would be used for emergency assistance, including purchasing of Naloxone, and also, a portion of it to be used to reimburse state Medicaid expenditures that are specifically made for addiction treatment," she said.
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CT opioid lawsuits advancing in face of settlement effort
Apr 12, 2018 | The CT Mirror (CT)
By Ana Radelat
Nearly two dozen Connecticut cities and towns are scheduled to soon confront Purdue Phama and other opioid makers in court over what they say are the pharmaceuticals’ deceptive practices.
Meanwhile, a federal judge in Ohio is trying to resolve through a massive settlement more than 400 federal lawsuits brought by cities, counties and Native American tribes against central figures in the national opioid tragedy.
But, at least for now, Connecticut’s towns, including Waterbury, Bristol, East Hartford and Torrington, have chosen to sue Purdue and other opioid makers in state court. They have standing to do so because Purdue Pharma is based in Stamford.
Judy Scolnick, an attorney in the New York office of Scott + Scott, who represents Waterbury, New Haven, Bridgeport and New Britain, said the towns have until now rejected the massive settlement effort and plan to continue to pursue the case in state court because they think that’s’ “where the defendants’ liability risk is the greatest.”
Scolnick said the towns want the case tried by “a jury of the victims’ peers” — jurors who have had a family member, friend or co-worker fall victim to the opioid epidemic.
“Probably all of them have been touched,” Scolnick said of prospective jurors.
Connecticut had the 12th-highest number of opioid deaths in the country as of 2015, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The cases in Connecticut against the opioid makers have been joined, meaning they will be considered together, and will be heard in Hartford by Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher.
The judge has laid out a quick schedule. The defendants must file their motions to dismiss the case by May 14. Defendants include Purdue, which makes OxiContin, and Allergan, Cephalon and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, which make oxycodone — which is similar to OxyContin but is not produced in a time-release form.
Another defendant is Endo Pharmaceutical, the maker of Opana ER, a long-acting opioid painkiller. Endo last year pulled it from the market after the FDA said the drug’s benefit did not outweigh public health risks associated with opioid abuse.
Endo denies the allegations and intends to vigorously defend the case, the company said in a statement.
“Endo is dedicated to providing safe, quality products to patients in need, and we share the public concern regarding opioid abuse and misuse,” the statement said. “We are committed to working collaboratively to develop and implement a comprehensive solution to the opioid crisis, which is a complex problem with several causes that are difficult to disentangle.”
According to Mouskawsher’s order, defendants must file their response by June 13. If the case goes forward, oral arguments will be heard on June 28.
Connecticut’s cities are also suing major drug distributors, like McKesson and Cardinal Health, claiming they shipped alarming quantities without reporting to the authorities. Some cities also are suing several doctors considered “key opinion leaders” because they promoted in public forums, the use of opioids, saying they were safe.
New Haven, New Britain, Naugatuck, Southbury, Woodbury, Fairfield, Beacon Falls, Milford, Oxford, West Haven, North Haven, Thomaston, East Hartford, Southington, Newtown, Shelton and Tolland are also plaintiffs in the four opioid lawsuits in the state that have been consolidated before Moushkawsher.
Lawyers representing these towns say they expect additional Connecticut towns to join the lawsuits.
“By virtue of their deceptive and fraudulent marketing campaign, defendants have given rise to a drug epidemic the likes of which the Connecticut municipalities, the state of Connecticut, and the nation have never before seen, resulting in substantial economic harm to plaintiffs,” the complaints say.
Purdue and other opioid makers say their products are safe when used as prescribed and they are proactively warning patients against the dangers of misuse. Distributors have said they share the concerns over opioid abuse but will defend themselves against the suits.
“We are deeply troubled by the prescription and illicit opioid abuse crisis, and we are dedicated to being part of the solution,” Purdue said in a statement. “As a company grounded in science, we must balance patient access to FDA-approved medicines, while working collaboratively to solve this public health challenge.”
The plaintiffs say the drug companies knew of the dangers of prescribing opioids for chronic pain, that they knew the effectiveness of their drugs as pain killers wane over time — leading to higher doses and increasing use — and that the drug companies spent millions on marketing campaigns aimed at persuading doctors that they could be safely prescribed for a long term.
“Opioids are basically heroin pills,” Scolnick said.
The towns’ complaints include claims of violations of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, public nuisance, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, innocent misrepresentation and unjust enrichment.
The towns are seeking compensatory damages to reimburse them for all the money the spent providing health care and other aid to opioid users as well as punitive damages.A settlement in the works?
Meanwhile, federal Judge Dan Aaron Polster of the Northern District of Ohio has taken an unusual legal approach to the opioid lawsuits.
Late last year, a judicial panel gathered all the prescription opioid cases filed in federal court across the country in a consolidation called a multidistrict litigation, or MLD, and assigned them to Polster.
Instead of going through the arduous and time- consuming process of discovery and trial, Polster informed the army of lawyers involved in these cases he intended to prepare for settlement discussions immediately.
“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 told attorneys from across the country who flooded his courtroom in downtown Cleveland in a January meeting. “People aren’t interested in figuring out the answer to interesting legal questions like preemption and learned intermediary, or unraveling complicated conspiracy theories. So, my objective is to do something meaningful to abate this crisis and to do it in 2018.”
Polster has scheduled a May 9 settlement conference and wants everyone involved in an opioid suit, including those suing in state courts, to participate. But it’s not clear whether Connecticut towns will join the effort.
“The federal MDL is at this point distinct from the Connecticut action,” said Sarah Burn, an attorney for the Simmons Hanly Conroy law firm that is representing Bridgeport and 17 other Connecticut towns in their opioid suit.
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, however, said he’ll be involved.
Jepsen is among 41 state attorneys general invited to the settlement conference by Polster. Some of the attorneys general have sued the pharmaceutical companies over their opioid marketing and distribution; others, like Jepsen, launched investigations into those companies.
Jepsen said when a group of state attorneys generals began their investigation 14 months ago, their main target was Purdue Pharma. When he was asked to become more involved, Jepsen moved to include other pharmaceutical companies in the probe, as well as major drug distributors.
Jepsen lauded Polster’s attempts to reach a “global settlement,” much like the tobacco settlement that ended a massive wave of litigation in the 1990s.
“We have come further in the past two-and-a-half months than in the previous years,” he said. “We are still far from a solution, but we are closer.”
Connecticut has received nearly $2 billion over the past 15 years as part of a legal settlement meant to compensate states for the toll of tobacco. But the nation’s pharmaceuticals have a stronger defense than the tobacco companies in that their product is used for legitimate medical purposes.
Still, there is a cost for the drug makers in defending hundreds of lawsuits. And Polster has experience with MDLs, having mediated settlements in some 700 cases involving a medical contrast dye.
Jepsen wants Connecticut’s cities and towns to be a part of any settlement.
“We don’t see a global solution unless the cities and towns are part of a final settlement,” Jepsen said.
It’s likely most of the money offered in a settlement would go to states like Connecticut that have had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid claims as a result of the epidemic of opioid addiction.
Jepsen said he’d press for any windfall Connecticut would receive from an opioid settlement to go to treatment and prevention services, “before the money is put in the general fund.”
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Woonsocket may join lawsuit against drug companies in opioid epidemic
Apr 11, 2018 | The Valley Breeze (RI)
By Laura Clem
More people die of drug overdoses in this city than in any other Rhode Island community.
Woonsocket officials are considering joining a multi-district lawsuit on behalf of Rhode Island municipalities against five pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and three wholesale drug distributors for their alleged role in the ongoing opioid epidemic.
The litigation, filed in federal district court in March, accuses drug manufacturers and distributors of targeting vulnerable patients and communities as opioid consumers and downplaying the risks of opioid addiction. As of Tuesday morning, April 10, 29 Rhode Island cities and towns had joined the lawsuit, which is occurring simultaneously with similar suits around the country. Rhode Island Attorney Gen. Peter Kilmartin is also in the planning stages of a similar lawsuit on behalf of the state.
Eva Mancuso, one of the lawyers on a team of local and national attorneys working on the case, presented information about the suit at Monday’s City Council meeting.
“We know, and we have known since 1970, that opioids were addictive. And we have done nothing about it,” she said.
Mancuso explained that as multi-district litigation, the suit allows cities and towns to file as individual entities, totaling the damages to their communities for potential compensation. Damages can include obvious costs, such as personnel time off for opioid addiction and supplies of the anti-overdose drug Narcan, but can also consider larger costs to the community, including the impact of family addictions and the absentee rate of students with parents addicted to opioids.
According to data compiled by the Governor’s Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force and published at preventoverdoseri.org, Woonsocket has the highest overdose rate of any municipality in Rhode Island, with 72 overdose deaths occurring between 2014 and June 2017. Mancuso emphasized the issue affects all socioeconomic levels due to many people’s introduction to opioids as a prescribed painkiller.
“There’s so many layers to unfold. It’s not just the actual drugs themselves, it’s not just the addictions themselves,” she said. “These are a lot of middle class people that got addicted, turned to crime, a lot of it white collar crime.”
According to Mancuso, the suit targets drug manufacturers and distributors for their failure to properly educate doctors and the public on the risks of addiction to prescribed opioid drugs. She compared the litigation to past efforts to hold tobacco manufacturers and defenders of asbestos and lead paint accountable for public health risks and disinformation campaigns.
“When they went out to educate the doctors on these issues, they didn’t say one in four people are going to become addicted,” she said.
The wholesale drug distributors listed as defendants in the suit include McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen Drug. The manufacturers listed as defendants include Perdue Pharma, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, and its subsidiary Cephalon, Johnson & Johnson, and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Endo Health Solutions, and Allergan, Activis and Watson Pharmaceuticals.
In response to previous reporting on the lawsuit, John Parker, senior vice president of the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, the national trade association representing drug distributors, issued the following statement to The Valley Breeze:
“As distributors, we understand the tragic impact the opioid epidemic has on communities across the country. We are deeply engaged in the issue and are taking our own steps to be part of the solution – but we aren’t willing to be scapegoats,” he said.
“We don’t make medicines, market medicines, prescribe medicines or dispense them to consumers,” he continued. “Given our role, the idea that distributors are solely responsible for the number of opioid prescriptions written defies common sense and lacks understanding of how the pharmaceutical supply chain actually works and how it is regulated.”
City councilors offered generally positive response to the invitation to join the lawsuit, with several commending the effort and expressing concern for the impact of the crisis in Woonsocket. Councilor Richard Fagnant expressed support but cautioned fellow council members against expecting a large monetary payout.
“Let’s not think that we’re in for a big windfall, because that’s not the way these lawsuits happen,” he said.
Mancuso told councilors there is no cost to join the lawsuit except the time and effort of city personnel as they work with researchers to determine the cost to the city of the opioid crisis. The legal team will receive 25 percent of any damages paid to the city following the suit and up to 25 percent will be dedicated to expenses, making for a potential payout to the city of 50 percent of any damages awarded. The discovery process of the suit, she said, will take between 18 months and two years.
The City Council will vote at a future meeting on whether Woonsocket will join the suit.
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Apr 11, 2018 | Cleveland.com (OH)
By Eric Heisig
A federal judge in Cleveland on Wednesday set a trial date for next year for three lawsuits filed by Northeast Ohio governments against drug companies over the nation's opioid epidemic.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster wrote that he plans to hold a combined trial for city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and Summit County beginning March 18, 2019.
The trial is expected to last for three weeks.
Polster is presiding over hundreds of suits against drug manufacturers and distributors filed by governments from every corner of the country.
The trio of Ohio cases would be the first in a series of "bellwether trials," or are test cases that give attorneys an idea of how future cases may play out, be it through a judge's decision, a jury verdict or a settlement. The cases are generally chosen because they are similar and representative of other lawsuits filed in what is known as multidistrict litigation.
The judge also chose cases from West Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, Florida and Alabama for possible future bellwether trials, though dates have not been set.
Polster revealed the plan in a 20-page case management order filed Wednesday that set a series of deadlines and rules the attorneys must abide by as the cases from Ohio and other states are litigated.
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 say 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.
Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and Summit County are at the epicenter of what has become an increasingly deadly drug epidemic that has ravaged the country and caused thousands of overdose deaths annually.
Paul Hanly, one of the lead attorneys, said Wednesday that Polster chose the three Ohio cases because he can preside over them in Cleveland. Lawsuits combined in a multidistrict litigation that go to trial are usually sent back to the federal court in the state where they were originally filed.
A federal judge since 1998, Polster has shown a proclivity to settle all manners of litigation without a trial. He made his intentions known at the first hearing for the opioid litigation in January, saying his goal was to craft a global settlement to resolve the suits in front of him and ones being heard 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.
After a few rounds of settlement talks, though, attorneys for the government and the drug companies said some claims would need to be litigated in order to reach a full settlement. Plaintiff's attorney Joe Rice previously told cleveland.com that claims regarding the drug companies' past actions are in dispute, while settlement talks continue about what everybody can do to address the opioid epidemic in the future.
The opioid litigation has brought a legal aspect to a problem that both the public and private sector has sought to address for several years. The Justice Department has indicated it will not fully intervene in the massive swath of litigation, but instead offered its expertise in trying to craft a settlement.
Polster on Wednesday also ordered the full release of nine years of data the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration collects on prescription drug sales for the six states that will have cases going to trial. The DEA agreed last month agreed to release a subset of the data to help facilitate settlement talks, but the judge said the parties would need the full data set for the cases being litigated.
"In closing, the Court observes that the vast oversupply of opioid drugs in the United States has caused a plague on its citizens and their local and State governments. Plaintiffs' request for the ... data, which will allow Plaintiffs to discover how and where the virus grew, is a reasonable step toward defeating the disease," the judge wrote.
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County to Sue Pharma Manufacturers Over Opiods
Apr 12, 2018 | Madison 365 (WI)
By Staff
Earlier this week, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and the Dane County Board of Supervisors announced that Dane County has hired a team of attorneys to assist the County in filing a federal lawsuit against the pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and wholesale drug distributors for their role in causing and fueling the opioid epidemic in the Dane County community.
The County has hired expert law firms, experienced in holding the powerful pharmaceutical industry accountable. Those firms include: Baron & Budd; Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Rafferty & Proctor; Greene Ketchum Bailey Farrell & Tweel; Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler; and McHugh Fuller Law Group. Baron and Budd serves as lead counsel to approximately 80 percent of the municipalities that have filed suit against pharmaceutical distributors for opioid-related claims including Milwaukee County, according to a Dane County press release.
“The opioid epidemic has hit local communities hard across the United States, and Dane County is no exception,” said County Executive Joe Parisi in a state,ent. “This epidemic has strained our resources and has cost local communities across Wisconsin millions of dollars as we try to get people the treatment and recovery they so desperately need.”
After today’s announcement, Baron & Budd and their team will work with Dane County to file a federal lawsuit in the coming months.
“The elected leaders of Dane County are taking an important step forward by going on the offense against the manufacturers and distributors of highly addictive, dangerous prescription opioid drugs,” said Baron & Budd Shareholder, Burton LeBlanc. “Dane County understands that significant resources will be needed to provide treatment for addiction, education and law enforcement to combat the opioid epidemic. I’m proud to be leading this team and intend to hold these manufacturers and distributors responsible for the widespread damage they have caused in this community.”
Prescription opioids have become exceedingly prevalent in the Dane County community. According to the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, more than 300,000 prescriptions for opioids have been dispensed to Dane County residents annually since 2013. On average, 21 million opioid pills are dispensed to Dane County residents per year. That equates to over 39 opioid pills being prescribed to each of Dane County’s approximately 531,000 residents every 12 months.
“Aggressive and inappropriate marketing by large pharmaceutical companies has led to misuse of opioids,” said Dane County Board Supervisor Mary Kolar in a statement. “Medication meant for short term use was pushed by the manufacturers for long term use. We must hold these corporations accountable for the tragic results of addiction, including death, that they made billions of dollars from.
Dane County EMS agencies administered 701 doses of narcan in 2016 and this increased to 901 administrations in 2017. A total of 13opioid involved deaths occurred in 2000, but that number skyrocketed to 85 in 2016. According to Public Health of Madison and Dane County, the rate of prescription opioid involved deaths in Dane County has doubled since 2000, from 6.3 per 100,000 people in 2000 to 12.4 per 100,000 people in 2016. The rate of heroin involved deaths has more than tripled since 2000, from 3.0 per 100,000 people in 2000 to 10.1 per 100,000 people in 2016.
Overall, Dane County has allocated significant resources to help those struggling with opioid addition. Approximately $7.5 million made up Dane County’s 2017 Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment budget. There was $733,000 in grant revenue from the state and federal governments that specifically provided treatment to those using opiates and using drugs intravenously in Dane County’s 2017 budget. Of the Dane County residents receiving county-funded treatment, 30 percent were seeking treatment for problems with using opiates.
In the County Executive’s 2017 budget he allocated funding for a permanent opiates counselor position to assist with deferred prosecutions in the District Attorney’s (DA’s) Office due to an increase in cases. Dane County spends $230,000 on this program.
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Our Opinion: Latest move in Hoosier opioid battle (Opinion)
Apr 12, 2018 | South Bend Tribune (IN)
By Editorial Board
Of all the steps taken by state and local governments to rein in Indiana’s growing opioid crisis, the steps being taken by local physicians since 2012 may be most important.
A report in Sunday’s Tribune showed that the number of prescriptions in St. Joseph County for opioids has been steadily decreasing from a high of 100 prescriptions per 100 people to about 81 prescriptions per 100 people in 2016, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The opioid epidemic has taken a heavy toll on Indiana, which ranks ninth in the country for its opioid prescription per capita and overdose rates that have more than doubled in the past three years.
Doctors acknowledge they didn’t always have the best prescribing practices. But they also say they were misled by opioid manufacturers and distributors about how addictive the drugs were and whether they were the best option for treating chronic pain.
Now, instead of physicians writing prescriptions for as many as 20 to 60 pills, they may prescribe only a dozen. People prescribed opioids following emergency room visits also are prescribed fewer pills until they have time to meet with their own doctor.
Though the reductions in prescriptions is critical in the battle against opioid abuse, other measures combining with a reduction in prescriptions are having a significant impact.
The Indiana General Assembly this past session adopted a law that will require doctors to check a prescription-monitoring service before prescribing an opioid. Other laws allow for the approval of up to nine new hospital-based opioid treatment programs and an increase in the criminal penalty for drug dealing that results in a death.
Lawsuits filed by more than a dozen cities and counties — including Marshall County, which filed a lawsuit in federal court earlier this year, and St. Joseph County, which plans to proceed with a civil lawsuit against drug companies — offer another prong in the attack against opioid abuse.
Taken together, all these measures offer the sort of collaborative, comprehensive approach that is desperately needed to fight a drug crisis that is sweeping through Indiana.
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Navajo Nation latest to sue over opioid epidemic in US
Apr 11, 2018 | Associated Press
By Staff
One of the country's largest American Indian tribes is the latest to sue pharmaceutical companies and drug distributors, alleging their conduct caused the opioid crisis.
The Navajo Nation's lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in New Mexico seeks unspecified damages and attorney fees.
The tribe says American Indians have suffered disproportionately from opioid dependency or abuse, leading to death, family dysfunction, poverty and social despair.
The tribe says it has helped cover costs of treatment for opioid abuse, and for law enforcement and social services to respond to the epidemic.
One of the defendants denied the allegations. Others say they are working to help combat the opioid epidemic and have reported suspicious orders to the federal government.
Others declined to comment or did not reply to requests for comment.
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Navajo Nation lawsuit blames opioid makers for overdose deaths, addiction
Apr 11, 2018 | AZCentral (AZ)
By Ken Alltucker
The Navajo Nation on Tuesday filed a sweeping federal lawsuit against opioid makers, distributors and pharmacies for their role in an epidemic blamed for a surge in overdose deaths and addiction.
The tribe's lawsuit, filed at U.S. District Court in New Mexico, said that that prescription and illicit opioids led to 7,309 overdose deaths from 2014 through 2016 in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, the three states that include parts of Navajo Nation.
The Navajos lawsuit joins a growing list of states and cities that have sued opioid manufacturers and distributors for an epidemic that led to more than 42,000 overdose deaths in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Navajo lawsuit names as defendants manufacturers Purdue Pharma and Endo Health Solutions and distributors McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen. Other defendants include pharmacies: CVS Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Walmart.
“For generations, Native Americans have disproportionately suffered during health crises, and the opioid crisis is no different,” Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye said in a statement. “We aren’t going to sit back and let our community be torn apart while our children are suffering.”
The lawsuit states the opioid epidemic's harm has been "particularly devastating" for Native American children, citing CDC data that 1 in 10 American Indian children aged 12 and older have used opioids for non-medical purposes — double the rate of white children.
Pregnant American Indian women are up to 8.7 times more likely than pregnant
white women to be diagnosed with opioid dependency or abuse, according to the lawsuit.Although it does not quantify overdose deaths and opioid dependence rates within Navajo Nation, the lawsuit states the illicit use of opioids "contributes to and exacerbates" existing social problems such as child abuse and neglect, family dysfunction, poverty, unemployment, and social despair.
The lawsuit also states that Navajo Nation must devote resources to addiction-related problems, "leaving a diminished pool of resources available for education, cultural preservation, and social programs."
In 2015, Mississippi became the first state to sue opioid manufacturers for their role in the opioid epidemic. That lawsuit opened the floodgates with hundreds of states, cities and counties filing lawsuits targeting the pharmaceutical industry's role in the opioid epidemic.
Arizona is among a group of 41 states have joined together to subpoena records and investigate pain-pill makers marketing of opioids. Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill that will limit initial pain pill fills and fund $10 million in addiction treatment.
The Justice Department has joined a federal lawsuit in Cleveland that involves several hundred states and municipalities.
Phoenix intends to file its own case against opioid manufacturers in Arizona. Phoenix expects its case will be moved to Cleveland for pretrial discovery. When discovery concludes in the Cleveland case, Phoenix intends to return its case to Arizona, according to a city representative.
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Navajo Nation Is Latest To Sue Pharma Cos. Over Opioids
Apr 11, 2018 | Law360
By Adam Lidgett
The Navajo Nation on Wednesday hit a host of drug distributors, manufacturers and pharmacies with a federal lawsuit accusing the companies of causing the opioid crisis, the latest case in a string of lawsuits over the epidemic.
The tribe filed suit against various companies, including Purdue Pharma LP, Endo Health Solutions Inc. McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health Inc., AmerisourceBergen Corp., CVS Health Corp., Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The complaint said that the epidemic of prescription opioid abuse across the country was a direct result of the defendants’ conduct and that Native American tribes had been severely hurt by the crisis.
“Adverse social outcomes include child abuse and neglect, family dysfunction, poverty, unemployment, and social despair,” the suit said. “As a result, Navajo Nation resources are devoted to addiction-related problems, leaving a diminished pool of resources available for education, cultural preservation, and social programs. Meanwhile, the prescription opioid crisis diminishes the Navajo Nation’s available workforce, decreases productivity, increases poverty and consequently requires greater expenditures for governmental assistance.”
Hundreds of suits making allegations against drug manufacturers and distributors over opioids have since been consolidated into multidistrict litigation in Ohio.
The Cherokee Nation filed one of the early suits by a tribe in April 2017, and the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin and North Carolina’s Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have brought federal court actions in their states.
“The Navajo Nation will not stand by and watch its people, its culture, and its heritage be destroyed by the scourge of the opioid epidemic,” Navajo Attorney General Ethel Branch said in a statement. “The Navajo Nation is bringing this action to help lead the way for all Indian nations in America.”
The Navajo Nation’s suit said manufacturers such as Purdue and Endo engaged in a huge marketing campaign to try to hide the dangers of using prescription opioids to treat chronic pain.
The nation accused the distributor defendants and pharmacy defendants of taking advantage of a heightened demand for the drugs for non-medical use and said that they abandoned their responsibility to look into fraudulent prescriptions and suspicious opioid orders.
Purdue Pharma said in a statement that “as a company grounded in science, we must balance patient access to FDA-approved medicines with collaborative efforts to solve this public health challenge. Although our products account for less than 2 percent of the total opioid prescriptions, as a company, we’ve distributed the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, developed three of the first four FDA-approved opioid medications with abuse-deterrent properties and partner with law enforcement to ensure access to naloxone.”
AmerisourceBergen said in a statement that it was “dedicated to doing our part as a distributor to mitigate the diversion of these drugs without interfering with clinical decisions made by doctors, who interact directly with patients and decide what treatments are most appropriate for their care.”
“Beyond our reporting and immediate halting of tens of thousands of potentially suspicious orders, we refuse service to customers we deem as a diversion risk and provide daily reports to the DEA that detail the quantity, type and the receiving pharmacy of every single order of these products that we distribute,” the statement said.
Endo said in a statement that it denied the Navajo Nation’s claims and that it had taken “meaningful action by voluntarily ceasing opioid promotion and eliminating its entire product sales force.”
“We are committed to working collaboratively to develop and implement a comprehensive solution to the opioid crisis, which is a complex problem with several causes that are difficult to disentangle,” Endo said. “Any serious solution must therefore be multifaceted and consider, among other things, the legitimate access needs of the millions of patients suffering from acute or chronic pain who rely on opioids to improve their quality of life.”
McKesson said in a statement that it "delivers life-saving medicines to millions of Americans each day and is committed to maintaining—and continuously enhancing—strong programs designed to prevent opioid diversion within the pharmaceutical supply chain."
"As a distributor, McKesson only distributes opioid medications to pharmacies that are DEA-registered and state-licensed, and we only distribute in response to orders that pharmacies place – we do not drive demand," McKesson said.
John Parker, a spokesman with trade association Healthcare Distribution Alliance, whose members include AmerisourceBergen, McKesson and Cardinal Health, said in an emailed statement that "the idea that distributors are responsible for the number of opioid prescriptions written defies common sense and lacks understanding of how the pharmaceutical supply chain actually works and is regulated. Those bringing lawsuits would be better served addressing the root causes, rather than trying to redirect blame through litigation.”
Walgreens declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Representatives of the other companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
The Navajo Nation is represented by Scott D. Gilbert, Richard Shore, Mark A. Packman, Michael B. Rush and Jenna A. Hudson of Gilbert LLP; Richard W. Fields of Fields PLLC; Lloyd B. Miller, Donald J. Simon and Whitney A. Leonard of Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Endreson & Perry LLP; David C. Mielke of Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Mielke & Brownell LLP; and Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel B. Branch and Assistant Attorney General Paul Spruhan.
Counsel information for the defendants was not immediately available on Wednesday.
The case is the Navajo Nation v. Purdue Pharma LP et al., case number 1:18-cv-00338, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. -
Apr 12, 2018 | KITV (HI)
By Eliza Larson
Major corporations like Purdue Pharma, Johnson and Johnson, and McKesson Corporation are going to court. Kauai County is suing them for supplying and advertising opioid pain medications. It's planning to give the money it hopes to win back to police and fire, drug rehab services and similar programs, as well as city parks and recreation.
"It basically comes down to the health and welfare of our community and the cost that the county has had to bear to deal with this," says Kauai County Attorney, Mauna Kea Trask.
When putting together the "opioid litigation" plan, Trask looked at 16 other states -- and counties and cities within them -- that pursued similar legal action.
Here's what he found:
- In 2017 -- McKesson was fined $150 million for failing to report suspicious orders of drugs.
- In 2013 -- Purdue settled with the State of Kentucky for $24 million after the company was accused of misleading the public about the addictiveness of the drug Oxycontin.There are more. Trask thinks Kauai County could win. It's a plan backed by the entire county council and Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho.
"Opioids are causing major, major issues within our families, our young people, our elderly, all of it," Carvalho said.
He's also thinking of what often comes after opioid addiction: heroin.
The number of black tar heroin seizures by Kauai police has drastically increased over the last several years. So far in 2018, KPD's found about a pound and a half of it. Mayor Carvalho hopes legal action against opioid supply and demand will also halt problems associated with heroin on the island. Both Carvalho and Trask want to emphasize any lawsuit is not an attack on hospitals or doctors.
"The providers themselves, the doctors, were pawns in this whole thing it looks like." said Trask.
Trask's research found some doctors were paid or compensated by pharmaceutical companies for selling their product. Island News spoke to Hawaii doctors who were intrigued by Kauai county's idea, but still had questions.
"I'm just fascinated to hear under which grounds they prosecute any of the folks who they feel are involved in this," said Dr. William Haning, a psychiatrist and Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at John A. Burns School of Medicine.
County Attorney Mauna Kea Trask was authorized to spend $25,000 to assemble a special counsel to pursue litigation.
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Kauai: County Will Sue Big Drug Companies Over Opioid Crisis
Apr 11, 2018 | Honolulu Civil Beat
By Alla Parachini
Kauai’s County Council voted Wednesday to sue the prescription drug industry for alleged liability for the opioid epidemic, choosing to litigate the issue on its own and not wait for the state of Hawaii. The county doesn’t trust the state to share any settlement money equitably.
The vote authorized the county attorney to spend as much as $25,000 to hire a law firm, but he said he probably won’t need the money because he’s confident that a large private class action law firm will take the case on a contingency basis.
On the mainland, hundreds of opiate liability suits have been filed against large drug makers, but only 82 of them have been on behalf of individual cities and counties. New York City, for example, is demanding $500 million in damages from drug companies. Suits filed so far have generally named multiple drug companies, including Purdue Pharma, Teva, Cephalon, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen, Endo, Allergan and Watson.
The litigation follows the pattern established by lawsuits filed against tobacco companies starting in the 1990s, which resulted in a national master agreement for a payout over 25 years. Hawaii’s share will eventually reach $1.38 billion.
Kauai County Attorney Mauna Kea Trask said his office is asking to move ahead on its own because it believes Hawaii’s tobacco settlement money has been dispensed disproportionately.
Meaningful amounts of the tobacco money never got to Kauai, said Derek Kawakami, a County Council member running for mayor and former member of the Hawaii House of Representatives. “Much of it was Oahu-centric,” he said.
“This (drug industry litigation) is the next frontier” after the broad success of lawsuits against tobacco companies, Trask said. “Hawaii is not isolated. We’re just as susceptible as anyone else.”
Said council member Ross Kagawa: “This is one time that I’m glad to be the first” into court.
Trask’s presentation showed that prescriptions for opiates paid for under the Medicare Part D drug insurance plan were unevenly distributed across Kauai. The county seat, Lihue and Eleele, toward the Westside, accounted for 70 percent of those prescriptions. Pressed by council members to explain the concentration, he said he had not been able to identify one.
In the council debate, the expression “David versus Goliath” came up on multiple occasions, but there was no serious opposition to Kauai proceeding independently. It was obvious it is an issue council members feel strongly about.
Council member Arthur Brun, who is himself from a hardscrabble Westside background, started to explain his support. But he only got as far as the words “knowing someone close to me” before he was overcome by emotion and had to leave the room.
In a related action, the council also agreed unanimously to increase spending on an eight-bed adolescent drug treatment facility that is going into construction by adding $2.4 million to the project budget, which previously had been about $4 million.
The cost increase drew scant opposition after officials told the council the overrun was related to required revisions in the plans. Kauai currently has no dedicated in-patient drug-abuse treatment beds.
Trask showed slides indicating that prescriptions per hundred thousand population for just one opiate, oxycodone, which had actually been in decline, began to spike upward in 2016, when they closely approached the statewide average of about 160 prescriptions per 100,000 people. Even though Kauai has a population smaller than that, such rate figures are almost always expressed as computed statistically per hundred thousand. Corresponding use on Kauai of naloxone, also known as Narcan, a drug that can be injected to reverse overdose effects, showed a six-fold increase between 2006 and 2016.
A spokesperson for the Kauai Police Department said it has decided to start issuing naloxone/Narcan to patrol officers. A training and deployment schedule is being developed.
American Medical Response, which provides ambulance service on Kauai, has been issuing Narcan to its crews for several years, but the firm did not respond to questions about when the practice began and how many times the drug has been used on Kauai.
“We believe that the effects of the opioid epidemic have been felt strongly at the county level,” Trask said. “The goal of the lawsuit on behalf of the county individually would be to leave the power of accepting a settlement and distribution of any recovery to the county, as opposed to giving control to the state.”
As evidence of the broadening opioid danger on Kauai, Trask said KPD officers recovered 520 grams (about a pound) of heroin in 2017, but that recoveries so far this year have already exceeded last year’s total, at 580 grams (about a pound and a quarter.)
“On Kauai, we have never seen that before, “ Trask said.
Abuse of prescription opiates and heroin addiction rates are believed by many drug abuse experts to be linked.
Trask’s charts showed that one of the opiate manufacturers, Purdue Pharma, has already paid $24 million in settlements. People familiar with the litigation believe totals recovered could eventually rival the tobacco master settlement.
Trask said he had been in touch with county attorneys in Maui and Hawaii counties. He said both told him they were considering proceeding as counties, or perhaps banding together, but not under state aegis.
He said he believed no Hawaii county is as close to becoming an actual opiate litigant as Kauai.
Trask said he had not notified the Hawaii attorney general’s office and had no plans to do so.
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Whatcom is suing these drug makers, saying they should help bear the cost of the opioid crisis
Apr 12, 2018 | Bellingham Herald (WA)
By Kie Relyea
Whatcom County is joining a widening legal fight against makers and wholesalers of prescription opioids, saying they have contributed to a public health crisis.
On Tuesday, the County Council decided to retain law firm Keller Rohrback in Seattle, which is representing a number of municipalities including Skagit, Pierce and King counties in Washington state.
The vote was 7-0.
"Pretty broad consensus it was a good thing to do for the county," council member Todd Donovan said.
As it has done in its previous filings, the law firm will sue the makers and distributors of opioid painkillers, including Purdue Pharma, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and other entities.
The law firm has so far filed lawsuits on behalf of five counties in the state, as well as the City of Tacoma.
Whatcom County isn't paying the law firm, which will be compensated if there's a judgment against the companies, Donovan said.
The county wants help responding to a public health crisis caused by opioids, according to Donovan.
"They are partially liable for over-prescribing these things and marketing them as non-addictive," he said. "They should help us in bearing the cost."
In a separate lawsuit filed in 2017, the state of Washington sued Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, accusing it of "fueling the opioid epidemic in Washington state."
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Apr 12, 2018 | Albuquerque, NM
By KOB (NBC)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177664?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1
Rough Transcript: the navajo nation is suing major manufacturers of opioids -- and some major national pharmacy chains. navajo nation president russell begaye says native americans have disproportionally suffered from the opioid crisis. the lawsuit says between 2014 and 2016 -- more than 7- thousand navajo citizens died from opioid overdoses. it also says the navajo nation suffered financial losses because of over-prescription opioids.
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Apr 12, 2018 | Albuquerque, NM
By KRQE (CBS)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177647?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1
Rough Transcript: the navajo nation is the latest to sue pharmaceutical companies and drug distributors -- alleging their conduct caused the opioid crisis. the tribe says american indians have suffered more from opioid dependency or abuse. leading to death - family dysfunction - poverty and social despair. the lawsuit filed in u.s. district court seeks unspecified damages and atorney fees.
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Apr 11, 2018 | CNBC
By CNBC
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34168555?token=28fa11ea-703f-4b2d-a7ca-3b4773c36a6b
Rough Transcript: i want to go back to congress as congressman mckinley has begun his questioning of mark zuckerberg >> as you can see from these photographs, opioids are still available on your site that without a prescription on your site. so it contradicts just what you said just a minute ago and it went on last week, fda commissioner scott gottlieb has testified before our office, said that the internet firms simply aren't taking practical steps to find and remove these illegal opioid listings. and he specifically mentioned facebook are you aware of that, his quote? >> congressman - >> yes or no >> i'm not specifically aware of his quote, but i heard he said 12:28 PManything let me just speak to this for a second >> if i could, we don't -- so in your opening statement, and i appreciated your remark. you said it's not enough to give people a voice we have to make sure that people aren't using it, facebook, to hurt people. now, america's in the midst of one of the worst epidemics that it's ever experienced with this drug epidemic. it's all across this country, not just in west virginia. but your platform is still being used to circumvent the law and allow people to buy highly addictive drugs without a prescription with all due respect, facebook is actually enabling an illegal activity, and in so doing, you are hurting people would you agree with that statement? >> congressman, i think there are a number of areas of content that we need to do a better job policing on our service. 12:29 PMtoday, the primary way that content regulation works here and review is that people can share what they want openly on the service, and then if someone sees an issue, they can flag it to us, then we will review it. over time we're shifting to a mode -- >> you can find out, mr mr. zuckerberg you know which pharmacies are operating illegally and lyly, but you're still continuing to allow that to be posted on facebook and allow people to get this scourge, this ravaging of this country, being enabled because of facebook. so my question to you, as we close on this, you have said before you were going to take down those ads but you didn't do it we've got statement after statement about things you're going to take those down within days and they haven't gone down what i just put up, that was just from yesterday. it's still up. so my question to you is, when are you going to stop -- take down these posts that are done with illegal digital pharmacies? when are you going to take them down >> congressman, right now, when people report the posts to us, we will take them down and have people -- >> why do they -- if you have all these 20,000 people, you know that they're up there where is your requirement? where is your accountability to allow this to be occurring, this ravaging of this country >> congressman, i agree that this is a terrible issue, and respectfully, when there are 10s of billions or 100 billion pieces of content shared every day, even 20,000 people reviewing it can't look at everything what we need to do is build more a.i. tools that can proactively find that content. >> you said before you were going to take them down and you haven't. >> the gentleman's time has expired.
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Apr 11, 2018 | Montgomery, AL
By WAKA (CBS)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177597?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1
Rough Transcript: the attorney whose filing a lawsuit against the opioid manufacturers on behalf of the of montgomery is speaking out on the suit. attorney jerry beesly couldn't give specific numbers but says it has had a majormpact. he says montgomery ranks in the top 15 cities in the nation with the highest rates of opioid abuse. naturally, he says the crisis has cost taxpayers $500 billion. we asked him about the negative impacts in montgomery. >> it crowds emergency rooms. you have rehabilitation costs. you have lossf time at work. in fact, people don't realize how many people lose time from work because of this problem. you've got the rehab situation. you've got the law enforcement cost. and it really has gotten totally ou of control. >> the beesly allen law firm has filed around 300 lawsuits against opioid manufacturers. companies named in the suit include per due ph arma and johnson and johnson.
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Apr 11, 2018 | Salt Lake City, UT
By KTSU (Fox)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177601?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1
Rough Transcript: salt lake county filed a multimillion dolar lawsuit against pharmaceutical giant over the opioid crisis it alleges big pharma over marketed and overprescribed addictive drugs. it's led to a health crisis the county leaders alleged disproportionate disproportionately affects the salt lake area. young mothers that have started on and opioid for a pain killer turned into a addiction. they are now on the strets their children are in foster care. some of the company's being sued said they will defend themselves in court jansen pharmaceuticals called its marketing of opioids apropriate and responsible and the allegations against it are baseless and unsubstantiated.
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Apr 12, 2018 | Phoenix, AZ
By KTVK (KTVK)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177687?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1
Rough Transcript: the 'navajo nation' is suing the opioid supply chain. it wants to hold opioid manufacturers, pharmacies, and distributors accountable. the companies named in the lawsuit.... include c-v-s, walgreens and walmart. the suit describes how those companies... created a market for these highly-addictive drugs ... and also failed to prevent the flow of illegal opioids.. in arizona. just into the newsroom. we've got new numbers on the opioid crisis in our state. opioid crisis in our state. the health department says ... since it started tracking numbers in real time last june ... more than 11-hundred people have died of suspected overdoses. in the report ... they also say just over 7-thousand people have overdosed. and they've given-out nearly 12-thousand doses of narcan.... the drug that can reverse overdoses.
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Apr 11, 2018 | Honolulu, HI
By KITV (ABC)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177740?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1
Rough Transcript: pursue "opioi litigation" -- wa approved today -- not against doctors who perscribe "opioid" pai medications -- but against companies like "purdu pharma" - "johnson an johnson" -- and "cardinal healt inrporated" - they're taking action against those who supply and advertise it -- "opioids" ar epidemic on the "garden isle" and new data shows it leads to heroin addiction -- county attorney mauna kea trask -- says any money won in these cases -- will go towards anti- drug a addiction programs -- kaua'i mayor bernard carvahlo supports the fight -- 1:09 and so our legal team got together and we did reach out to our neighboring islands but the bottom line is this is causing major issues within our families. this is leading to lots of heroin that is coming our way and we've increased heroin on our island 526 piont 2 grams was recently found on kauai. come on. so that to me is very alarming." next step -- ? assembling a special counsel to pursue litigation.
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Apr 11, 2018 | West Palm Beach, FL
By WPBF (ABC)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177802?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1
Rough Transcript: state attorney dave aronberg says there are now 14 opioid related deaths a day in florida today. he says that's reason enough to stand beside the county in its legal battle against a slew of pharmaceutical companies. with opioid addiction holding strong, palm beach county filed a lawsuit against several pharmaceutical companies, alleging they prioritize profits over people's lives. >> drug companies, the drug distributors call need to be held accountable if they were responsible for flooding the markets putting these danger very addictive drugs into our communities. >> wednesday state attorney dave aronberg spoke strongly in favor of the measure his palm beach county sober home task force has netted 45 arrests and 16 convictions since october 2016 the task force did not receive additional funding from state legislature this year but aronberg says the work will continue, announcing the addition of another prosecutor to the team. nationally aronberg continues to lead a panel of prosecutors across the country charged with , developing best practices to deal with the opioid crisis. he says the panel will release a report on its findings in may. whitney: a new study shows opiod deaths increased despite crack downs on pharmaceutical companies back in 2010
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Apr 11, 2018 | Denver, CO
By KMGH (ABC)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177812?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1
Rough Transcript: here in colorado, pueblo county -@is joining a awsuit against manufacturers of opioids. the chiefton reports the county has the second highest death rate from overdoses n the state. it is a contribute to the overprescription of opioid paii killers leading to thousands of overdoses and deaths. the lawsuit will be held.
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Apr 11, 2018 | Portland, ME
By WGME (CBS)
Video Link: https://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/34177828?token=1631170a-569e-40af-9ace-73c08ae166e1
Rough Transcript: recently portland joined in a lawsuit against opioid manufactures and distributors. why did the city do this and what did the hope to get out of the lesson? >> we did this because the cost of dealing with opioid epidemics are through the roof and this is a similar case to what was happening with the tobacco industry and they were peddling something they were claiming is not addictive and that unfortunately jacked up healthcare cost and we got a big settlement that was able to allow us to do more prevention. reduced smoking rates in the state of maine. specially among youth. hwe can get the money out of this lawsuit to pull thhold the opioid manufactures accountable, they were the ones pushing them and putting them out and so many people you talk to today addicted to heroin or some other drugs started on painkillers. sort of began them down that road and i'm not sure the manufacturers were quite as clear with the public about what the power of these drugs was. and what the applications could be.
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