Washington, D.C. - December 4, 2017 - (The Ponder News) -- According to a story in TwinCities.com, "Minnesota county attorneys from across the state plan to sue opioid manufacturers and distributors for allegedly using marketing tactics akin to the tobacco industry to flood communities with addictive and deadly narcotics." They aren't the only states suing.
There's been a lot of cases brought against Opioid manufacturers and distributors recently, and many of those cases won. A few of these cases are listed below, courtesy of Attorney Levin Papantonio at Levinlaw.com:
In 2017, McKesson Corporation, one of the nation’s largest distributors of pharmaceuticals, paid a $150 million civil penalty for violations of the Controlled Substances Act. McKesson was failing to report “suspicious orders” for oxycodone and hydrocodone, such as orders that were suspicious in frequency, size, or other patterns. To read more, click Justice Department McKesson
In 2017, Mallinckrodt Plc, a manufacturer of oxycodone, agreed to pay $35 million to resolve U.S. investigations into its monitoring and reporting of suspicious orders of controlled substances. To read more, click Reuters
In 2017, Costco Wholesale reached an $11.75 million settlement to resolve allegations that its pharmacies violated the Controlled Substances Act when they improperly filled prescriptions for controlled substances. To read more, click Justice Department Cosco
In 2017, Cardinal Health reached a settlement in the amount of $20 million with the state of West Virginia regarding the company's distribution of opioids in state between 2007 and 2012. "Cardinal and other wholesalers in a six-year period sent 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia – 433 per state resident . . . . In that time, there were 1,728 fatal overdoses from the addictive painkillers.” To read more, click Columbus Business First
In 2016, Cardinal Health, Inc. agreed to pay $44 million to the United States to resolve allegations that it violated the Controlled Substances Act in Maryland, Florida and New York by failing to report suspicious orders of controlled substances to pharmacies located in those states. To read more, click Justice Department Cardinal Health
In 2015, Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, agreed to pay the state of Kentucky $24 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of misleading the public about the addictiveness of the prescription opioid. To read more, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kentucky-settles-lawsuit-with-oxycontin-maker-for-24-million/
Another law firm, Haygood, Orr and Pearson, who've dubbed themselves the "Painkiller Overdose Lawyers", work like the traditional "ambulance chaser" lawyers with their ad page which says,
If you have lost a loved one to an overdose caused by opioid painkillers, you may qualify to file a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the drug or the doctor or hospital that issued the prescription. The first step in taking legal action is to discuss your case with an attorney to learn more your legal rights and review the first steps in filing a case.
The lawyers at Heygood, Orr & Pearson have filed hundreds of lawsuits on behalf of patients who harmed by opioid painkillers. Our law firm has settled more cases involving the powerful opioid fentanyl than all other law firms in the U.S. combined. Heygood, Orr & Pearson has also represented hundreds of patients who were victims of an opioid overdose.
For more information about filing an opioid overdose lawsuit and to find out whether you may be eligible to file a case, contact Heygood, Orr & Pearson...
According to Cohen and Malad, LLP Blog, "Consolidated City of Indianapolis hired Cohen & Malad, LLP to pursue legal action against opioid manufacturers and distributors. The mayor stated at an October 5, 2017 press conference that this legal action is an additional resource for the city in the fight against the opioid addiction epidemic sweeping across the United States and ravaging our communities."
These are only a few examples of the war against opioids going on.
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar has released a statement following the announcement that Minnesota county attorneys have announced lawsuits against drug manufacturers and distributors for the public cost of the opioid crisis:
“The Minnesota Department of Health reported that 637 Minnesotans died from drug overdoses last year alone—and this crisis is not just in our state, it’s all over the country. Drug manufacturers and distributors spent years misleading the public about the addictive nature of their prescription drugs, contributing to the epidemic that has been officially deemed a public health emergency. These companies should be held accountable for their role in this crisis – and help pay for drug treatment for the people they got addicted.”
As a former Hennepin County Attorney, Klobuchar has long led local and national efforts to curb drug abuse and help people overcome addiction. Klobuchar was one of four senators, along with Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), to lead the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA). This bipartisan bill, which was signed into law in July 2016, encourages states and local communities to pursue a full array of proven strategies in the fight against opioid addiction. At the end of 2016, $1 billion was made available by Congress to fund the national effort. To build on the monumental first step of CARA, Klobuchar introduced the Prescription Drug Monitoring Act, which would require the use of strong prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) in all states that receive certain federal funding to combat opioid abuse and also requires states to make their PDMP data available to other states.
Earlier this year, she and ten other senators introduced the Budgeting for Opioid Addiction Treatment (LifeBOAT) Act, which would establish a reliable funding stream to provide and expand access to substance abuse treatment. She and a bipartisan group of senators also introduced the Synthetic Abuse and Labeling of Toxic Substances (SALTS) Act and the Synthetics Trafficking & Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act. The SALTS Act would make it easier to prosecute the sale of “analogue” drugs, which are synthetic substances that are substantially similar to illegal drugs. The STOP Act would help close a loophole in the U.S. postal system to stop dangerous synthetic drugs like fentanyl and carfentanil from being shipped through our borders to drug traffickers in the U.S.
In September 2014, the DEA implemented Klobuchar’s bipartisan Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act. Under the legislation, consumers are provided with more safe and responsible ways to dispose of unused prescription medications and controlled substances.
It will be interesting to see how it all turns out...
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