NY Sues Big Pharma Family for Opioid Crisis
By Michael V. Cusenza
In 2017, more than 3,200 New Yorkers died from opioid overdose. New York Attorney General Tish James has effectively declared war on the entities that she has said are responsible for those deaths.
James on Thursday filed what her Office has characterized as the nation’s most comprehensive lawsuit against the manufacturers and distributors of prescription painkillers for their roles in the opioid epidemic.
The extensive, 269-page complaint filed in Suffolk County Supreme Court alleges that through years of false and deceptive marketing, and by ignoring their duties to prevent the unlawful diversion of controlled substances, six national prescription opioid manufacturers—Purdue Pharma and its affiliates; members of the Sackler family (owners of Purdue) and trusts they control; Janssen Pharmaceuticals and its affiliates (including its parent company Johnson & Johnson); Mallinckrodt LLC and its affiliates; Endo Health Solutions and its affiliates; Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. and its affiliates; and Allergan Finance, LLC and its affiliates—and four national prescription drug distributors—McKesson Corporation; Cardinal Health Inc.; Amerisource Bergen Drug Corporation; and Rochester Drug Cooperative Inc.—are largely responsible for creating the opioid epidemic that has ravaged the Empire State, causing widespread addiction, overdose deaths, and suffering ...
The action filed Thursday alleges that manufacturers implemented a common “playbook” to mislead the public about the safety, efficacy, and risks of their prescription opioids. Manufacturers pushed claims that opioids could improve quality of life and cognitive functioning, promoted false statements about the non-addictive nature of these drugs, masked signs of addiction by referring to them as “pseudoaddiction” and encouraged greater opioid use to treat it, and suggested that alternative pain relief methods were riskier than opioids, among other “grossly misleading” claims. They utilized a network of sales representatives (“detailers”) to push these narratives and to target susceptible doctors, flood publications with their “deceptive” advertisements, and offer consumers discount cards and other incentives to entice them to request treatment with their products ...
http://theforumnewsgroup.com/2019/04/04/ny-sues-big-pharma-family-for-opioid-crisis/
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