Sep 12 What a Purdue settlement would mean for fighting the opioid crisis By Laura Santhanam Purdue Pharma may be close to settling with states, cities and counties for how it profited off of opioids, but experts offer perspective about how the payout amount compares to the true costs of this public health crisis. Continue reading
Aug 26 Watch 8:01 What Okla. judgment against Johnson & Johnson means for opioid accountability An Oklahoma judge delivered a $572 million judgment against pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson in the first major legal decision to go against a drugmaker for its role in the opioid crisis. The judge found the company’s marketing practices helped… Continue watching
Jul 18 Watch 6:47 The opioid industry fought hard to keep this database hidden. Here’s what it shows Over the past two decades, hundreds of thousands of Americans have died during a national opioid addiction crisis. As the drug manufacturers face a possible legal reckoning from multiple lawsuits, a newly uncovered database sheds more light on the scope… Continue watching
Jul 17 Number of U.S. overdose deaths appears to be falling By Mike Stobbe, Associated Press Overdose deaths had been climbing each year since 1990, topping 70,000 in 2017. Continue reading
May 16 5 states announce new lawsuits over prescription opioids By Anthony Izaguirre, Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press With the suits, 45 states are now taking legal action against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, asserting that the company downplayed the addiction risks of its powerful prescription drug. Continue reading
May 02 Jury says drug firm founder guilty of bribing doctors to push opioid By Alanna Durkin Richer, Associated Press A pharmaceutical company founder accused of bribing doctors across the U.S. to prescribe a highly addictive fentanyl spray was convicted Thursday in a case that exposed such marketing tactics as using a stripper-turned-sales-rep to give a physician a lap dance. Continue reading
Apr 24 Watch 6:14 How federal case against drug distributor could change opioid fight Amid the ongoing opioid epidemic, drug manufacturers, doctors and pharmacists have all come under fire. But it's a drug distributor, a company called RDC, at the center of a new federal criminal case that equates its business operations with illegal… Continue watching
Apr 23 Ex-CEO is first drug exec indicted in opioid crisis, U.S. Attorney says By Michael R. Sisak, Associated Press The indictment unsealed Tuesday alleges former Rochester Drug Co-Operative CEO Laurence Doud III ordered subordinates to ignore red flags about certain pharmacy customers to maximize company revenues and his own pay, which more than doubled between 2012 and 2016 as… Continue reading
Apr 04 Oklahoma drops some claims in lawsuit against opioid manufacturers By Tim Talley, Associated Press The state attorney general's office will continue to pursue allegations that the drugmakers created a public nuisance, which he says is the most important allegation against the drugmakers. Continue reading
Mar 28 Watch 6:16 What New York state’s lawsuit against Purdue Pharma says about U.S. opioid battle More than 400,000 people in the U.S. have died from opioid use in the past two decades. As the country tries to contain the crisis, many states and cities are challenging the drug manufacturers in court. The latest lawsuit, brought… Continue watching