Opioid Drugmakers Call for Specificity in Cases of Harm in Government Lawsuits Filed Against Them
As more and more lawsuits are filed by state and local governments over the opioid epidemic, drugmakers are fighting back in court by demanding the allegations include specifics on how the companies are to blame.
As the city of New Orleans and Missouri’s Franklin County become the latest local governments to file more than 1,500 lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, companies like Purdue Pharmaceuticals, the maker of OxyContin, are asking the plaintiffs for specifics in exactly how the companies are to blame for the overdose deaths, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The challenge is the result of a lawsuit taking place in an Ohio courtroom that is being watched as a benchmark case. Earlier this week, the Journal reported, U.S. District Judge Dan Polster issued an order that four municipal governments that have filed lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, “must identify 500 medically unnecessary prescriptions and 300 residents who became addicted or were harmed from opioid prescriptions.” The Journal noted that Polster provided another option though, that the local governments do not have to produce those names if they elect to not single out specific prescriptions that could be blamed for the overdose deaths and other healthcare-related issues. Polster said the plaintiffs could rely on “broad arguments” that focus on the “entire scope of the opioid crisis in their region,” the Journal said.
The local governments have argued they do not have detailed prescription information surrounding the deaths or other opioid-related healthcare issues. They say their claims “do not turn on proof that a specific drug caused harm to a specific individual,” the Journal said.
The cities and counties involved in the Ohio case before Polster have until Monday to select which option they will pursue.
Earlier this year BioSpace highlighted a number of the lawsuits that have been filed against the opioid-makers. The arguments cited in the lawsuits typically say that the companies, such as Purdue, engaged in deceptive marketing practices that contributed to high addiction rates. Also, the lawsuits argue that the companies downplayed concerns over abuse, as well as allegations of complicity in the large amounts of opioids delivered to small-town pharmacies. The federal government has also interjected itself in these lawsuits. President Donald Trump has encouraged the DOJ to take legal action against the opioid companies. Earlier this year the federal government petitioned the courts to participate in settlement discussions as a “friend of the court.” The friend of the court filing came about a month after the DOJ formed a task force to target opioid manufacturers and distributors for the roles they have allegedly played in the increase of addiction across the country
As opioid-making companies such as Purdue prepare a defense against the allegations, they are arguing that the state and local governments filing lawsuits against them “have failed to respond to questions about which opioid prescriptions they claim shouldn’t have been written, what caused them to be written and how they caused harm,” the Journal said. In addition to Purdue, other opioid manufacturers have been singled out, including Johnson & Johnson, Allergan and Endo International.
If the case moves forward under whichever of Polster’s conditions the local governments elect, it will likely be argued sometime next year. However, the Journal noted that the court is pushing both sides toward settlement talks.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 116 Americans die daily from opioid overdoses.