Ohio Sues 5 Major Drug Companies For 'Fueling Opioid Epidemic'

[Disir]

The state of Ohio has sued five major drug manufacturers for their role in the opioid epidemic. In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, state Attorney General Mike DeWine alleges these five companies "helped unleash a health care crisis that has had far-reaching financial, social, and deadly consequences in the State of Ohio."

Named in the suit are:

• Purdue Pharma
• Endo Health Solutions
• Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and subsidiary Cephalon
• Johnson & Johnson and subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals
• Allergan

Ohio Sues 5 Major Drug Companies For 'Fueling Opioid Epidemic'

Ok. I understand that to combat this is going to take a lot of money. I understand that these companies are the only ones that have that kind of money. I know all about the drug companies "sales" techniques. I hate the pharmaceutical industry for a plethora of reasons.

You can't just skip a couple of steps in the whole accountability thing because they have cash. You can't hold the addicts accountable for any thing because (sob) they are addicts. Now, you can't hold the doctors accountable because they were so inundated with advertisements?

 

[IsaacNewton]

It's about time this happens. Pharmaceutical companies have been legal drug dealers and their product is killing hunreds of thousands and addicting millions more.

 

[SavannahMann]

So people in pain in Ohio should just die. Interesting plan.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Might they do the nuclear option? That is: stop selling their products in Ohio.

 

[waltky]

Naltrexone — marketed as Vivitrol — blocks the effects of opioids...

Two Medications Show Promise in Treating Opioid Addiction
November 28, 2017 - The United States is suffering through an unprecedented wave of opioid and prescription drug abuse. An estimated 2.5 million people are addicted to prescription opioids or heroin, and on average 91 people per day die from an opioid-related overdose.

A new study comparing two of the top medications for treating addiction found they were equally safe and effective in curtailing opioid use, relapse, treatment dropout and overdose. The most commonly prescribed treatment is buprenorphine-naloxone, often administered to treat a narcotic overdose in an emergency situation. The problem is that it has opioid-like effects and holds the potential for abuse. In contrast, the drug naltrexone — marketed as Vivitrol — blocks the effects of opioids. But patients must be completely off opiates to start taking it.

Joshua Lee, at New York University’s School of Medicine, said the two drugs are used in very different ways. "Naltrexone is an opioid blocker, and so it's used after people have gotten off opiates ... and then want to maintain in an opiate-free state, using naltrexone to help them," he said. "Buprenorphine is used in more of a maintenance model where people switch without fully detoxing from a unhealthy opioid — say, heroin — to buprenorphine, which can be taken on a daily basis and then maintained for months and months in terms of long-term recovery." Lee and his colleagues led a study to compare the two therapies.

A group of 570 opioid-dependent adults who were still trying to kick their heroin habits in detox were given either a daily oral dose of buprenorphine while in treatment, or six monthly injections of naltrexone after completing treatment. Results showed that both therapies worked with about the same effectiveness. "Over the course of six months, about the same amount of people that had started did OK in terms of avoiding opiate relapse and kind of surviving on treatment, doing reasonably well in terms of traditional outpatient opiate treatment goals," Lee said.

One caveat: Twenty-five percent of the people scheduled to take naltrexone weren't able to complete detoxification, so they weren't able to get the shots, while only 6 percent of members in the other study group were unable to start their daily doses of buprenorphine. The researchers hope their finding that the medications were equally safe and effective encourages clinics to expand their treatment offerings — and save lives.

Two Medications Show Promise in Treating Opioid Addiction

 

[Skull Pilot]

It's about time this happens. Pharmaceutical companies have been legal drug dealers and their product is killing hunreds of thousands and addicting millions more.

No one can get those drugs without a prescription from an physician with a federal DEA license so it seems you are blaming the wrong people here.

 

[waltky]

Purdue Pharma to Pay for Overdose-Antidote Development...

Major Opioid Maker to Pay for Overdose-Antidote Development
September 05, 2018 - A company whose prescription opioid marketing practices are being blamed for sparking the addiction and overdose crisis says it's helping to fund an effort to make a lower-cost overdose antidote.

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma announced Wednesday that it's making a $3.4 million grant to Harm Reduction Therapeutics, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit, to help develop a low-cost naloxone nasal spray. The announcement comes as lawsuits from local governments blaming Purdue, based in Stamford, Connecticut, and other companies in the drug industry for using deceptive marketing practices to encourage heavy prescribing of the powerful and addictive painkillers. Last week, the number of lawsuits against the industry being overseen by a federal judge topped 1,000.

Purdue Pharma offices are seen in Stamford, Connecticut​

The Cleveland-based judge, Dan Polster, is pushing the industry to settle with the plaintiffs — mostly local governments and Native American tribes — and with state governments, most of which have sued in state court or are conducting a joint investigation. Hundreds of other local governments are also suing in state courts across the country. The sides have had regular settlement discussions, but it's not clear when a deal might be struck in the case, which is complicated by the number of parties and questions on how to assign blame.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that drug overdoses killed a record 72,000 Americans last year. The majority of the deaths involved opioids. But a growing number of them are from illicit synthetic drugs, including fentanyl, rather than prescription opioids such as OxyContin or Vicodin. Governments are asking for changes in how opioids are marketed, and for help paying for treatment and the costs of ambulance runs, child welfare systems, jails and other expenses associated with the opioid crisis.

A police officer demonstrates the use of naloxone in Millersville, Maryland​

Polster is expected to rule in coming weeks on motions from drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies to dismiss thee claims. Trials in some of the cases — being used to test issues common to many of them — are now scheduled to begin in September 2019. Purdue agreed to pay $634 million in fines back in 2007 to settle charges that the company downplayed the risk of addiction and abuse of its blockbuster painkiller OxyContin starting in the 1990s. It's facing similar accusations again. Earlier this year, the privately held company stopped marketing OxyContin to doctors.

Naloxone

 

[MaryL]

This is a HUGE issue. Major pharmaceutical firm profits from drug addiction and blocks all legislation to stop it.. This reminds me of Vietnam, like say, Northrop or Dow that profited from the war promoted that jingoistic propaganda about how GOOD fighting Communism was, or say, tobacco companies hiding behind lawyers and doctors that shill for them how GOOD smoking was despite how they knew the cancer risk. This is America , all about profit and truth is secondary.

 

[fncceo]

What is this obsession with evil corporations that drives some people to show such hatred for men and women who make the products that make modern life possible?

People drink drive ... sue the car companies. People commit gun crime ... sue the gun companies. People abuse drugs ... sue drug companies. People get bullied on social media ... sue social media companies. Are some people incapable of seeing the disconnect here?

Opioid-based drugs make modern surgery possible. They make rehabilitation from debilitating injury and disease possible. They bring some semblance of quality of life to millions who would otherwise suffer in unbearable agony.

Suing the companies that make these vital drugs only causes them to pass the price of fighting those suits onto the patients who desperately need these drugs.

 

[Skull Pilot]

The state of Ohio has sued five major drug manufacturers for their role in the opioid epidemic. In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, state Attorney General Mike DeWine alleges these five companies "helped unleash a health care crisis that has had far-reaching financial, social, and deadly consequences in the State of Ohio."

Named in the suit are:

• Purdue Pharma
• Endo Health Solutions
• Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and subsidiary Cephalon
• Johnson & Johnson and subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals
• Allergan

Ohio Sues 5 Major Drug Companies For 'Fueling Opioid Epidemic'

Ok. I understand that to combat this is going to take a lot of money. I understand that these companies are the only ones that have that kind of money. I know all about the drug companies "sales" techniques. I hate the pharmaceutical industry for a plethora of reasons.

You can't just skip a couple of steps in the whole accountability thing because they have cash. You can't hold the addicts accountable for any thing because (sob) they are addicts. Now, you can't hold the doctors accountable because they were so inundated with advertisements?

That's about as rational as suing alcohol manufacturers for the deaths of alcoholics