opioid epidemic News

Bipartisan Report Calls for New Strategy, Cabinet Post to Fight Opioid Epidemic

The U.S. needs a nimble, multipronged strategy and Cabinet-level leadership to counter its festering overdose epidemic, a bipartisan congressional commission advises. With vastly powerful synthetic drugs like fentanyl driving record overdose deaths, the scourge of opioids awaits after the COVID-19 …

Ruling Against Purdue’s Sacklers Puts Controversial Bankruptcy Tactic in Spotlight

A federal judge’s decision to unravel a settlement shielding members of the Sackler family from future opioid litigation could upend a controversial corner of U.S. bankruptcy law: protecting third parties who have not filed for Chapter 11 themselves. In a …

Judge Tosses $4.5B Deal Shielding Sacklers From Purdue Opioid Claims

A federal judge has thrown out a $4.5 billion settlement that would have shielded the Sackler family, which owned OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, from future lawsuits over opioids, upending the company’s plan to reorganize in bankruptcy court. U.S. District Judge …

AbbVie Pays $200M to Settle Opioid Marketing Case Right Before Trial Ends

AbbVie Inc. agreed to pay $200 million to settle claims by New York that its Allergan unit helped fuel an epidemic of opioid addiction in the state, shortly before jurors heard closing arguments from remaining defendant Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. …

Sackler Family Denies Scheme to Abuse Bankruptcy System and Avoid Liability

Members of the Sackler family on Monday said billions of dollars they collected from Purdue Pharma before the company filed for Chapter 11 was the result of extra cash, not part of a “secret plan” to abuse the bankruptcy system. …

Why Jury’s Opioid Verdict Against Pharmacy Chains May Not Survive Appeal

While a Cleveland jury concluded Walmart Inc., CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. exacerbated Ohio’s opioid epidemic with lax oversight of prescription painkillers, the verdict may not survive on appeal, according to legal experts. The companies, which vowed …

Publicis Loses Bid to Escape Massachusetts Opioid Marketing Lawsuit

A unit of French advertising company Publicis Groupe SA on Friday lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit by Massachusetts’ attorney general claiming it helped OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic. Publicis Health had called Attorney …

Drug Overdose Deaths Hit Record 93,000 During 2020 Pandemic

Overdose deaths soared to a record 93,000 last year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government reported Wednesday. That estimate far eclipses the high of about 72,000 drug overdose deaths reached the previous year and amounts to …

Opioid Makers, Distributors Go on Trial in New York

A landmark trial targeting multiple opioid manufacturers and distributors opened Tuesday with lawyers for the government accusing the companies of bringing death and destruction to communities. The case bought by Suffolk and Nassau counties and state Attorney General Letitia James …

U.S. Drug Enforcer Testimony Cites ‘Systemic Failure’ in Monitoring by Opioid Distributors

A retired high-ranking official with the Drug Enforcement Administration has testified that three large opioid distributors had a “systematic failure” in monitoring suspicious pill orders. Joe Rannazzisi, former head of the Office of Diversion Control for the DEA from 2006 …