Delco files suit against big pharma firms

Delaware County is the first county in Pa. to file suit against drug companies in the opioid epidemic.

MEDIA COURTHOUSE » Delaware County became the first county in Pennsylvania to wage war on Big Pharma with a civil lawsuit seeking damages from opioid manufactures they allege participated in an elaborate scheme, downplaying the dangerous and often deadly addictiveness of prescription painkillers.

The filing was announced by Delaware County Council, District Attorney Jack Whelan and the Delaware County Sheriff’s office Thursday to combat what officials called the “relentless pursuit for profit” that came at a great cost to public safety.

“Delaware County didn’t want to wait any longer. These brave leaders are tired of see their constituents whose loved ones have been killed,” said attorney Robert Mongeluzzi of Saltz, Mongeluzzi, Barrett and Bendesky of Philadelphia, who will represent the county in the case.

“They aren’t waiting. They are being proactive, and they are taking the first step.”

The suit alleges that four top pharmaceutical companies — Endo, Purdue, Cephalon and Janssen — systematically put doctors on the payroll who wrote medical opinions which called for doctors to prescribe opioids to treat their patients.

“This was a finely orchestrated blitzkrieg by the opioid manufacturing industry to change public opinions and to convince doctors that opioids were safety and non-addictive when in fact they were deadly and deadly addictive,” Mongeluzzi said.

Despite having just 4 percent of the planet’s population, Americans ingest 80 percent of the world’s supply of opioids.

Citing deceptive marketing materials and resources drafted by doctors named in the suit as Dr. Lynn Webster of Salt Lake City, Utah, Dr. Scott Fishman of Sacramento, Calif., Dr. Perry Fine of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Dr. Russell Portenoy, whom Time magazine dubbed “The King of Pain.” The complaint alleges the four were “instrumental in promoting opioids for sale and distribution nationally and in Delaware County.”

Since 1980, decidedly non-peer reviewed journals and articles that promoted the use of drugs like Oxycontin, Percocet, Fentanyl and others were promoted by doctors on Big Pharma’s payroll and by front groups like the American Pain Foundation and the American Academy of Pain Medication that advocated for opioid use, the suit claims.

The American Pain Foundation, where Portentoy acted as president, shut down in 2012 after it had received 90 percent of its $5 million in funding in 2010 from the drug and medical-device industry.

Attorney Harris Pogust of Pogust Braslow Millrood LLC in Conshohocken, said that in 20 years of litigating cases against pharmaceutical companies he hasn’t seen a seen a conspiracy of four different pharmaceuticals coming together to work in concert.

Whelan said this is the first step in an ongoing battle.

“The problem I have personally is that I have so many parents saying to me, ‘Why isn’t anyone going after the pharmaceuticals corporations?’” Whelan said. “Finally I can say to parents or a loved one who lost somebody we are.”

The hope is that other counties in the commonwealth will follow suit.

“You can join in a critical mass,” Mongeluzzi said. “This is an incredibly complex and costly battle — we are going up against what I would call the superpower of litigation with Big Pharma — and certainly the more counties that join, the more the odds get evened out.”

In Pennsylvania, it’s against the law to claim a dollar amount in civil cases. Delaware County Councilman David White, the co-chairman of the Heroin Task Force, said they are seeking damages to be returned to Delaware County.