Opioid crisis hits home for some firms
4 firms in Chester and Montgomery counties face lawsuits and investigations into their operations
The ongoing drug addiction epidemic in the U.S. put several companies in Chester and Montgomery counties into an unwanted spotlight in 2017.
What had been a steady but somewhat random group of legal actions taken against area opioid makers and a distributor turned into a more concerted effort in September when 41 attorneys general announced they would investigate the companies together.
Coming under the microscope in the region are the business practices of Chester Countybased drug makers Endo Pharmaceuticals and Cephalon (now part of Teva, which also has North American headquarters in North Wales, Montgomery County), and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, which has offices in Horsham, Montgomery County. Drug distributor Amerisource-Bergen of Conshohocken and Tredyffrin also has been named in a number of the legal actions, along with two other of the nation’s largest distributors. All have denied any wrongdoing.
Now, in addition to the lawsuits filed by counties and cities across the nation seeking compensation from the companies for the expenses they have incurred responding to overdose victims, opioid makers and distributors face a probe into whether their business practices broke any laws.
“As I promised the day I took office in January, we are confronting this epidemic on our street corners, in doctors’ offices and hospitals, and now — in the boardrooms of pharmaceutical companies,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at the news conference announcing the joint investigation at Upper Dublin High School in Montgomery County. “We will follow the facts and the law, without fear or favor, and hold the responsible persons and companies accountable for the tragic loss of life and damage suffered by so many families across our commonwealth.”
“To any parent, family or
friend of someone lost to addiction, we hear you,” Shapiro said. “I’m announcing today a major step forward in our investigation into the manufacturing, marketing, sale and distribution of opioids — a class of drugs so dangerous the Centers for Disease Control warns they are ‘just as addictive as heroin.’”
Because of the size of the drug addiction epidemic, and the possible ramifications investigations and lawsuits could have on the companies involved, the opioid crisis is one the year’s biggest area business stories.
And as 2017 comes to a close, there appears to be no end in sight to the crisis.
Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that life expectancy in the U.S. in 2016 fell to 78.6 years, a second consecutive and statistically significant annual decline of a tenth of a year. The back-toback drops coincided with an average annual increase in opioid-related overdose deaths of about 20 percent, and a staggering oneyear surge in 2016 in which 42,249 people — an official tally that may understate the real scope of the problem by thousands — died of that cause, the Washington Post reported. More bad news: Early signs are that drug-related deaths continued to climb in 2017, which could contribute to a third straight year of falling life expectancy, something that hasn’t happened since the Spanish flu swept the country a century ago, The Post reported.
Also on the CDC website: Since 1999, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including prescription opioids and heroin) quadrupled. From 2000 to 2015 more than half a million people died from drug overdoses, and 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose, the CDC reported.
“We now know that overdoses from prescription opioids are a driving factor in the 15-year increase in opioid overdose deaths,” a statement on the CDC website reads. “The amount of prescription opioids sold to pharmacies, hospitals, and doctors’ offices nearly quadrupled from 1999 to 2010 ... yet there had not been an overall change in the amount of pain that Americans reported ... Deaths from prescription opioids — drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone — have more than quadrupled since 1999.”
Armed with disturbing data like the CDC’s, states, counties and cities increasingly are moving on the makers and distributors with their own lawsuits.
The latest: Cook County, Illinois, the nation’s second most populous county and home to Chicago.
Cook County followed the path of five suburban Chicago counties Wednesday in filing a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical companies.
The lawsuit alleges “unlawful marketing” by the manufacturers, which the county contends has led to an “opioid crisis facing Cook County residents,” according to a county news release.
The Cook County suit lists many of the same defendants as the other lawsuits from across the nation, including Purdue Pharma, Abbott Laboratories, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Cephalon, Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Endo Health Solutions. Representatives of the companies have defended their actions, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Closer to home, Delaware County in September joined Bensalem, Bucks County, in suing the companies seeking damages from the opioid manufacturers, claiming they downplayed the dangers of the addictive painkillers.
“Delaware County didn’t want to wait any longer. These brave leaders are tired of seeing 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.”
For their part, the drugmakers say they are working to be part of the solution to the opioid crisis.
“At Endo, our top priorities include patient safety and ensuring that patients with chronic pain have access to safe and effective therapeutic options,” read an emailed statement earlier this year from Heather Zoumas Lubeski, senior director of corporate affairs. “We share in the FDA’s goal of appropriately supporting the needs of patients with chronic pain while preventing misuse and diversion of opioid products.
“It is Endo’s policy not to comment on current litigation or investigations,” the statement concluded.