San Luis chooses to remain part of opioid lawsuit

SAN LUIS, Ariz. — San Luis will remain part of a lawsuit that seeks to force pharmaceutical companies and distributors to reimburse local governments the costs of the opioid crisis.

The San Luis City Council recently instructed the city to remain part of the litigation overseen by a federal judge and against 13 pharmaceutical companies, distributors and retailers: Purdue, Cephalon, Endo, Mallinckrodt, Actavis, Janssen, McKesson, Cardinal, Amerisource-Bergen, CVS, Rite-Aid, Walgreens and Wal-Mart.

The lawsuit involves mainly prescription painkillers that are made, distributed and sold by those companies, and alleges that the defendants didn’t make consumers aware of the risks of addiction.

“Basically the lawsuit is because these companies said that those medications are very safe and had very low risk factor of addiction,” Mayor Gerardo Sanchez said. “This lawsuit is very big and most (cities and counties) are participating.”

The council did not take a formal vote to remain part of the class action lawsuit. City Attorney Kay Macuil said the city automatically remains a plaintiff unless it votes to be separated from the litigation.

Macuil said other litigation over opioid addiction has already taken place in Arizona, including a lawsuit settled recently when INSYS Therapeutics, headquartered in Chandler, agreed to pay $225 million to avoid criminal charges.

Sanchez predicted San Luis would end up receiving some form of economic compensation from the lawsuit in which it is a plaintiff, although he doubts it would be a significant amount.

Nonetheless Sanchez, a physician’s assistant by profession, raised concerns that lawsuits could have a chilling effect on current and future efforts to develop new drugs.

“These companies don’t just make and sell pain medication,” he said. “They also develop antibiotics and medications for diseases like Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis.”

He noted that INSYS filed for bankruptcy following the settlement of the state’s lawsuit.

“The problem could be that these lawsuits could affect these companies’ research and development programs for medications.”