Taking Big Pharma to Court

(Spring 2016) Several states are attempting to hold pharmaceutical companies responsible for drug misuse and abuse. For example, the Oregon Coalition for Responsible Use of Meds and Oregon Health and Science University will receive $567,000 to curb opioid misuse in the state. The monies come from a $1.1 million settlement between the Oregon Department of Justice and Insys, a pharmaceutical company that illegally promoted the opioid medication Subsys within the state.

Purdue Pharma and Kentucky settled a case for $24 million. The state brought suit against the OxyContin manufacturer in 2007, accusing the drugmaker of advertising the medication as non-addictive because of the pill’s time-release formula. However, when crushed, the pill produced an instant high. State officials charged that this resulted in both increased addiction rates and an escalation of medical costs, as particularly evident in the eastern region of the state where many injured coal miners received the medication. The court mandated that settlement funds go to addiction treatment programs. It should be noted that Purdue Pharma did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement agreement.

This is not the first time Purdue Pharma has found itself in this kind of situation. Previously the drug manufacturer, with revenues of $91 billion, paid a $630 million settlement for misrepresenting OxyContin as non-addictive.

Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals also settled a lawsuit with Kentucky for $155 million. The lawsuit alleged that Janssen’s product Risperdal, an antipsychotic designed to treat schizophrenia, was marketed without warning of side effects. Again, no wrongdoing was admitted.

In neighboring West Virginia, the attorney general’s office brought suit against drug distributor McKesson Corporation for allegedly failing to identify, detect, report and aid in halting the stream of suspicious drug orders into the state. Huge profits from the drug sales were used for employee bonuses and supplemental commissions to drive additional business.

McKesson is accused of shipping approximately 99.5 million doses of hydrocodone and oxycodone to the Mountain State between 2007 and 2012. The lawsuit alleges that many of those deliveries resulted in drug misuse and played a part in overdoses, decreased employee productivity and depleted resources across the state. The case also charges that McKesson either did not develop an adequate system to pinpoint suspicious orders or blatantly ignored such potential.

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