opioid epidemic News

Sackler Family Asks Judge to Toss Massachusetts Opioid Suit

The billionaire family that owns Purdue Pharma LP says Massachusetts officials can’t prove that it or other directors masterminded the alleged illegal marketing of the company’s OxyContin painkiller. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s lawsuit, seeking to hold the Sacklers and …

New York Lawsuit Seeks Sackler Family Investments Abroad

A New York state lawsuit is renewing longstanding questions about where some members of the billionaire Sackler family have invested the wealth they amassed from Purdue Pharma LP, the drugmaker accused of helping ignite the U.S. opioid epidemic. One place …

Teva Wins Patent Case Related to Orexo Opioid-Treatment Drug

A U.S. jury on Friday rejected a claim by Sweden’s Orexo AB that two generic opioid-addiction treatments created by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. infringed a patent for Orexo’s biggest drug, Zubsolv. A Teva unit had created copies of the drugs …

Jurors Told Bribes, Music Videos Used to Boost Opioid Sales

Employees at a drug company accused of bribing doctors rapped and danced around a person dressed as a bottle of the highly addictive fentanyl spray in a video meant to motivate sales reps into getting patients on higher doses. The …

Opioid Pain Treatment Addiction Costs Workers’ Comp Carriers, Health Insurers Billions

Insurers Seek Reimbursement for the High Cost of Opioid Addictions Big Pharma is having a Big Tobacco moment. Since 1999, the number of prescription opioids sold in America has almost quadrupled. Over the same period, prescription opioid deaths have more …

New Research Shows How Opioid Deaths Began With a Doctor’s Prescription

It’s been conventional wisdom for some time now that America’s opioid epidemic began at the pharmacy. Now there are numbers that put any doubt to rest. More than half of all people who succumbed to an overdose between 2001 to …