Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
19 Cities Hope To Continue Lawsuits Against Purdue Pharma Family Despite Company's Efforts To Get National Settlement
The Associated Press: Cities Push Opioid Lawsuits Against Family That Owns Purdue
Local government lawsuits against the family that owns Purdue Pharma should be allowed to proceed even as the company attempts to reach a nationwide settlement in bankruptcy court over the toll of the opioids crisis, according to a court filing on Wednesday. The filing by 19 cities and towns in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia comes amid acrimonious settlement negotiations with the maker of the painkiller OxyContin that is now playing out in a bankruptcy court in White Plains, New York. (Mulvihill, 10/2)
The Associated Press: Company Claims Oklahoma Judge Miscalculated Opioid Award
An Oklahoma judge made a $107 million miscalculation when he ordered consumer products giant Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million to help clean up the state’s opioid crisis, attorneys for the company argue in a court filing. The company also is asking for a reduction in the judgment based on pre-trial settlements totaling $355 million that the state reached with Oxycontin-maker Purdue Pharma and Israeli-owned Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Murphy, 10/2)
The Associated Press: AP Exclusive: Colleges Got $60M-Plus From OxyContin Family
Prestigious universities around the world have accepted at least $60 million over the past five years from the family that owns the maker of OxyContin, even as the company became embroiled in lawsuits related to the opioid epidemic, financial records show. Some of the donations arrived before recent lawsuits blaming Purdue Pharma for its role in the opioid crisis. But at least nine schools accepted gifts in 2018 or later, when states and counties across the country began efforts to hold members of the family accountable for Purdue’s actions. The largest gifts in that span went to Imperial College London, the University of Sussex and Yale University. (Binkley and McDermott, 10/3)
The Baltimore Sun: As Opioid Epidemic Continues, Baltimore Looks To Address Gap In Reaching Overdose Victims Overnight
As opioid addiction increasingly pushes users into emergency rooms with the advent of fentanyl into Baltimore’s drug markets, city officials are looking to address a gap created in part when people are released from the hospital after an overdose without any connection to follow-up treatment. The state has awarded the Behavioral Health System Baltimore $849,000 for fiscal year 2020 to address the problem, which the organization says stems from a lack of staff on the city’s Mobile Crisis Team. (Davis, 10/2)
The New York Times: A Doctor Who Prescribed 500,000 Doses Of Opioids Is Sent To Prison For 40 Years
A Virginia doctor who prescribed more than 500,000 doses of opioids in two years was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Wednesday for leading what prosecutors called an interstate drug distribution ring. The overprescription of painkillers is one of the roots of the nation’s opioid crisis, and patients of Dr. Joel Smithers traveled hundreds of miles from neighboring states to pick up oxymorphone, oxycodone, hydromorphone and fentanyl, according to law enforcement officials. They said he prescribed controlled substances to every patient in the Martinsville, Va., practice he opened in August 2015. (Hassan, 10/2)
NPR: Doctor Gets 40 Years For Illegally Prescribing More Than Half A Million Opioid Doses
The sentence is lighter than it could have been. Smithers was facing up to life in prison and a fine of more than $200 million, according to officials at the U.S. Justice Department. Smithers was convicted by a jury in May on more than 800 federal drug charges — including one count of possessing with the intent to distribute controlled substances and one count of maintaining a place for the purpose of unlawfully distributing controlled substances. (Booker, 10/2)
Los Angeles Times: MLB And Players’ Union Mull Testing For Opioids While Easing Marijuana Penalties
The league would “absolutely” like to add opioid testing for next season, said Dan Halem, the league’s deputy commissioner. Tony Clark, the executive director of the players’ association, said the union plans to work with the league to assess “all of our drug protocols relating to education, treatment and prevention.” The parties have discussed whether to loosen baseball’s restrictions on marijuana — not specifically as a trade-off for opioid testing, but as part of the annual review of the sport’s drug policy, according to three people familiar with the talks but not authorized to comment publicly on them. (Shaikin, 10/2)
