First Edition: August 27, 2019

Kaiser Health News: Judge Cites Opioid ‘Menace,’ Awards Oklahoma $572M In Landmark Case
“Defendants caused an opioid crisis that is evidenced by increased rates of addiction, overdose deaths and neonatal abstinence syndrome in Oklahoma,” Balkman said in the ruling. (Fortier and Mann, 8/26)

Kaiser Health News: Mysterious Vaping Lung Injuries May Have Flown Under Regulatory Radar
It was the arrival of the second man in his early 20s gasping for air that alarmed Dr. Dixie Harris. Young patients rarely get so sick, so fast, with a severe lung illness, and this was her second case in a matter of days. Then she saw three more patients at her Utah telehealth clinic with similar symptoms. They did not have infections, but all had been vaping. When Harris heard several teenagers in Wisconsin had been hospitalized in similar cases, she quickly alerted her state health department. (Lupkin and Barry-Jester, 8/27)

Kaiser Health News: Pharma Cash Rolls Into Congress To Defend An Embattled Industry
In the heat of the most ferocious battle over drug prices in years, pharmaceutical companies are showering U.S. senators with campaign cash as sweeping legislation heads toward the floor. In the first six months of this year alone, political action committees run by employees of drug companies and their trade groups have given the 30 senators expected to run for reelection nearly $845,000, the latest update to Kaiser Health News’ “Pharma Cash to Congress” database shows. That hefty sum stands out with Election Day more than 14 months away. (Huetteman, Hancock and Lucas, 8/27)

Kaiser Health News: How And When Immigrants’ Use Of Government Benefits Might Affect Their Legal Status
A new rule to restrict legal immigration, published by the Trump administration this month, is sowing confusion and anxiety even among immigrants not directly affected by it, as fear spreads faster than facts, immigration and health policy experts say. The rule would allow the federal government to more easily deny permanent residency status, popularly known as green cards, or entry visas to applicants who use — or are deemed likely to use — federally funded food stamps, housing assistance and Medicaid. (Ibarra, 8/27)

The New York Times: Johnson & Johnson Ordered To Pay $572 Million In Landmark Opioid Trial
A judge in Oklahoma on Monday ruled that Johnson & Johnson had intentionally played down the dangers and oversold the benefits of opioids, and ordered it to pay the state $572 million in the first trial of a drug manufacturer for the destruction wrought by prescription painkillers. The amount fell far short of the $17 billion judgment that Oklahoma had sought to pay for addiction treatment, drug courts and other services it said it would need over the next 20 years to repair the damage done by the opioid epidemic. (Hoffman, 8/26)

The Washington Post: Oklahoma Judge Orders Johnson & Johnson To Pay $572 Million To Fund Treatment Programs
Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman’s landmark decision is the first to hold a drugmaker culpable for the fallout of years of liberal opioid dispensing that began in the late 1990s, sparking a nationwide epidemic of overdose deaths and addiction. More than 400,000 people have died of overdoses from painkillers, heroin and illegal fentanyl since 1999. “The opioid crisis has ravaged the state of Oklahoma and must be abated immediately,” Balkman said, reading part of his decision aloud from the bench Monday afternoon. “As a matter of law, I find that defendants’ actions caused harm, and those harms are the kinds recognized by [state law] because those actions annoyed, injured or endangered the comfort, repose, health or safety of Oklahomans,” he wrote in the decision. (Bernstein, 8/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Johnson & Johnson Ordered To Pay $572 Million In Oklahoma Opioid Case
The judge said in the ruling that Johnson & Johnson’s misleading marketing included unbranded campaigns jointly developed with other companies that suggested pain was undertreated and that higher amounts of opioid prescriptions were the solution. The state said the company’s actions created a “public nuisance” and asked the judge to award as much as $17 billion to abate the costs of the crisis. Analysts followed the Oklahoma trial closely for signs of what might happen in the broader opioid litigation. Attention will turn next to Cleveland, where two counties are set to go to trial in October against an array of drugmakers and distributors. (Randazzo and Hopkins, 8/26)

Politico: Johnson & Johnson Ordered To Pay $572M In First Opioid Case
The damages appeared to be smaller than Wall Street was expecting, as stocks of companies involved in opioid litigation spiked upward after the ruling. Wells Fargo analysts earlier said they believed Johnson & Johnson could have faced a payout of more than $2 billion in the Oklahoma lawsuit. “This is not the eye-popping result that some people expected it to be,” said Andrew Pollis, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, who has tracked the opioid litigation closely. (Demko, 8/26)

The Associated Press: Johnson & Johnson Helped Fuel Opioid Crisis In Oklahoma And Must Pay $572 Million, Judge Rules
Before Oklahoma’s trial began on May 28, the state reached settlements with two other defendant groups — a $270-million deal with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and an $85-million settlement with Israeli-owned Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Oklahoma argued the companies and their subsidiaries created a public nuisance by launching an aggressive and misleading marketing campaign that overstated how effective the drugs were for treating chronic pain and understated the risk of addiction. Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Mike Hunter says opioid overdoses killed 4,653 people in the state from 2007 to 2017. (Murphy, 8/26)

NPR: Oklahoma Wanted $17 Billion To Fight Its Opioid Crisis: What's The Real Cost?
The fact that the state won any money is significant — it's the first ruling to hold a pharmaceutical company responsible for the opioid crisis. But the state had asked for much more: around $17 billion. The judge found the drugmaker liable for only about 1/30 of that. "The state did not present sufficient evidence of the amount of time and costs necessary, beyond year one, to abate the opioid crisis," Judge Thad Balkman wrote in his ruling. (Simmons-Duffin, 8/26)

The New York Times: Why Was Johnson & Johnson The Only Opioid Maker On Trial In Oklahoma?
Some two dozen opioid manufacturers, drug distributors and retailers are now being sued by states, counties, cities and tribes across the nation for their roles in the opioid crisis, yet Johnson & Johnson, the corporate giant, wound up as the only company on trial in Oklahoma despite the fact that its drugs accounted for only about 1 percent of opioid sales in the state. (Hoffman, 8/26)

The Associated Press: What Lies Ahead Following Oklahoma Opioid Judgment
What's next? The first federal trial, involving claims from Ohio's Cuyahoga and Summit counties, is scheduled for Oct. 21. The Cleveland-based judge in that case, Dan Polster, intends to use that as a bellwether, providing decisions that could apply to other cases. Polster is overseeing most of the opioid cases and is pushing the parties to settle. (Mulvihill, 8/27)

The Oklahoman: The read the decision here.

The Associated Press: Lawsuit Filed Over Rollback Of Child Immigrant Protections
Nineteen states and the District of Columbia sued on Monday over the Trump administration's effort to alter a federal agreement that limits how long immigrant children can be kept in detention. "We wish to protect children from irreparable harm," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said as he announced the lawsuit he is co-leading with Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. Both are Democrats. (Ronayne, 8/26)

The Washington Post: California Leads Effort To Block Trump Move To Detain Migrant Children Longer
[California Gov. Gavin] Newsom and the state’s attorney general said officials from coast to coast — all Democrats — plan to file a lawsuit in Los Angeles that aims to prevent the U.S. government from overriding a federal consent decree that has set basic conditions for detaining underage migrants in the United States since 1997. A judge overseeing the decree, known as the Flores Settlement Agreement, issued a ruling in 2015 that limited the amount of time children can be held to 20 days. (Sacchetti, 8/26)

Politico: California Leads Multistate Lawsuit Over Migrant Children Detention Rules
California, along with 18 other states and the District of Columbia, argue the rule would shatter minimum protections for children. President Donald Trump and administration officials are facing intense scrutiny and widespread public backlash for allowing migrant children to be held in unsafe, unsanitary conditions that public and mental health experts say pose extreme harm to their physical and mental well-being. The Trump administration rule risks prolonged detention that would cause irreparable harm to migrant children, their families and California communities accepting children upon release from federal custody, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra argued. (Hart, 8/26)

The Associated Press: Administration Ends Protection For Migrant Medical Care
In Boston alone, the decision could affect about 20 families with children fighting cancer, HIV, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy and other serious conditions, said Anthony Marino, head of immigration legal services at the Irish International Immigrant Center, which represents the families. Advocates say similar letters from Citizenship and Immigration Services have been issued to immigrants in California, North Carolina and elsewhere. “Can anyone imagine the government ordering you to disconnect your child from life-saving care — to pull them from a hospital bed — knowing that it will cost them their lives?” Marino said. “This is a new low,” Democratic Sen. Ed Markey said. “Donald Trump is literally deporting kids with cancer.” (Marcelo, 8/26)

Stat: Suicide Is A Leading Cause Of Death In The U.S. Here’s How Warren, Sanders, And Other Candidates Want To Help Change That
To bring down the rising suicide rate in the U.S., Cory Booker wants to appoint a federal coordinator tasked solely with suicide prevention. Amy Klobuchar wants to fund more local programs designed to prevent suicides among farmers and in tribal communities. Pete Buttigieg wants to add more mental health providers to the Department of Veterans Affairs and limit access to guns and other lethal means for people at high risk of suicide. The ideas came in response to a survey sent to 2020 presidential candidates by a new nonpartisan group called Mental Health For US. (Thielking, 8/27)

Politico: POLITICO-Harvard Poll: Americans Worried About Data Hacks, Want Higher Taxes On E-Cigs
One in four Americans report that their data has been hacked. And among those who have searched online for health information or products, about the same percentage are very concerned that it might be used to frustrate their efforts to get medical care, a job or health insurance, according to a new POLITICO/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll. The poll also showed increasing concern about the safety of e-cigarettes, with about twice as many respondents rating marijuana safer than vaping. (Allen, 8/26)

The Associated Press: Judge Expected To Rule Tuesday On Injunction Of Abortion Law
A federal judge said he will issue a ruling Tuesday that will determine whether Missouri’s new abortion law banning abortions at or after eight weeks of pregnancy will take effect as scheduled this week. During a court hearing on Monday, Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union asked U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs to issue a temporary restraining order to stop the law from taking effect on Wednesday until a legal challenge against it is decided. Sachs told attorneys he had a draft of his written ruling ready, but that he wanted to consider Monday’s arguments before issuing it on Tuesday. He did not indicate how he would rule. (Ballentine and Stafford, 8/26)

Los Angeles Times: Pastry Chefs Raise Thousands For Planned Parenthood And Others
On a recent sun-shot afternoon outside the Manufactory in downtown Los Angeles, a crowd collected around tables loaded with ornate cakes, decorated with fresh flowers, piped frosting and buttercream slogans that read “mind your own uterus” and “no more hangers.” It was a community action meeting masquerading as a high-end bake sale; Michelle Obama meets Antoine Carême. Around the country, pastry chefs are banding together and throwing old-fashioned bake sales to raise funds for causes they care about. It’s hardly a new model: Folks have been trading cookies for cash and causes — in classrooms, churches and on sidewalks — for decades. (Scattergood, 8/26)

Stat: An FDA Report Reveals The Agency Believed Novartis Data Problems Were Resolved Months Ago
Shortly before serious data problems surfaced in mid-March at a troubled Novartis (NVS) unit, a Food and Drug Administration report noted the company had recently conducted an “extensive investigation” after finding errors and discrepancies in a preclinical test. The agency apparently believed the difficulties had been rectified. In a February 2019 report, FDA personnel noted that AveXis — the Novartis unit at the center of a scandal over manipulating data for the gene therapy — uncovered problems with a so-called mouse assay. (Silverman, 8/27)

The Wall Street Journal: Bristol-Myers Moves Closer To Buying Celgene
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. took a major step toward completing its $74 billion acquisition of Celgene Corp., as the two pharmaceutical companies found a buyer for a skin treatment whose sale they hope will address antitrust concerns. Amgen Inc. agreed on Monday to buy Celgene’s psoriasis medicine Otezla for $13.4 billion in cash. The decision comes after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission raised anticompetitive concerns related to anti-inflammatory drugs, of which Otezla is an example. (Hopkins and Kellaher, 8/26)

The New York Times: Heat Deaths Jump In Southwest United States, Puzzling Officials
Heat-related deaths have increased sharply since 2014 in Nevada and Arizona, raising concerns that the hottest parts of the country are struggling to protect their most vulnerable residents from global warming. In Arizona, the annual number of deaths attributed to heat exposure more than tripled, from 76 deaths in 2014 to 235 in 2017, according to figures obtained from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Heat-related deaths in Nevada rose almost fivefold during the same period, from 29 to 139. (Flavelle and Popovich, 8/26)

The Wall Street Journal: The Drive For More Living Liver Donors
He is a 28-year-old police officer in North Carolina. She is a 39-year-old child-care provider in West Virginia who stopped working because of a debilitating liver disease. The two never met until the March day they were both discharged from a Pittsburgh hospital. Sarah Chambers had just received a liver transplant; the donor was from Zachary Lechette, who volunteered to give a portion of his liver to her, a complete stranger. (Reddy, 8/26)

Stat: Optimistic Attitude May Help You Live Past 85, New Study Finds
Researchers found that people who scored higher on an optimism assessment were more likely to live past the age of 85. Those with higher optimism levels at the start of the study were more likely to have advanced degrees and be physically active, and less likely to have health conditions like diabetes or depression. However, when researchers accounted for these variables, they still found that optimism was associated with people living significantly longer. (Corley, 8/26)

Stat: NFL Players With Worse Concussions Had Higher Erectile Dysfunciton Rates
Former football players who had experienced more severe concussions were more likely to report erectile dysfunction and low testosterone than other players, according to a team of Harvard researchers. Former athletes were more likely to report that doctors had recommended or prescribed treatments for the sexual health conditions if they had a higher “concussion symptom score,” a measure derived from self-reported head injury symptoms like dizziness and nausea, or if they reported more frequently losing consciousness playing football.  (Facher, 8/26)

The New York Times: Helping Children Learn To Eat Well
Earlier this month when Weight Watchers put out its new Kurbo app, designed for children ages 8 through 17, there was an outcry across social media arguing that weight loss programs for children can lead to eating disorders, low self-esteem and yo-yo weight cycling. Critics expressed concern about the harm to children from “fat-shaming.” Some, including in this newspaper, said that weight loss plans for children never work. (Klass, 8/26)

The Washington Post: Lunchtime Is So Short In Some Public Schools, Students Are Going Hungry
The scene was the same every day at Deb Shell’s house in Berkeley, Calif. She would send her three children to elementary school with packed lunches, and they would come home with their lunch bags almost completely full. Shell started talking to other parents and learned that the Berkeley Unified School District had cut lunchtime at some schools to add additional instructional minutes to the classroom. Many kids were going through the day hungry. When Shell and other parents went to observe lunch, they saw that the problem was even worse for students who had to stand in line for their meals. The students are supposed to have 20 minutes to eat, but they often have only 15, Shell said. (Ettinger, 8/26)

The New York Times: Dog Owners May Have Healthier Hearts
Owning a dog may be good for your cardiovascular health. That is the conclusion of a study of a randomly selected group of 1,769 residents of Brno, in the Czech Republic. None had a history of cardiovascular illness, and 42 percent owned pets. Researchers scored them on the American Heart Association’s seven measures of heart health: blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, physical activity, diet, body mass index and smoking. (Bakalar, 8/26)

The Associated Press: How Much Pot In That Brownie? Chocolate Can Throw Off Tests
How much marijuana is really in that pot brownie? Chocolate can throw off potency tests so labels aren't always accurate, and now scientists are trying to figure out why. In states where marijuana is legal, pot comes in cookies, mints, gummies, protein bars — even pretzels. These commercial products are labeled with the amount of high-inducing THC. That helps medical marijuana patients get the desired dose and other consumers attune their buzz. (8/26)

Reuters: New Jersey Officials Speed Up Newark Lead Pipe Replacement With $120 Million Plan
New Jersey unveiled a $120 million plan on Monday to speed up the replacement of old lead pipes in Newark in response to mounting alarm about the toxic metal leaching into the drinking water in the state's largest city. Newark officials began handing out bottled water to some residents earlier this month after tests found that some of the water filters they had previously distributed were not working properly. (8/26)

The New York Times: Newark Water Crisis: Racing To Replace Lead Pipes In Under 3 Years
“We are going to do this as swiftly as humanly possible,” Mr. Baraka said at a news conference in Newark, standing with the governor and about two dozen other New Jersey officials. Years of neglect, mismanagement and denials have plunged Newark into one of the largest environmental crises in an American city in years, provoking anger, confusion and frustration among its 285,000 residents. (Corasaniti, 8/26)

The Associated Press: Court Lets Purdue Pharma Court Records Be Made Public
On Monday, the 17 million pages of documents were being shipped from Frankfort to Pike County, where the case originated. Officials in the Pike County Circuit Court Clerk’s office could not immediately say how and when they would be available. (8/26)

The Associated Press: NYC Overdose Deaths Drop A Bit, But Still 'Far Too Many'
Overdose deaths in New York City declined slightly last year after years of alarming increases, health officials said Monday. There were 1,444 fatal overdoses citywide last year, down 2.6% from 2017, according to data released by the city Health Department. The number had been rising since 2010, when it was a comparatively low 541. (8/26)

The Associated Press: 3 Illinois Prison Deaths Raise Questions About Drug Use
The deaths of three Illinois prisoners over three days from "probable intoxication" of an unknown substance have raised questions about drug use behind bars and whether inmates are watched closely enough, according to a published report. WBEZ reported Monday that documents the Chicago radio station obtained and interviews it conducted suggest lax supervision before at least one of the deaths that occurred in September of last year at Menard Correctional Center in Chester. (8/26)

The New York Times: Inside North Carolina’s Big Effort To Transform Health Care
North Carolina seems like an unlikely laboratory for health care reform. It refused to expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act, and ranks in the bottom third among states in measures of overall health. But the state has embarked on one of the country’s most ambitious efforts to transform how health care is defined and paid for. North Carolina is in the early stages of turning away from the traditional fee-for-service model, in which doctors and hospitals are paid for each office visit, test or operation. (Lohr, 8/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Former Florida Nursing-Home Workers Linked To Hurricane Deaths Surrender To Authorities
Three former nursing-home workers facing criminal charges surrendered to authorities in Florida in connection with the deaths of 12 elderly patients at a sweltering facility after Hurricane Irma in 2017, according to attorneys involved. The three former employees—administrator Jorge Carballo, supervising nurse Sergo Colin and nurse Althia Meggie—presented themselves at Broward County jail in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, said Lawrence Hashish, an attorney for Ms. Meggie. A fourth former employee was taken into custody in Miami-Dade County and will be moved to Broward County, he said. (Campo-Flores, 8/26)

The Hill: Teachers Union Calls On Congress To Pass Gun Legislation 
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is calling on Congress to enact a series of proposals the group said would reduce gun violence. AFT President Randi Weingarten promoted a ban on assault weapons, improved background checks and so-called red flag gun legislation in a letter to Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who lead the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. (Frazin, 8/26)

The Associated Press: Troubling Rise Of Gun Violence In St. Louis, Kansas City
From huge rewards to calls for allowing Missouri cities to enact their own gun laws, leaders in St. Louis and Kansas City are grappling with a troubling rise in shooting deaths, especially those involving children. This past weekend was especially violent. In Kansas City, four men were killed Sunday, including two in a drive-by shooting in a popular entertainment district. In St. Louis, six people were killed in shootings, including 8-year-old and 10-year-old girls and a 15-year-old boy. (8/26)

The Associated Press: Kansas GOP Rep. Watkins Faces Calls For Tougher Gun Laws
Republican Rep. Steve Watkins got heat Monday from frustrated eastern Kansas constituents who pressed the freshman congressman to publicly endorse tougher gun laws following recent mass shootings. Several people left a Watkins town hall meeting in Topeka unhappy that he didn’t commit himself during the event to backing stronger background checks for firearms purchases or a “red flag” law that would allow authorities to seize guns from people deemed a danger to themselves or others. Members of the audience of about 40 interrupted Watkins when he tried to defend the GOP’s record on gun issues. (Hanna, 8/26)