Generic Drugmaker That DEA Called ‘Kingpin Of The Drug Cartel’ Reaches Tentative Settlement To Avoid Opioid Trial
Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals would pay $24 million in cash to two Ohio counties, as well as donate $6 million in drugs that include addiction treatment medications. The tentative agreement — which applies only to the two counties and does not resolve other legal claims against Mallinckrodt — comes out of a flurry of intensive bargaining in recent weeks among groups of defendants and plaintiffs in opioid cases nationwide. In other news on the national drug crisis: what a Purdue Pharma bankruptcy looks like for defendants; the epidemic as an existential crisis to a tribe; the controversy of safe injection sites; and more.
The New York Times:
Major Drug Maker Is Close To Settling Case To Avert First Federal Trial In Opioid Crisis
One of the biggest makers of generic opioids in the United States has reached a tentative settlement of claims to avoid the first federal trial of drug makers, distributors and retail chains for their roles in the opioid epidemic. Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, a company investigators for the Drug Enforcement Administration once referred to as “the kingpin of the drug cartel,” announced Friday that it had agreed to pay $24 million to two Ohio counties. Under the agreement, the company would also donate $6 million worth of drugs, including addiction treatment medications, to the plaintiffs, Cuyahoga and Summit Counties. (Hoffman and Thomas, 9/6)
The Washington Post:
Mallinckrodt Reaches Settlement With ‘Bellwether’ Counties In Mammoth Opioid Lawsuit
Under the deal, Mallinckrodt would pay Cuyahoga and Summit counties $24 million in cash and donate $6 million in drugs, including addiction treatment medications. The proposed deal would take Ireland-based Mallinckrodt off the list of defendants facing the two counties in a test case of whether the drug industry should be forced to pay for the prescription opioid epidemic, which has killed more than 200,000 people since 1999. (Bernstein, Horwitz and Higham, 9/6)
The Wall Street Journal:
Mallinckrodt Agrees To $30 Million Settlement In Ohio Opioid Litigation
Mallinckrodt still faces hundreds of other lawsuits, as do other manufacturers, retail pharmacies and wholesalers. The companies are accused by states, cities and counties of helping cause a public-health crisis with misleading marketing and by failing to stop excessive amounts of drugs from flooding the country. Mallinckrodt has denied the allegations. Analysts have pointed out that Mallinckrodt is highly leveraged and will find it difficult to resolve opioid litigation while being able to clean up its balance sheets. The company recently drew down the remaining availability of its revolving credit facility. (Hopkins and Armental, 9/8)
The Associated Press:
A Purdue Bankruptcy Would Make Opioids Cases Even Messier
State and local governments have sought billions of dollars from Purdue Pharma as a way to hold the company and the family that owns it accountable for the nation’s opioid epidemic, a potential payout that is now clouded in uncertainty after state attorneys general said settlement talks had broken down, while the company says talks are not over. The attorneys general directly involved in the negotiations with the maker of OxyContin and the Sackler family said they anticipated Purdue filing soon for bankruptcy protection. (Mulvihill, 9/8)
ProPublica:
Data Touted By OxyContin Maker To Fight Lawsuits Doesn’t Tell The Whole Story
Purdue Pharma has tried to refute accusations that it fueled the opioid crisis by arguing it was a small player in the U.S. market for prescription pain relievers. But a new ProPublica analysis of government data shows that the company, the maker of OxyContin, had a far bigger impact than it portrays. Purdue’s position rests on a Drug Enforcement Administration database, made public by a court order in July, which shows Purdue sold 3.3% of the prescription opioid pain pills in the U.S. from 2006 to 2012. (Armstrong and Ernsthausen, 9/9)
Stateline:
In Cherokee Country, Opioid Crisis Seen As Existential Threat
The earliest evidence that the opioid epidemic had seeped into Indian Country came in 2014, with a spike in the number of children taken into tribal custody because their parents were addicted to prescription painkillers. Nearly three-quarters of the hundreds of Cherokee children who were taken from their parents because of opioid addiction have been placed in non-Native homes, because there weren’t enough tribal families who were able to take them in. (Vestal, 9/9)
Kaiser Health News:
‘Crackhouse’ Or ‘Safehouse’? U.S. Officials Try To Block Philly’s Supervised Injection Site
Philadelphia could become the first U.S. city to offer opioid users a place to inject drugs under medical supervision. But lawyers for the Trump administration are trying to block the effort, citing a 1980s-era law known as “the crackhouse statute.” Justice Department lawyers argued in federal court Thursday against the nonprofit, Safehouse, which wants to open the site. (Feldman, 9/9)
Dallas Morning News:
When Opioids Go Missing, Hospitals Are Supposed To Alert The DEA. That Didn't Happen At UT Southwestern.
Powerful painkillers, sedatives and other addictive drugs went missing from UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas over three years. In that time, two nurses died of overdoses, the hospital had two other nurses arrested for stealing drugs, and officials met to discuss internal flaws in tracking dangerous drugs. Yet dozens of times from 2016 to 2018, when drugs were lost or possibly stolen, UT Southwestern didn't notify the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which depends on such disclosures in its battle against the nation's opioid epidemic, The Dallas Morning News found. (Ambrose and Hacker, 9/8)
