Catch of the Week: Jury Finds Teva Pharmaceuticals Liable for Contributing to Opioid-Related Deaths in New York State

In a significant development in the ongoing effort to assess blame and responsibility for the opioid epidemic, which has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of individuals and ravaged communities throughout the United States, on December 30th, after a six-month trial, a New York jury found that Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. (“Teva”) and its affiliates, including Anda Inc., created a “public nuisance” in two counties on Long Island...

Catch of the Week: 345 Charged in $6 Billion National Health Care Fraud and Opioid Takedown

In the largest health care fraud and opioid enforcement action in the Justice Department’s history, 345 defendants—including more than 100 doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals—face charges for submitting over $6 billion in false or fraudulent claims to federal and private insurers.  Defendants stand accused of submitting $4.5 billion in fraudulent claims linked to telemedicine, $845 million associated with substance abuse treatment facilities, or “sober homes,” and $806 million connected...

Catch of the Week: Indivior Agrees to Pay $600 Million to Settle Opioid Fraud Case

The latest in our Catch of the Week series features Indivior Solutions’ (“Indivior”) agreement to pay $600 million to resolve criminal and civil liability associated with the marketing of the opioid-addiction-treatment drug Suboxone. This is in addition to the $1.4 billion resolution with Indivior’s former parent, Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (“RB Group”) that was previously announced in 2019. Suboxone is a drug product used by recovering opioid addicts to reduce...

EHR vendor Settles Landmark Case Alleging Acceptance of Kickbacks from Pharma Company to Steer Opioid Prescriptions

Constantine Cannon partners Mary Inman and Anne Hartman published in RAC Monitor, EHR vendor Settles Landmark Case Alleging Acceptance of Kickbacks from Pharma Company to Steer Opioid Prescriptions.  Click here to read the article.

Opioid Executive Sentenced to Over Five Years in Prison for Role in Healthcare Fraud Scheme

Insys Therapeutics, an opioid manufacturer whose main product is Subsys, a spray from of fentanyl that is 100 times stronger than morphine and cost tens of thousands a month, is in the news again. The company and its former CEO, John Kapoor, have been facing a mountain of legal issues in the past three years. Last week, in a decision that most of our readers agree with, Kapoor was sentenced to...

Question of the Week — Is the use of public nuisance law against J&J for its role in the opioid crisis appropriate?

The landmark $572M opioid verdict in Oklahoma against Johnson & Johnson stemmed from a single claim: “public nuisance” under state law.  Other cases against opioid manufacturers, including whistleblower cases, involve claims for fraud, unlawful marketing, improper prescriptions, kickbacks, violating the Controlled Substances Act by failing to report suspicious purchases, and even flooding the black market.  But public nuisance law historically addresses a person’s use of land that interferes with a...

Question of the Week — Is DOJ’s Blockbuster $1.4 Billion Opioid Settlement Just the Tip of the Iceberg?

On July 11, DOJ announced a record-breaking $1.4 billion settlement with Reckitt Benckiser Group plc (RB Group) over allegations that its former subsidiary Indivior Inc. inflated prescriptions of its opioid-withdrawal drug Suboxone through numerous unestablished representations about the drug’s safety and addictiveness. The settlement resolves RB Group’s potential civil and criminal liability, but Indivior still faces a criminal trial scheduled to begin on May 11, 2020. It is the largest...

Question of the Week — Should institutions return past donations from Big Pharma executives and their family members implicated in the opioid crisis?

The New York Times recently reported that the Metropolitan Museum of Art has decided to stop accepting gifts from members of the Sackler family linked to Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, one of the drugs at the center of the opioid epidemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans in the past two decades. The Met’s decision follows that of other museums and universities, including the Tate Modern, the...

Question of the Week — Should Big Pharma Be Publicly Shamed for Its Role in the Opioid Crisis?

Domenic Esposito, a sculptor from Massachusetts, has placed a 10-foot long sculpture of a burnt heroin spoon-the kind used by heroin addicts to melt heroin before injecting it-in front of the Rhode Island headquarters of Rhodes Pharmaceuticals. Today, Rhodes Pharmaceuticals is among the largest producers of generic opioids in the U.S. It is also a sister company of Purdue Pharma, which, along with other opioid makers, is being sued by...

Catch of the Week – Justice Department Sues Tennessee Pharmacies and Pharmacists Illegally Dispensing Opioids

On Friday, the Justice Department announced that it has sued several pharmacies and pharmacists in Tennessee to stop them from illegally dispensing opioids. According to the complaint, both defendants have “fueled and profited from” the opioid epidemic by “repeatedly dispensing opioids and other controlled substances prone to abuse without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional medical practice.” The complaint alleges violations of the Controlled Substances...