Ohio Sues Drug Makers, Saying They Aided Opioid Epidemic -
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑAMAY 31, 2017
The State of Ohio filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the pharmaceutical industry over the opioid epidemic, accusing several drug companies of conducting marketing campaigns
that misled doctors and patients about the danger of addiction and overdose.
“We are in ongoing discussions with attorneys general about what can only be described as a national epidemic,” said Michael
P. Canty, a lawyer in New York whose firm, Labaton Sucharow, is advising states on possible opioid litigation.
In 2015, more than 25,000 people in the United States died in 2015 from overdosing on opioids like fentanyl, oxycodone
and hydrocodone, more than twice as many as a decade earlier, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Drug makers promoted that change, Mr. DeWine charged in his suit, spending “millions of dollars on promotional activities and materials
that falsely deny or trivialize the risks of opioids while overstating the benefits of using them for chronic pain
Middle-aged white men suffer disproportionately from opioid abuse,
and the states with the highest overdose tolls are Ohio, Kentucky, New Hampshire and West Virginia.