addiction News

Judge Shields Oxycontin-Maker Purdue From Litigation Until April

Purdue Pharma LP and the company’s Sackler family owners will be shielded until April 8, 2020, from sprawling opioid litigation to give the maker of OxyContin time to try to reach a legal settlement the company says is worth $10 …

Opioid Distributors Propose $10 Billion to End State Claims

McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp. have proposed paying $10 billion to settle claims they helped to fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic — the first sign of progress in resolving state lawsuits against the drug distributors, according to …

Arizona Asks for US Supreme Court Involvement in Opioid Case

PHOENIX — Arizona’s attorney general on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to force the Sackler family, which owns OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma, to return billions of dollars they took out of the company. The court filing marks the first time …

Oklahoma Makes Final Bid to Hold J&J Responsible for Opioid Epidemic

Oklahoma’s attorney general on Wednesday made his final bid to force Johnson & Johnson to pay $17 billion for its part in fueling the opioid epidemic, saying the drugmaker’s “egregious” marketing caused an oversupply of addictive drugs and overdose deaths. …

Apparent Decline in Overdose Deaths Reverses Long-Running Trend

NEW YORK — U.S. overdose deaths last year likely fell for the first time in nearly three decades, preliminary numbers suggest. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday posted data showing nearly 68,000 drug overdose deaths were reported …

Rickitt to Pay $1.4B to End U.S. Opioid Addiction Probe

Reckitt Benckiser has agreed to pay up to $1.4 billion to resolve U.S. claims that its former pharmaceuticals business Indivior before it was spun out of the company carried out an illegal scheme to boost sales of an opioid addiction …

Following Opioid Suits, Family Behind Deadly OxyContin Squabbles

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A united front among members of the billionaire Sackler family behind painkiller OxyContin is showing signs of strain from litigation over who bears responsibility for the deadly U.S. opioid epidemic. At least twice in recent months, …

Purdue’s Sackler Allegedly Called Opioid Addicts ‘Victimizers’

Purdue Pharma LP’s former chief executive officer appeared to blame victims of opioid abuse for their suffering in a 2001 email to an acquaintance, a court filing shows. “Abusers aren’t victims; they are the victimizers,” Richard Sackler said in the …

New York Lawsuit Seeks Sackler Family Investments Abroad

A New York state lawsuit is renewing longstanding questions about where some members of the billionaire Sackler family have invested the wealth they amassed from Purdue Pharma LP, the drugmaker accused of helping ignite the U.S. opioid epidemic. One place …

Sackler Family Accused in New Claim of Causing Opioid Crisis

The billionaire family that owns opioid-maker Purdue Pharma LP has been accused in a new lawsuit of causing the nationwide public-health crisis involving pain-killing medicines that has left thousands of Americans dead from overdoses. More than 500 U.S. cities and …