opioid crisis News

Drugmaker Insys Wins Bankruptcy Court Approval to Sell Off Opioid

Drugmaker Insys Therapeutics Inc on Thursday won court approval to sell its flagship fentanyl spray to a buyer who agreed to only market the drug for use by cancer patients, in response to concerns about the product’s role in fueling …

Drug Firms Must Face Trial Over Opioids Crisis Claims

A U.S. judge on Tuesday rejected efforts by major drugmakers, pharmacies and distributors to dismiss claims that they caused the nation’s opioid crisis, clearing the way for a scheduled landmark trial even as he pushes for a nationwide settlement. U.S. …

J&J Shares Rise as Oklahoma Opioid Award Less Than Expected

Johnson & Johnson shares rose as much as 5.4% after an Oklahoma judge ordered the company to pay far less than some investors expected in the first trial by a state seeking compensation for the public-health crisis spawned by opioid …

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 …

Opioid Judge Calls Proposed Settlement Group a ‘Novel Approach’

A judge backed a push by U.S. cities and counties suing opioid makers such as Purdue Pharma LP and Johnson & Johnson to negotiate a settlement as a group but put off until August a final decision on the request. …

Billions at Stake in Opioid Suits, But It’s No Tobacco Windfall

An Oklahoma case, the first of more than 1,600 lawsuits filed by U.S. state and local governments against opioid makers to go to trial, could serve as a key benchmark for governments hoping to recoup costs associated with the public …

Lawyers Pitch Plan to Include Entire U.S. in Opioid Settlement Talks

Lawyers representing county and municipal governments accusing drug manufacturers and distributors of fueling the U.S. opioid epidemic proposed a novel plan on Friday that would allow every community nationally to participate in negotiating billions of dollars in settlements. The proposal …

Okla. AG Says Greed Drove Johnson & Johnson to Risk Lives

Johnson & Johnson’s greed for more sales of its addictive opioid painkillers helped create a deadly epidemic in Oklahoma that claimed thousands of lives, and the company should pay billions of dollars as compensation, the state’s top law-enforcement officer told …

Drug Makers’ Opioid Liability Tied to Untested Legal Theory

Determining who foots the bill for America’s growing opioid epidemic may depend on how well the state of Oklahoma deploys a high-risk legal strategy next week against Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. At least 42 states and …