opioids News

U.S. Prosecutors Open Criminal Probe of Opioid Makers, Distributors

Federal prosecutors are investigating six pharmaceutical companies for potential criminal charges in connection with shipping big quantities of opioid painkillers that contributed to a healthcare crisis, according to regulatory filings. Five companies have received subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney’s office …

Oklahoma Judge Reduces Johnson & Johnson Opioid Payout to $465 Million

An Oklahoma judge on Friday said Johnson & Johnson must pay that state $465 million for fueling the opioid epidemic through the deceptive marketing of painkillers, down from his original award of $572 million. The decision by Cleveland County District …

Work Comp Insurers Find Doctors Willing to Bend When Asked to Curb Opioid Use

Workers’ compensation insurers are reporting dramatic reductions in opioid use by injured workers. In some cases, all it took was asking doctors to stop renewing prescriptions. A peer-reviewed study by Mitchell International and Utah’s WCF Mutual Insurance Co. found that …

J&J Faces 100,000 More Damage Claims After Taking $8 Billion Hit

Johnson & Johnson has taken some costly beatings in court this year. And it could get worse. Just last week, a jury ordered J&J to pay $8 billion for wrongfully pushing doctors to prescribe the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal. While the …

Special Report: How Judges Added to the Grim Toll of Opioids

WELCH, West Virginia — The opioid epidemic that has so far killed half a million Americans is routinely blamed on greedy drug makers, feckless doctors and lax regulators. But there’s another group that has contributed to the depth and duration …

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 …

J&J ‘Did Everything’ to Push Opioids, Oklahoma Witness Says

Oklahoma’s star witness told a state judge that Johnson & Johnson pressed doctors to prescribe its painkillers even as the potentially fatal addictive threat posed by the drugs became clear more than a decade ago. The judge, Thad Balkman, is …

Opioid Manufacturer Insys Files for Bankruptcy after Kickback Probe

Drugmaker Insys Therapeutics Inc filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday amid mounting expenses driven by a U.S. Justice Department probe into claims it paid doctors bribes to prescribe a powerful opioid medication. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing marked a first …

Overdose Victim’s Father Testifies in Oklahoma Opioid Trial of J&J

The father of a university football player who died of a drug overdose provided emotional testimony about the personal cost of the nationwide opioid epidemic on Wednesday during the second day of trial in a lawsuit by the state of …

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 …