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   Ohio Sues 5 Major Drug Companies For 'Fueling Opioid Epidemic'   
      
   May 31, 20175:53 PM ET   
   COLIN DWYER   
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   Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin, defended its efforts to combat opioid   
   abuse after it was named in the Ohio suit.   
   Toby Talbot/AP   
   The state of Ohio has sued five major drug manufacturers for their role in the   
   opioid epidemic. In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, state Attorney General Mike   
   DeWine alleges these five companies "helped unleash a health care crisis that   
   has had far-reaching    
   financial, social, and deadly consequences in the State of Ohio."   
      
   Named in the suit are:   
      
   Purdue Pharma   
   Endo Health Solutions   
   Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and subsidiary Cephalon   
   Johnson & Johnson and subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals   
   Allergan   
   The lawsuit — only the second such suit filed by a state, after Mississippi   
   did so earlier this year — accuses the companies of engaging in a sustained   
   marketing campaign to downplay the addiction risks of the prescription opioid   
   drugs they sell and    
   to exaggerate the benefits of their use for health problems such as chronic   
   pain.   
      
   Or, as DeWine's office put it in a press release Wednesday, the "lawsuit   
   alleges that the drug companies engaged in fraudulent marketing regarding the   
   risks and benefits of prescription opioids which fueled Ohio's opioid   
   epidemic."   
      
   "We believe that the evidence will show that these pharmaceutical companies   
   purposely misled doctors about the dangers connected with pain meds that they   
   produced, and that they did so for the purpose of increasing sales," DeWine   
   tells NPR's All Things    
   Considered. "And boy, did they increase sales."   
      
   LAW   
   Ohio Sues Drug Companies Over Role In Creating Opioid Epidemic   
      
      
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   By the late 1990s, DeWine's suit says, each of the five companies had embarked   
   on a persuasion scheme targeting doctors, whom the state positions as victims   
   of systematic misinformation:   
      
   "Defendants persuaded doctors and patients that what they had long known —   
   that opioids are addictive drugs, unsafe in most circumstances for long-term   
   use — was untrue, and quite the opposite, that the compassionate treatment   
   of pain required    
   opioids."   
   Asked by NPR's Robert Siegel whether doctors had a role of their own in   
   overprescribing potentially dangerous medication, DeWine says more fault rests   
   with a culture created by these companies.   
      
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   "This was not something that the pharmaceutical companies just woke up some   
   day and just started to do a little bit of it," he says.   
      
   "I mean, there was a concerted effort for an extended number of years to   
   really pound this into the heads of doctors. And when you're told something   
   time and time and time again and there's a lot of advertising that is being   
   spent, yeah, it takes a while    
   to turn that around."   
      
   In a statement provided to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, a spokeswoman for   
   Janssen, one of the defendants, called the lawsuit "legally and factually   
   unfounded":   
      
   "Janssen has acted appropriately, responsibly and in the best interests of   
   patients regarding our opioid pain medications, which are FDA-approved and   
   carry FDA-mandated warnings about the known risks of the medications on every   
   product label."   
   Purdue Pharma, another defendant, told The Plain Dealer that it has been   
   involved in seeking to combat widespread opioid addiction:   
      
   "OxyContin accounts for less than 2 percent of the opioid analgesic   
   prescription market nationally, but we are an industry leader in the   
   development of abuse-deterrent technology, advocating for the use of   
   prescription drug monitoring programs and    
   supporting access to Naloxone — all important components for combating the   
   opioid crisis."   
   And that crisis shows few signs of ebbing soon.   
      
   As All Things Considered notes, the state of Ohio estimates some 200,000   
   people within its borders are addicted to opioids — a number roughly the   
   same as Akron's entire population.   
      
   In his release Wednesday, DeWine says he filed the suit in Ross County for a   
   reason: "Southern Ohio was likely the hardest hit area in the nation by the   
   opioid epidemic."   
      
      
      
   http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/31/530929307/ohio   
   sues-5-major-drug-companies-for-fueling-opioid-epidemic   
      
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