The Los Angeles Times broke the news last week that the District Attorneys for Orange and Santa Clara Counties in California are moving forward with a lawsuit against some of the biggest prescription drug manufacturers in the world. Why are the California prosecutors planning to take Big Pharma to court? The lawsuit is based on an alleged “campaign of deception” which the drug makers are accused of waging against the general public. The defendants in the suit include:
- Purdue Pharma, L.P. (Purdue, Inc., The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc.)
- Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd.
- Cephalon, Inc.
- Johnson & Johnson
- Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
- Endo Health Solutions Inc.
- Actavis, PLC
The manufacturers are accused of taking unscrupulous measures in the development and marketing of painkiller drugs such as OxyContin, medications which have become recognized as being similarly addictive as their close cousin heroin. The painkiller drugs in question are derived from opium, just as heroin is, and they have become the leading cause of overdose death in the United States in recent years. More people die from painkiller overdose — upwards of 15,000 per year — than the numbers of those who are killed by heroin and cocaine combined.
Opiate prescription painkillers were once reserved only for extreme treatment situations. Patients who were terminally ill or those who were in the late stages of cancer were the primary recipients of the drugs, a selection which reflects the longstanding understanding in the medical profession of just how dangerous these drugs can be. The calculation was that the risk of the patient getting hooked on the drug was outweighed in such situations by the fact that the person’s life expectancy was waning rapidly, so the goal was to give the person some relief and comfort in his or her last days. Until relatively recently, doctors would not prescribe opiate pain pills for more routine types of pain, recognizing full well that there was simply too great a chance that the patient would become an addict. Over the years, however, and with the tacit or active support of some of the drug manufacturers, prescription painkillers have gained a higher level of acceptance, and are now often given to patients with complaints including back pain or headaches. In all too many cases, the patient rapidly develops a tolerance to the drug and begins taking more and more just to get the same effect, and before he or she knows it, a full blown addiction develops. Sometimes this situation ends in an overdose, while in other cases the person might transition from using pain pills to heroin, as a cheaper and more readily available substitute.
Prosecutors Holding Big Pharma Accountable for Prescription Abuse Issues
The prosecutors representing Santa Clara and Orange Counties are fitting advocates for the cause of holding Big Pharma accountable for the misery caused by the proliferation of opiate painkillers. The communities in both of those counties, which include some of the wealthiest suburbs of Los Angeles as well as Silicon Valley, have been hard hit by prescription abuse issues. These affluent and largely upscale areas have become hotbeds of drug addiction, something that was once primarily associated with the inner city, but which has now come to the suburbs and the neighborhoods of cookie cutter homes and soccer fields, thanks to what appears to be a concerted agenda on the part of drug companies intent on making a profit at any cost. This was no accident, according to the lawsuit, which forwards evidence that the pharmaceutical companies engaged in knowing deception to mislead doctors into prescribing painkillers which scientific evidence had shown to be dangerous.
Furthermore, the prosecutors allege that the defendants encouraged patients to request opiate painkillers from their doctors for treatment of conditions including arthritis, headaches and back pain, conditions for which the drugs would not previously have been prescribed. If the suit is successful, the drug makers could not only be ordered to pay financial compensation for the damages they are found to have caused, but also to give up their profits from the marketing campaigns which are the focus of the case. The lawsuit is being compared to the massive litigation against the tobacco industry, which brought about such major changes in the way that the public perceives smoking, and it is hoped that there will be a similar attitude shift on the subject of painkillers. The District Attorney from Orange County, Tony Rackaucaks, stated as much in an interview, where he was quoted saying that the main goal of the lawsuit is “to stop the lies about what these drugs do.”
Source: http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-rx-big-pharma-suit-20140522-story.html#page=1