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Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford filed a lawsuit...in Clark County District Court accusing dozens of drug manufacturers and distributors of propagating the state’s deadly opioid epidemic...The 241-page complaint names more than 40 defendants, including prescription drug makers such as Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceuticals, and distributors including CVS, Walgreens and retail giant Walmart...It accuses drug manufacturers of pushing doctors to prescribe the addictive medication while downplaying the side effects. It also alleges that distributors supplied many more opioids than justified for the Nevada market, ignoring data that allowed them to track overprescribing...READ MORE

William Husel voluntarily surrendered to authorities in Columbus and was charged in 25 deaths following a six-month investigation by the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office. The patient deaths exposed a stunning case of medical oversight and alleged medical malpractice, and called into question how repeated failures potentially involving 30 or more employees could have gone unchecked for so long...Husel faces 15 years to life in prison per count if convicted. O'Brien said that the doses ordered by the doctor in the 25 deaths "could not support any legitimate medical purpose." Although nurses and pharmacists followed Husel's orders, the doctor remains the main focus of the criminal investigation...Also named in the various civil suits are the Mount Carmel Health System and some pharmacists and nurses. What remains unclear is how Husel could circumvent apparent rules that would require him to order medications through an in-house pharmacy team and then convince a nurse to administer the drug...READ MORE

Morris & Dickson Co, one of the largest U.S. wholesale drug distributors, agreed to pay $22 million in civil penalties to settle U.S. government charges that it failed to report thousands of suspicious orders of the opioids hydrocodone and oxycodone...The...Louisiana-based company will also spend millions of dollars to hire staff and upgrade oversight to help comply with federal regulations requiring that orders be properly reported...Drug Enforcement Administration...since...2014 uncovered more than 12,000 retail pharmacy orders for hydrocodone and oxycodone that Morris & Dickson should have flagged to that agency...READ MORE

Five U.S. states...filed lawsuits accusing Purdue Pharma LP of illegally marketing and selling opioids, escalating the wave of litigation over a nationwide abuse epidemic...Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, West Virginia and Wisconsin joined 39 states to file lawsuits targeting Purdue Pharma and its leaders, including former president Richard Sackler and his family...Officials accused Purdue Pharma of repeatedly making false and deceptive claims that opioids...were safe for a wide range of patients seeking to reduce pain...READ MORE

A unit of Insys Therapeutics Inc pleaded guilty...to fraud charges as part of an $225 million deal with the U.S. Justice Department resolving claims that the drugmaker bribed doctors to prescribe an addictive opioid medication...The plea...by the Chandler, Arizona-based Insys’ operating subsidiary, came in one of the few criminal prosecutions to date of a corporation accused of helping fuel the nation’s deadly opioid epidemic...Insys is facing growing financial pressures as a result of the U.S. probe and a decline in sales of its flagship fentanyl pain product, Subsys, which it has said could prompt the company to seek bankruptcy protection...Beyond the plea by subsidiary Insys Pharma Inc, Insys has also entered into a five-year deferred prosecution agreement with the government and agreed to pay $30 million in the criminal case and $195 million to resolve civil claims...READ MORE

California, Hawaii, Maine and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits...against the maker of OxyContin (Purdue Pharma) and the company’s former president (Sackler), alleging the firm falsely promoted the drug by downplaying the risk of addiction while it emerged as one of the most widely abused opioids in the U.S...allegations...said the company falsely introduced OxyContin in the 1990s as a safe and effective treatment for chronic pain...However, the California’s lawsuit alleges that Purdue and Sackler knew in 1997 that drugs containing oxycodone...were widely abused. Still, company representatives marketed it as not being addictive and downplayed the potential for abuse, the suit states...READ MORE

The Australian subsidiaries of British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline and Swiss drugmaker Novartis misled customers and broke the law by promoting identical liniments as though they could treat specific ills, an Australian court found...The court said the companies admitted marketing Voltaren Osteo Gel as a treatment for osteoarthritis-related pain when its ingredients were the same as a cheaper Voltaren product, Emulgel...Judge Bromwich is yet to set a fine but the maximum penalty is the higher of A$10 million ($7 million), triple the benefit earned from the misleading conduct or - if that cannot be determined - a tenth of the annual turnover of the company in question...READ MORE

A federal judge...tossed the convictions of a co-owner and former employee of a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy accused of conspiring to help it evade regulatory oversight before its drugs caused a deadly 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak...U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns in Boston ruled that New England Compounding Center co-owner Gregory Conigliaro and former employee Sharon Carter did not have fair warning their actions could subject them to prosecution...Jurors convicted Conigliaro and Carter of conspiring to defraud the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by misleading it into thinking NECC was operating like a conventional pharmacy and not like a drug manufacturer...State-regulated compounding pharmacies produce customized drugs pursuant to patient-specific prescriptions to address individual needs. But prosecutors said NECC was actually a drug manufacturer making medications in bulk...READ MORE

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd said...it had agreed to pay an $85 million settlement with the state of Oklahoma days before the company was set to face trial over allegations that it and other drugmakers helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic...Claims against Teva focused on the branded opioid products Actiq and Fentora as well as generic painkillers it produced...The trial...was set to begin on Tuesday...Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter has alleged that J&J and Teva, along with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP, carried out deceptive marking campaigns that downplayed opioids’ addictive risks while overstating their benefits...READ MORE

Twenty of the biggest generic prescription drug makers are accused of committing a multi-billion dollar fraud on U.S. consumers. The states, including Nevada, and Puerto Rico filed a complaint...alleging the companies coordinated to inflate prices and reduce competition on more than 100 generic prescription drugs...The drug companies deny engaging in any illegal collusion saying prices go up with drug shortages and market forces....the Association for Accessible Medicines...says it and its member companies are "committed to supporting policies that promote competition."...“Generic drugs are intended to create competition in the marketplace and make treatment more affordable and accessible for patients with acute and chronic conditions,” said Attorney General Aaron Ford. “In the United States, 9 out of 10 filled prescriptions are for generic drugs patients rely on for care, making these alleged anti-competitive practices even more troublesome. Many Nevadans, especially our seniors, struggle with the skyrocketing cost of prescriptions, and my office will aggressively pursue drug companies who take advantage of patients’ need for health care. This unified and targeted action illustrates my Bureau of Consumer Protection’s continued dedication to holding these companies and individuals accountable for the consequences their actions have had on the American people and our health care system.”...READ MORE