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The Nevada Supreme Court is considering whether to put the brakes on oral arguments slated later this week on a bid by the state to resume planning the twice-postponed lethal injection of an inmate who says he wants to die...The high court called for a written response by Tuesday from state attorneys after pharmaceutical firms said there's no need to rush...The state attorney general's office has argued that unless the Supreme Court rules by mid-October whether the execution can proceed, some drugs will expire.

Nevada officials have filed an emergency request with the state Supreme Court seeking to block a lower court’s decision to release the identity of the attending physician scheduled to oversee the delayed execution of Scott Raymond Dozier...In an emergency motion...the attorney general’s office, representing the Nevada Department of Corrections, is seeking to block a...decision by District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez. The judge said the state must reveal the name of the physician set to oversee Dozier’s execution to attorneys representing one of the drug manufacturers whose product will be used in the execution...Although Gonzalez’s order would limit disclosure of the physician’s identity to the attorneys for drug manufacturer Alvogen, the state wrote in its emergency request that the attending physician would only oversee the execution “to the extent their anonymity is protected from disclosure” and that even a limited disclosure of individuals involved in the execution wasn’t relevant and would limit the state’s ability to carry out the execution...“The drug manufacturers should not be permitted to go on a fishing expedition for information that can be used to harass individuals who assist the State in carrying out lawful executions,” attorneys with the state wrote in the filing. “The intended effect is to scare people away from assisting the State. This tactic is well-documented and, unfortunately, has been effective in stopping executions.”

U.S. appeals court...tossed a $3 million verdict against GlaxoSmithKline over the suicide of an attorney who took a generic version of the company’s antidepressant Paxil, finding the company could not be held liable for injuries allegedly caused by a generic copy...The case weighing whether brand-name manufacturers can be sued for injuries blamed on generic drug versions was closely watched within the pharmaceutical and legal industries...Under a 2011 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, generic drug companies cannot be sued for failing to provide adequate label warnings about potential side effects because federal law requires them to use the brand-name versions’ labels...decision follows a series of state court rulings in similar cases. The top courts of Massachusetts and California ruled brand-name manufacturers could be sued by generic drug users...West Virginia’s Supreme Court...rejected liability claims against brand-name manufacturers for alleged failures to warn over a generic company’s drug.

Pfizer protested the use of its drugs in lethal injection procedures last year, asking states to return the drugs for a refund. But not all of them have, and with an execution planned for Aug. 14 in Nebraska, a state senator is urging Pfizer to sue to halt use of its drugs..."Time is of the essence," Nebraska state Sen. Ernie Chambers said in a letter...to Robert Jones, J.D., Pfizer vice president of U.S. government relations...A Pfizer representative said the company's "records do not show any sales of any restricted products to the Nebraska Department of Corrections. We are again asking the Nebraska DOC to return any Pfizer restricted product.”...Pfizer's position is that its drugs are to "enhance and save the lives of the patients we serve." The company "strongly objects" to the use of its drugs as lethal injections...As Chambers noted in his correspondence, Alvogen recently blocked the use of its drugs in a Nevada execution through the courts.

The Latest on a court hearings on a pharmaceutical companies lawsuit to stop Nevada from using their drugs for a lethal injection...Nevada's top doctor isn't licensed to practice medicine in the United States...Ihsan Azzam testified in Las Vegas...that he has a master's degree and worked for several years in environmental public health and epidemiology before being named chief state medical officer last May...Azzam says he practiced for several years as an obstetrics and gynecology physician in Africa before moving to the United States in the 1990s...That qualifies Azzam for the job under Nevada state law...Azzam testified that while he has no background in anesthesia or pain management, he says the doses of three drugs proposed for an inmate's lethal injection would be enough to kill a mammoth.

A judge ruled...that the Department of Corrections must reveal the name of the attending physician in the planned execution of Scott Dozier, but the name may be revealed only to the attorneys who represent the makers of drugs in the state’s lethal injection protocol...Assistant Solicitor General Jordan Smith, who represents the prison system, told District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez that publicly revealing the name could lead to death threats...Todd Bice, an attorney for Alvogen Inc., which makes the sedative midazolam, said the company’s lawyers wanted to ensure that the doctor who is expected to oversee capital punishment is a licensed physician...Gonzalez is expected to hear further arguments...in the fight over the use of the three drugs in Nevada’s lethal injection cocktail.

Amgen made an aggressive legal bid to push Sanofi and Regeneron's rival PCSK9 drug off the market when the two were first duking it out in 2015. It didn't work—but Amgen hasn't given up. It's aiming to take the battle to the U.S. Supreme Court instead...After falling short with its arguments in federal appeals court, Amgen is asking the Supreme Court to strike up a review of the case. Amgen claimed Sanofi and Regeneron stepped on its PCSK9 patents and initially won an injunction against their drug Praluent...Amgen now argues that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit incorrectly interpreted and ruled on patent law. The company says the court has created its own standard that has resulted in “jurisprudential anarchy.” Amgen markets the PSCK9 cholesterol drug Repatha in a head-to-head battle with Praluent; both products have fallen short of expectations, mostly because payers limited access to the high-priced drugs.

Maryland...charged Insys Therapeutics Inc with deceptively marketing a powerful opioid pain killer so that it was prescribed inappropriately beyond its intended use with cancer patients...Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh announced that he had filed administrative charges...which he said provided thousands of dollars in inducements to doctors to promote prescribing its medication Subsys to their patients...The state alleged that over 90 percent of the prescriptions for Subsys in Maryland ultimately were for patients who should never have received the product, an under-the-tongue spray that contains fentanyl, an opioid 100 times stronger than morphine...“The allegations against Insys describe a calculated scheme employing doctors, pharmacist, and sales reps to increase profits and market share at the expense of the health and well-being of vulnerable patients,” Frosh said in a statement.

A Canadian province has launched a proposed class-action lawsuit against the opioid industry, targeting companies from the nation’s biggest grocer Loblaw Cos. to Oxycontin-maker Purdue Pharma Inc., marking a new front of international action against the industry...British Columbia filed its claim...against more than 40 manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors of opioids, seeking to recover “millions of dollars in opioid-related health care costs incurred by the provincial government,” Attorney General David Eby said in a statement...The suit accuses companies of contributing to “an epidemic of addiction”...in Canada. The class action is probably the first such lawsuit outside of the U.S...If the court certifies British Columbia’s claim as a class action, other Canadian provinces and territories will be able to join...

Mike Papantonio, senior partner at Levin Papantonio, discusses a class-action lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies over the U.S. opioid crisis. He speaks with Bloomberg's Kevin Cirilli on "Bloomberg Markets: Balance of Power." (Source: Bloomberg)