{"id":7506,"date":"2017-06-24T00:45:16","date_gmt":"2017-06-24T00:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com?p=2694984&amp;preview_id=2694984"},"modified":"2017-06-24T00:45:16","modified_gmt":"2017-06-24T00:45:16","slug":"missouri-sues-three-big-pharma-companies-for-campaign-of-fraud-and-deception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/missouri-sues-three-big-pharma-companies-for-campaign-of-fraud-and-deception\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri sues three big pharma companies for \u201ccampaign of fraud and deception\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/missouri-sues-three-big-pharma-companies-for-campaign-of-fraud-and-deception\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"large-10 large-centered small-12 columns\">\n<div class=\"entry-meta-date\">Published: Jun 23, 2017, 3:22 pm \u2022 Updated: Jun 23, 2017, 3:25 pm<span class=\"single-comments-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/06\/23\/missouri-sues-big-pharma-opioids\/82193\/#disqus_thread\" class=\"commentsNameLink\" \/><\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\">By <strong>Katie Mettler<\/strong>, <em> The Washington Post<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Helen Fabick was an honors student who in February 2014 was supposed to attend a daddy-daughter dance at her high school.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, her father found the 17-year-old dead in her bed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf this sounds like a nightmare, it has definitely been a nightmare for our family,\u201d Helen\u2019s mother, Jammie Fabick, said during a news conference Wednesday with Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley. \u201cIt\u2019s something no parent should ever have to do, to bury her own child, to something so senseless.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fabick and Hawley stood together in St. Louis as the state\u2019s top lawyer announced he was suing three pharmaceutical giants he claims are responsible for a \u201ccoordinated campaign of fraud and deception\u201d that has led to Missouri\u2019s current opioid crisis.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit, Hawley said, will seek \u201chundreds of millions of dollars\u201d in damages and civil penalties from Endo Pharmaceuticals, Purdue Pharma and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, which is owned by Johnson &amp; Johnson, reported the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>He said the companies have used fraudulent science to mislead patients on the addictive risks of opioids and \u201cprofited from the suffering of Missourians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey used bogus front organizations and fake research; they used fraudulent advertising and deceptive trade practices,\u201d Hawley said in prepared remarks, according to Reuters. \u201cAnd they repeatedly lied about the true risks of the drugs they sold.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Missouri in 2015, thousands of people were hospitalized from non-heroin opioid overdoses and about 500 people died, according to the AP.<\/p>\n<p>Yet it\u2019s the only state in the country with no prescription drug monitoring system, a database that experts have said is a crucial step to curbing addiction and overdoses.<\/p>\n<p>Proposals have languished in the legislature for half a dozen sessions.<\/p>\n<p>At the news conference Wednesday, Hawley said Missouri lawmakers \u201cshould act to pass a prescription drug monitoring program\u201d as just one of several efforts to \u201caddress what is a national epidemic but one that has had serious consequences here in the state of Missouri,\u201d reported the AP.<\/p>\n<p>With Hawley\u2019s lawsuit, Missouri becomes the third state to legally challenge the pharmaceutical industry over the current opioid epidemic.<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, Mississippi sued several drug companies and just last month, Ohio filed its own lawsuit against five pharmaceutical groups. Purdue, Endo and Johnson &amp; Johnson were cited in both, reported Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>Endo told the Kansas City Star it would not comment on pending litigation, but Stephen Mock, the vice president for investor relations and corporate affairs wrote in an email that the company\u2019s \u201ctop priorities include patient safety and ensuring that patients with chronic pain have access to safe and effective therapeutic options.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for Purdue vigorously denied the allegations, reported the Star, but said the company shares \u201cthe attorney general\u2019s concerns about the opioid crisis and we are committed to working collaboratively to find solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Janssen spokeswoman told the Star that the company had \u201cacted 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In March, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thecannabist.co\/2017\/03\/28\/opioid-epidemic-manufacturers-senator-mccaskill\/76236\/\">Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., launched an investigation into five top opioid manufacturers<\/a> and their alleged role in the deaths of more than 200,000 people since 2000, as The Washington Post previously reported. Purdue and Janssen were on her list of companies from whom she demanded information.<\/p>\n<p>At the news conference Wednesday with the attorney general, Fabick said she wasn\u2019t educated when her daughter died in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t see any of the exact signs (of drug abuse),\u201d Fabick said, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. \u201cYou never know when it\u2019s going to be your last hug.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .row --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley announced he was suing three pharmaceutical giants he claims are responsible for the state&#8217;s current opioid crisis. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7038,5062,7143,6892,446,6813,77,5667,9,425,6833,5019,6983,1357,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[7039,5063,7144,6893,3020,6818,2655,5673,3003,6835,5022,6984,3927],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7506"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}