A Chicago class-action lawyer has filed a 97-page lawsuit in Chicago federal court against 13 drug companies and distributors, on behalf of a woman who alleges the companies promoted opioid use, knowing such painkillers were dangerously addictive, jacking up people's health insurance costs.
Attorney Jay Edelson and his firm, Edelson P.C., lodged the suit May 2 for Illinois resident Barbara Rivers against a collection of drugmakers, including Purdue Pharma; Insys Therapeutics; Teva Pharmaceutical; Cephalon; Johnson & Johnson; Janssen Pharmaceuticals; Endo Pharmaceuticals; Actavis, Inc.; Watson Pharmaceuticals; McKesson Corporation; Cardinal Health Inc.; and Amerisourcebergen Corporation.
The suit alleges defendants violated the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act and the U.S. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Specifically, the suit asserts the companies caused prescription painkillers to flood the country, hooking patients and leading addicts to pursue other opioids, such as heroin and fentanyl.
Jay Edelson
A number of governmental bodies, including Cook County and other counties around Chicago, have entered suits against opioid manufacturers on behalf of taxpayers, who they say have had to foot the bill for the burden placed on public agencies by the opioid crisis.
Edelson is not representing those counties. However, Edelson says the opioid epidemic has taken at least 351,000 lives since 1999 and cost the public untold billions of dollars.
Edelson's new lawsuit applies to those who pay for health insurance. Edelson's plaintiff, Rivers, paid for Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance for herself and her husband, with her costs jacked up, because of insurance claims by others in connection with painkiller abuse and higher painkiller prescription prices, according to the suit.
The suit assigns blame fully to the pharmaceutical companies.
“Manufacturers have engaged in a cunning and deceptive marketing scheme to encourage doctors and patients to use opioids to treat chronic pain. In doing so, manufacturers falsely minimized the risks of opioids, overstated their benefits, and generated far more opioid prescriptions than there should have been. The opioid epidemic is the direct result of the manufacturers' deliberately crafted, well-funded campaign of deception,” the lawsuit said.
“For years,” the companies have “misled susceptible prescribers and vulnerable patient populations. They transformed the way doctors treat chronic pain, opening the floodgates of opioid prescriptions and dependence. As families and communities suffered from the scourge of opioid abuse, the manufacturers earned billions in profits as a direct result of the harms they imposed,” the suit alleged.
Regarding the drug distributors, they “fulfilled suspicious orders from pharmacies and ignored red flags,” allowing “massive amounts of opioids to be diverted from legitimate channels of distribution into the illicit black market,” the suit alleged.
Edelson alleged some defendants stooped to bribing doctors to prescribe painkillers and exaggerated the risks of non-opioid drugs and “treatment strategies.” These defendants “tainted virtually every source doctors could rely on for information and prevented them from making informed treatment decisions,” Edelson alleged.
In connection with health insurance, the suit claimed defendants have “created higher demand and thus higher prices for opioids, as well as the need for expensive medical treatment for a number of covered health conditions, resulting in increased insurance costs for Illinois consumers.”
Insurance companies, who were also fooled by defendants about opioids, have absorbed increased costs in connection with opioid abuse, which they passed on to those insured, Edelson alleged.
Edelson said at a December gathering of the City Club of Chicago that treatment costs have mostly, but wrongly been borne by taxpayers.
U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo is presiding over the suit.
The Edelson firm in recent years has handled a number of class actions, including numerous suits claiming companies violated digital privacy rights, and litigation accusing the National Collegiate Athletic Association of contributing to athletes' brain damage.