New York courts see wave of lawsuits against opioid makers
ALBANY — Pharmaceutical firms that produce pain-killing opiate drugs are facing a growing barrage of lawsuits from New York county governments seeking to hold them financially accountable for an epidemic of addiction and overdoses.
The lawsuits contend that the companies have made hefty profits by using deceptive marketing techniques to increase the sales of their pills to treat such ailments as arthritis, lower-back pain and headaches.
At least nine New York counties have individually filed lawsuits against various manufacturers and more are contemplating retaining private law firms that specialize in tort litigation to bring similar cases. They include Niagara, Clinton and Otsego counties, according to local officials.
Clinton County Administrator Michael Zurlo acknowledged his county has also been approached by law firm representatives seeking to be retained to commence legal actions against the drug companies. He said the county legislature has instructed the county attorney, James Coffey, to delve into the matter, but the legislature has not yet authorized a lawsuit.
Niagara County may be among the next batch of local governments to join the effort, officials said.
County Legislator David Godfrey, R-Burt, said he believes the manufacturers did not do enough to educate the public on the risks of taking prescribed opioids.
“If you’re marketing any type of product which is proven to be harmful or life-threatening,” he said, “i would think the companies would have the responsibility to make that widely and openly known.”
The lawsuits link the current heroin epidemic to the marketing practices of the drug companies. They maintain that many people who become addicted to such prescription drugs as Oxycontin and Percocet turn to heroin as an alternative when their prescription pills cannot be acquired.
“Everyone is realizing that their counties are being economically decimated by this problem,” said Hunter Shkolnik, a partner in the Manhattan law firm Napoli Shkolnik, one of two firms that have been in talks with officials in Otsego County.
The lawsuits are being brought by two of the most populous New York counties outside New York City — Suffolk and Nassau counties on Long Island, as well as some with relatively small populations. Schuyler County, with a population of 18,300, announced its lawsuit in tandem with Napoli Shkolnik on Aug. 17.
Schuyler County Administrator Tim O’Hearn said: “By voting to go forward with litigation, the County Legislature hopes to lessen the burden to taxpayers and seeks to hold manufacturers and distributors responsible for their role in the opioid epidemic.
He said the lawsuit was filed at no cost to his county, as the law firm is working on a contingency basis that will cover all costs arising from the lawsuit.
Otsego County Attorney Ellen Coccoma said members of her county board are expected to hear presentations from representatives of both Shkolnik’s firm and a second firm handling the suits for several counties, Simmons Hanly Conroy, also based in New York City.
The companies being sued have denied the allegations made against them. They include Purdue Pharma, L.P. and Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.
William Foster, a spokesman for Janssen, said in an emailed statement that his company recognizes that “opioid abuse is a serious public health issue that must be addressed.”
“At the same time,” Foster added, “we firmly believe the allegations in these lawsuits are both legally and factually unfounded. Janssen has acted responsibly and in the best interests of patients and physicians with regard to these medicines, which are FDA-approved and carry FDA-mandated warnings about possible risks on every product label.”
Foster also said Janssen provides doctors with “complete and accurate information on how to prescribe our opioid medications.”
As recovering addict Dylan Clark sees it, such lawsuits are long overdue.
Clark, 38, founded an addiction support group in Oneonta called Clean Is The New Dirty. Clark who now resides in Utica, traced his addiction to a prescription to hydrocodone after he injured his back in a car accident when he was 17 years old.
“What I like about these lawsuits is they hurt the drug companies right where it hurts — in the pocketbook,” said Clark, 38. “I’m hoping it will cause them to be less reckless with their product in the future.”
A 2016 report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pegged the economic tab for prescription opioid and heroin abuse nationally at $78.5 billion annually, with taxpayers paying for nearly a quarter of that sum.
The litigation being brought by a growing number of New York counties as well as several states and county governments across the nation is reminiscent of the lawsuit brought by 48 states against Big Tobacco in 1998, Shkolnik said.
He said the tobacco litigation produced a windfall for the states when it was settled. By initiating their own lawsuits against the opioid makers, he noted, the counties will get payments directly from the companies should they prevail in court.
“We are trying to keep these cases as individual cases (in state courts) in the venues where the people are affected,” Shkolnik said..
He said it was too early to predict whether the lawsuits will result in a settlement similar to the national one in the tobacco litigation.
Shkolnik said documents assembled by his firm show that fraud was used in marketing prescription opioids. He said his firm worked with retired federal narcotics investigators to document the practices of the drug companies and distributors.
“I’d like to see the facts come out in a jury setting where the press can see the documents,” he said. “I really, really hope these dirty documents get out to the public.”
Joe Mahoney covers the New York Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at jmahoney@cnhi.com