Health Impact News Editor Comments

This story out of Chicago is news only because it shows the cost municipalities must bear to deal with the increasing prescription drug abuse in treating the addicts of painkillers. The lawsuit itself will not be motivation for pharmaceutical companies to change their ways. They are already the largest criminals in the U.S., having paid out billions of dollars in fines and criminal settlements, all as part of the “cost of doing business.”

Sidney Wolfe of the British Medical Journal wrote an editorial last year explaining that criminal activities by pharmaceutical companies is increasing, due to insufficient penalties. (See: BMJ: Escalating Criminal Behavior by Pharmaceutical Companies due to Insufficient Penalties)

Deaths due to prescription drug abuse of painkillers now exceeds deaths due to heroin and cocaine combined. Yet pharmaceutical companies remain in business pushing their drugs, while millions of users of “illegal drugs” go to prison each year as a result of the “war on drugs.”

Chicago Accuses Drug Companies of Pushing Opioids

By Andrew Harris
Businessweek.com

Excerpts:

Chicago, the third-biggest U.S. city, sued Johnson & Johnson and four other drug companies for allegedly pushing consumer use of opioid painkillers, creating addicts and driving up its costs.

“Since 2007, the city has paid for nearly 400,000 claims for opioid prescription fills, costing nearly $9,500,000, and suffered additional damages for the costs of providing and using opiates long-term to treat chronic non-cancer pain,” lawyers for the municipality claimed in a state court complaint filed yesterday in Chicago.

Lawyers for the city of 2.7 million accused the drug companies of deceiving the public about the risks associated with the use of painkillers including Duragesic, made by Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit, while overstating their benefits. In May, two California counties made similar accusations in a lawsuit against the same drugmakers.

More than 12 million people in the U.S. abuse prescription painkillers annually, according to a study published March 3 in JAMA Internal Medicine. Misuse of those drugs in 2008 killed more people than heroin and cocaine combined, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Read the Full Story Here.

Free Shipping Available for this book!
Learn More