California Counties Sue Drugmakers Over Painkiller Abuse

[xchrom]

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-23/california-counties-sue-drugmakers-over-painkiller-abuse#r=hp-ls




Are drugmakers responsible for an epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse? A new lawsuit alleges that 20 years ago, pharmaceutical companies set out to turn drugs that were narrowly prescribed for short-term acute pain into commonplace remedies for such conditions as arthritis and back pain, downplaying the risk of addiction.

The suit, brought by two counties in California against five drug companies, claims that “a common, sophisticated, and deeply deceptive marketing campaign that continues to the present, set out to, and did, reverse the popular and medical understanding of opioids.” The defendants include companies that have made billions selling widely used painkillers such as OxyContin, Percocet, and Actiq.

Attorneys for Orange County and Santa Clara County filed the suit in California Superior Court on May 21. They say the drugmakers violated state laws against false advertising and unfair competition. In a 105-page complaint, they seek an unspecified amount of restitution and civil penalties and ask the court to restrict the companies from “further false or misleading statements.”