Ohio Sues Drug Makers, Saying They Aided Opioid Epidemic -<br />By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑAMAY 31, 2017<br />The State of Ohio filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the pharmaceutical industry over the opioid epidemic, accusing several drug companies of conducting marketing campaigns<br />that misled doctors and patients about the danger of addiction and overdose.<br />“We are in ongoing discussions with attorneys general about what can only be described as a national epidemic,” said Michael<br />P. Canty, a lawyer in New York whose firm, Labaton Sucharow, is advising states on possible opioid litigation.<br />In 2015, more than 25,000 people in the United States died in 2015 from overdosing on opioids like fentanyl, oxycodone<br />and hydrocodone, more than twice as many as a decade earlier, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.<br />Drug makers promoted that change, Mr. DeWine charged in his suit, spending “millions of dollars on promotional activities and materials<br />that falsely deny or trivialize the risks of opioids while overstating the benefits of using them for chronic pain<br />Middle-aged white men suffer disproportionately from opioid abuse,<br />and the states with the highest overdose tolls are Ohio, Kentucky, New Hampshire and West Virginia.
