June 02, 2022
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation rebuffed pleas from drugstore giants CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens and Walmart to rethink its surprise decision capping multidistrict opioid litigation, shrugging off predictions that opioid cases will spread chaotically in courts across the country.
June 01, 2022
Attorneys for the city of San Francisco sought to bolster their case Wednesday that Allergan, Teva, Walgreens and Anda illegally fueled the city's opioid epidemic by calling experts to testify that rising prescriptions and dosages allegedly pushed by the drug industry contributed to rising addiction rates.
June 01, 2022
The federal judge presiding over a high-stakes bench trial on San Francisco's claim that Allergan, Teva and other entities fueled the city's opioid crisis expressed annoyance Tuesday at arguments from Allergan's counsel that an expert improperly lumped manufacturers together in concluding they drove loosened safety restrictions.
May 27, 2022
The Ohio federal judge supervising multidistrict opioid litigation is unlawfully "commandeering" cases outside the MDL by demanding fees for prominent plaintiffs lawyers from future opioid settlements, hundreds of local governments told the Sixth Circuit in a new petition.
May 26, 2022
Teva and Cephalon improperly peddled their painkiller Fentora even after Cephalon reached a 2008 plea agreement to resolve criminal claims it marketed a different opioid for unapproved uses, San Francisco's lawyer told the federal judge overseeing a bench trial on claims the companies and others illegally fueled the city's opioid epidemic.
May 23, 2022
The federal judge overseeing a high-stakes trial related to San Francisco's opioid crisis said testimony from an ex-Actavis executive Monday about the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reminded him of the agency's flawed handling of an opioid concern in another case, saying the government had "failed" in that matter.
May 19, 2022
A San Francisco Fire Department official testified in a bellwether opioid bench trial Thursday that opioid abuse has become so prevalent in the city that emergency responders now treat an average of seven overdoses daily, whereas public overdoses were a rare occurrence in the early 2000s.
May 17, 2022
Teva unit Cephalon saw sales of its opioid lollipop Actiq soar after it began marketing the product for non-FDA approved off-label uses, a judge heard Tuesday in recorded testimony from ex-Cephalon employees in a bellwether trial over claims the drugmaker and others illegally fueled San Francisco's opioid epidemic.
May 17, 2022
Two Northeast Ohio counties on Tuesday deployed a lawyer known for his folksy trial persona to cross-examine two expert witnesses for three major pharmacy chains that are trying to minimize how much they will have to pay after a jury found them liable for their role in the opioid epidemic.
May 16, 2022
Walgreens tracked the prescription habits of doctors but didn't make the database available to stores because it might "cloud" the judgment of a pharmacist filling a prescription, a judge heard in recorded testimony Monday in a bellwether trial over claims that Walgreens and others illegally fueled San Francisco's opioid epidemic.