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.
May 16, 2022
A Stanford University professor told a judge Monday that three pharmacy chains should pay a small fraction of the roughly $875 million that two Northeast Ohio counties seek for the role a jury found the pharmacies played in the opioid crisis, arguing that the plaintiffs' experts botched some calculations.
May 12, 2022
A former Walgreens pharmacist felt pressured to "fill, fill, fill" prescriptions while working at a pace that made her fear making fatal errors, a California federal judge heard in recorded testimony Thursday in a multibillion-dollar bellwether trial over claims Walgreens and others illegally fueled San Francisco's opioid epidemic.