Opioid makers responsible for rising premiums, new class-action suit alleges
First-of-their-kind lawsuits filed in five states accuse the defendants of conspiring, racketeering and creating a public nuisance.
Makers and distributors of the prescription opioids that triggered a U.S. public health crisis are responsible for a rise in health-insurance premiums, according to first-of-their-kind lawsuits filed in five states.
The lawsuits open another front in the burgeoning litigation against drugmakers including Purdue Pharma Inc. and the Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit of Johnson & Johnson and distributors such as McKesson Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc. The suits, which seek unspecified damages, seek to represent everyone who has bought a health insurance policy in those states since 1996.
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“All of the defendants in this action share responsibility for creating, sustaining and prolonging the opioid epidemic” in pursuit of corporate revenue, lead plaintiff Edward Grace alleges in a complaint filed Wednesday in Boston.
Similar cases were brought in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois and California, said plaintiffs’ lawyer Travis Lenkner of Chicago’s Keller Lenkner law firm. He said a group of firms he’s working with consider these to be the first such cases over insurance premiums.
The suits accuse the defendants of conspiring, racketeering and creating a public nuisance. Opioid abuse has killed more than 350,000 people since 1999, while costing private businesses and American governments $500 billion annually.
The companies didn’t immediately return emails seeking comment.
About 500 cities, counties and states have sued the same companies, seeking to hold them responsible for increased costs of crime, incarceration and treatment. Most of the federal suits have been aggregated for pretrial proceedings before a U.S. judge in Cleveland.
The Massachusetts case is Grace v. Purdue Pharma, 18-cv-10857, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston). The New Jersey case is Sardella v. Purdue Pharma, 18-cv-8706, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey.
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