Shelby County joins lawsuit against drug companies

    COUNTY -- Crueger Dickinson LLC and Simmons Hanly Conroy together filed the first lawsuits today on behalf of Polk County, Iowa and 35 other Iowa counties, including Shelby County against pharmaceutical companies over the aggressive and fraudulent marketing of prescription opioid painkillers that has led to a drug epidemic in the state and throughout the nation.
    This month’s filings are the first in Iowa federal court against pharmaceutical manufacturers to address the opioid crisis.  With today’s action, 36 of Iowa’s 99 counties are seeking to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for their roles in the nation’s ongoing drug crisis and epidemic. The defendants in the lawsuits are: Purdue Pharma L.P.; Purdue Pharma, Inc.; The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc.; Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.; Cephalon, Inc.; Johnson & Johnson; Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Janssen Pharmaceutica, Inc.; Endo Health Solutions, Inc.; Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Dr. Perry Fine; Dr. Scott Fishman; and Dr. Lynn Webster.
    According to the lawsuits, prescription opioid deaths in Iowa have quadrupled in the past 20 years. Rates of prescription opioid overdose deaths since 1999 in Iowa have increased, making it only one of four states with such a dramatic increase. Polk County alone made up 25 percent of those deaths.
    The majority of opioid-related deaths in Iowa involved prescription opioids, with there being at least 646 such deaths between 2009 and 2014. In Iowa, opioid related emergency room visits have tripled over the last decade. In 2006 there were only 519 such encounters, whereas there were 1,555 in 2014.
    The lawsuits allege the defendants sought to create a false perception in the minds of physicians, patients, health care providers and health care payors that using opioids to treat chronic pain was safe for most patients and that the drugs’ benefits outweighed the risks.