Madison County filing opioid abuse lawsuit

The commissioners on Tuesday approved a contract with the Indianapolis law firm of Cohen & Malad to represent the county and the cities of Alexandria and Elwood in the lawsuit. The city of Anderson is not included.

Anderson Mayor Thomas Broderick Jr. said he has been approached by two different law firms and has researched the lawsuits that have been filed.

"At this point I've decided not to get Anderson involved in a prolonged lawsuit that will be very expensive," he said. "I know the law firms will work on a contingency basis, but the amount of data that would be required to bolster discovery will take thousands of man-hours.

"It doesn't make a lot of sense to get Anderson involved," Broderick continued. "If the state of Indiana becomes involved and is successful there would be money available for local units of government."

County attorney Jeff Graham said similar opioid litigation lawsuits have been filed across the country, including suits filed by Indianapolis, Bloomington and several Indiana counties.

“This mirrors the lawsuit filed by Indianapolis,” Graham said.

The Indianapolis lawsuit contends that the "dramatic increase" in painkiller use in Indianapolis was caused by the companies' deceptive marketing and their "failure to identify, report and stop suspicious orders" of opioids, The Associated Press reported in November. It also alleges the companies misled consumers and medical providers about the risks of painkillers.

Because of the high risk of addiction to opioids such as OxyContin, they should be used only for short-term needs after surgery or trauma and end-of-life care, the suit says, arguing that the companies did not market them as such and thereby created a false sense of safety for the products.

Purdue Pharma, Teva, Janssen, Endo, Allergan, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health are among the named defendants.

Several of the drug companies have denied any wrongdoing.

The lawsuit is seeking treble damages to cover the cost of treatment programs, care for infants born with opioid addictions and law enforcement costs.

Graham said the county’s lawsuit is a separate action and not part of a class-action lawsuit.

He said the lawsuit names several drug companies and distributors but doesn’t include doctors.

“The complaint is that deceptive practices led to the opioid addiction problem, which is costing the county,” Graham said.

Graham said there are no upfront costs to Madison County. He said, under the contract, Cohen & Malad would receive 33 percent of any settlement and Madison County would receive 67 percent.

“This is a novel type of lawsuit,” Graham said. “The closest to it would be the lawsuit filed against the tobacco companies.”

The lawsuit would allow local units of government to better target local problems with the funding through a settlement, he said.

Commissioner John Richwine said hiring Cohen & Malad would better serve the county’s interests than through a local firm.

“It would be a more adequate settlement,” Richwine said. “We’re facing a huge problem caused by practices that should never have been put in place.”

Commissioner Steffanie Owens said the opioid problem is impacting babies that are being born with addictions.

“We want to make sure the money goes toward treatment and education programs,” she said.

How any settlement funds could be used has not been determined, Graham said.

“Manufacturer Defendants knew that, with prolonged use, the effectiveness of opioids wanes, requiring increases in doses to achieve pain relief and increasing the risk of significant side effects and addiction,” the lawsuit reads. “Manufacturer Defendants knew that controlled studies of the safety and efficacy of opioids were limited to short-term use in managed settings (e.g., hospitals) where the risk of addiction and other adverse outcomes was minimized.

“To date, there have been no long-term studies demonstrating the safety and efficacy of opioids for long-term use,” the lawsuit continues.