Chicago Among Cities Taking Aim At Drugmakers
From the Associated Press
Some of the nation’s largest cities are ratcheting up their criticism of prescription painkillers, blaming the industry for a wave of addiction and overdoses that have ravaged their communities and busted local budgets.
The heightened rhetoric comes as Chicago tries to recover millions in health-care costs from opioid drugmakers, alleging that companies deliberately misled the public about the risks of their drugs.
It’s a legal strategy that could be attractive to other cash-strapped cities, but one that experts say will face hurdles in court.
On Tuesday, health commissioners from Chicago, New York and Boston came to Washington to lobby Congress and the White House on efforts to combat prescription opioid abuse, which is blamed for 17,000 deaths per year — more than three times as many as either heroin or cocaine.
“This is a raging epidemic, and we are feeling the brunt of it in big cities across the country,” Dr. Bechara Choucair, Chicago’s health commissioner, said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Chicago’s lawsuit, filed in July, alleges that five pharmaceutical companies deceptively marketed their drugs to treat long-term, non-cancer pain, even though that use was “unsupported by science.”
The allegations place the city at the center of a national debate over the appropriate use of opioids, which are frequently prescribed to treat common conditions like arthritis and back pain.
But where federal and state pharmaceutical lawsuits usually seek to recoup money spent on drugs, Chicago is also seeking damages for a range of other expenses.
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the Associated Press
Some of the nation’s largest cities are ratcheting up their criticism of prescription painkillers, blaming the industry for a wave of addiction and overdoses that have ravaged their communities and busted local budgets.
The heightened rhetoric comes as Chicago tries to recover millions in health-care costs from opioid drugmakers, alleging that companies deliberately misled the public about the risks of their drugs.
It’s a legal strategy that could be attractive to other cash-strapped cities, but one that experts say will face hurdles in court.
On Tuesday, health commissioners from Chicago, New York and Boston came to Washington to lobby Congress and the White House on efforts to combat prescription opioid abuse, which is blamed for 17,000 deaths per year — more than three times as many as either heroin or cocaine.
“This is a raging epidemic, and we are feeling the brunt of it in big cities across the country,” Dr. Bechara Choucair, Chicago’s health commissioner, said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Chicago’s lawsuit, filed in July, alleges that five pharmaceutical companies deceptively marketed their drugs to treat long-term, non-cancer pain, even though that use was “unsupported by science.”
The allegations place the city at the center of a national debate over the appropriate use of opioids, which are frequently prescribed to treat common conditions like arthritis and back pain.
But where federal and state pharmaceutical lawsuits usually seek to recoup money spent on drugs, Chicago is also seeking damages for a range of other expenses.
Read more in our daily News Update...