Opioid Crackdown can lead to more drug companies bankruptcies: NPR
Two years ago, the drug company Insys Therapeutics sent a quarter-billion dollars in annual sales. But the Arizona-based firm's fortunes went so far that on Monday, the leaders declared bankruptcy. It was the last downfall of the nation's prescription opioid epidemic, which has killed more than 200,000 Americans and triggered hundreds of lawsuits against Big Pharma.
Insys marketed an opioid analgesic called Subsys which included fentanyl. It generated tens of millions of dollars in annual sales. However, as other prescription opioids marketed aggressively by the drug industry, it turned out to be very addictive.
Many of the drug industry's largest corporations are merged into a wave of opioid litigation, including name companies Johnson & Johnson and CVS. It is unlikely that large companies will follow Insys & # 39; s management and seek Chapter 11 protection, but smaller firms, including Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of OxyContin, have already driven the opportunity.
Lawyers representing hundreds of communities hoping to win compensation from Insys, issued a statement Monday and said they would work to determine whether the company is actually insolvent. "We will actively pursue complete financial disclosure for Insys and any other defendant as a bankruptcy file," the plaintiff said.
They added that their targeting target 21 other drug companies should not put them out of business, but to "abolish the current opioid epidemic and seek long-term, sustainable solutions. " State and local officials are hoping to return some of the billions of dollars they have spent responding to the opioid crisis.
A major state opioid attempt is now under way in Oklahoma against Johnson & Johnson, with a consolidated lawsuit against other companies starting in October in Ohio. Judge Dan Polster, who presides over the federal case, has urged the parties to reach a settlement so that society receives some compensation without disturbing the pharmaceutical industry.
Sources tell NPR negotiations are in progress, but no agreement has been reached.
A total of over 1,800 state and local governments have filed opioid-related lawsuits. Penalties and settlements can enter tens of thousands of dollars, which challenge big tobacco payments in the 1990s. The move by Insys came a week after the company pleaded guilty to crimes that it attributed the doctors to prescribing its Suby's fentanyl drug to patients who should not have used it.
The company agreed to pay the federal government $ 225 million in penalties. Last year, the company's founder, John Kapoor, once an interdisciplinary figure in the drug technology industry, was found guilty of federal racketeering charges along with four other Insys leaders. The company was still facing many other opioid-related lawsuits.
In his statement, Insyss CEO Andrew Long said in a statement that the "legal legal challenges" contributed to the firm's decision to go bankrupt.
He said bankruptcy proceedings would allow the company to negotiate with creditors.
