Coronavirus Scare Delays Major Opioid Trial

Coronavirus Scare Delays Major Opioid Trial

Introduction

Honorable Vito C. Caruso, Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for Courts Outside New York City, announced that a major opioid trial that would have started on March 20, 2020, at Long Island would be delayed because of the new coronavirus scare.

The lawsuit was filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James in March 2019, which expanded a 2018 suit filed by then-Attorney General Barbara Underwood against Purdue Pharma, alleging that they mislead the prescribers and patient about the risk associated with opioids.

A new trial date is yet to be scheduled, but Justice Jerry Garguilo of the Suffolk County Supreme Court, Commercial Division, is expected to hold a conference on April 14 to discuss a new trial date.

The defendants in the suit include Purdue Pharma, its affiliates, and the Sackler family; Janssen Pharmaceuticals and its affiliates (including its parent company Johnson & Johnson); Mallinckrodt LLC and its affiliates; Endo Health Solutions and its affiliates; Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. and its affiliates; and Allergan Finance, LLC and its affiliates. The distributors include McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health Inc., Amerisource Bergen Drug Corporation, and Rochester Drug Cooperative Inc.

Earlier, Sangamon County filed a lawsuit against the opioid manufacturers and distributors due to the growing opioid crisis in Illinois, which resulted in 27 deaths in 2019. 

The Director of the Sangamon County Department of Public Health, Gail O'Neill, informed that the number of people affected due to the opioids in Illinois is on the rise, which is a matter of concern for the county. Adding further, he said that the main reason for the opioid crisis is the overprescribing of pills by the doctors.

Sangamon County State's Attorney Dan Wright said that filing a lawsuit is just one of the many fronts, which the people of Sangamon County are undertaking to fight against the opioid epidemic. The main focus of the case is to make the manufacturers and distributors realise their role in spreading the epidemic.

Johnson & Johnson, CVS, and Walgreens are some of the defendants in the lawsuit who play a major role in the growing opioid crisis.