NTL member files 3rd opioid lawsuit Posted on February 20, 2018 by Andrew Findley Beasley Allen has filed the third lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and distributors on behalf of a city or county government. The complaint, filed on behalf of Barbour County, Alabama, alleges the marketing of these drugs contributed to the creation of the opioid epidemic, a public health and safety crisis. Responding to the opioid crisis has required Barbour County to sustain economic damages and to continue to bear a significant financial burden. In December, Beasley Allen filed two similar lawsuits on behalf of the City of Greenville, Alabama and Houston County, Alabama. Barbour County is represented by Beasley Allen lawyers Rhon E. Jones, who is head of the firm’s Toxic Torts Section and a member of The National Trial Lawyers, Rick Stratton, Will Sutton and Ryan Kral, along with Eufaula lawyer Walter B. Calton. “Decisions made in the pharmaceutical companies’ board rooms regarding prescription opiates have devastated so many lives and communities,” Jones said. “Choosing to turn a blind eye to suspicious orders was simply a way to quench their insatiable greed. Such callous disregard for human life and dignity, not to mention the enormous and needless cost to taxpayers, must be met with equally severe and deliberate consequences.” Economic damages resulting from the opioid epidemic include costs for providing medical care, therapeutic care and treatments for patients suffering from opioid-related addiction or disease, including overdoses and deaths; costs for providing counseling and rehabilitation services; costs for treating infants born with opioid-related medical conditions; public safety and law enforcement expenses; and care for children whose parents suffer from opioid-related disability or incapacitation. “Barbour county residents, like many in communities across our state and country, have watched friends and family suffer incredible pain because of opioid addiction and taxpayers have been forced to clean up the mess caused by negligent and greedy pharmaceutical companies,” said Calton. “We seek to recover the profits drug companies devoured after knowingly pedaling the highly addictive prescription drugs to our unsuspecting residents.” Defendants include Purdue Pharma L.P.; Purdue Pharma, Inc.; The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc.; Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, LTD.; Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.; Cephalon, Inc.; Johnson & Johnson; Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. n/k/a Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Janssen Pharmaceutical Inc. n/k/a Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Noramco, Inc.; Endo Health Solutions Inc.; Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Allergan PLC f/k/a Actavis PLS; Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. n/k/a Actavis, Inc.; Watson Laboratories, Inc.; Actavis, LLC; Actavis Pharm a, Inc. f/k/a Watson Pharma, Inc.; Mallinckrodt plc; Mallinckrodt LLC; McKesson Corporation; Cardinal Health, Inc.; and AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation. The complaint is filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.
