Opioid Settlement Will Do Nothing to Change The Trajectory of The Overdose Rate

Jeffrey A. SingerYesterday a settlement wasannounced between several states and the pharmaceutical distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health, and Amerisource Bergen, along with drug maker Johnson and Johnson, who were accused of contributing to the opioid overdose crisis. The three distributors agreed to pay the states $21 billion over 18 years and Johnson and Johnson agreed to pay $5 billion over 5 years, ostensibly to go towards drug treatment and education programs. Johnson and Johnson and the three distributors continue to dispute the allegations while agreeing to the settlement.Some, like the editors of the Wall Street Journal,criticize the outcome because roughly 10 percent of the settlement goes toward legal fees. They also argue that the defendants were wrongly accused:Politicians and plaintiff attorneys claim the companies hooked hundreds of thousands of Americans on opioids with deceptive marketing and negligent dispensing practices to boost their bottom line.The main problem with this argument is that opioids such as oxycodone require a doctor ’s prescription. Thousands of doctors would have to have been complicit in the conspiracy. Ditto the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is supposed to monitor and control opioid shipments by distributors to pharmacies.They have a point. But the suit was even more misguided because the overdose crisis was never caused by doctors “hooking” their patients on opioids. That’s a false narrativ...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 22, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs