Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Lawyers For OxyContin Maker Ask Judge To Dismiss Suit Filed By City Over Opioid Epidemic
The maker of the pain medication OxyContin has asked a federal judge in Seattle to throw out a Washington city’s lawsuit that seeks to hold the drugmaker responsible for allowing its pills to flood the black market and into Everett. (Le, 3/21)
In a motion filed in federal court in Seattle, attorneys for Purdue Pharma wrote that the suit by Everett, Wash., suffered from “multiple, independent legal failings” — including statute of limitations problems and a failure to demonstrate a close connection between the company’s conduct and the criminal acts of drug dealers and addicts. (Ryan, 3/21)
Gov. Chris Sununu has nominated Gordon MacDonald, a well-known Manchester attorney, to serve as Attorney General. MacDonald's clients include a major opioid maker being investigated by the state. (Rodolico, 3/21)
No matter how hard he looked, a frustrated Dan Baker couldn't find the answer. Knowing it could help save lives, though, he refused to give up. His tenacity was rewarded when Baker, chief toxicologist in the Franklin County coroner's office, developed a new test to detect even minute quantities of carfentanil, a little-known, man-made opioid used to tranquilize elephants, polar bears, moose and other large animals. Baker's test helped officials across Ohio and the country determine that the "heroin" that was causing a frightening increase in overdoses and deaths last summer was much more. (Perry, 3/22)
The four children woke up and were about to start getting ready for school when they found their parents, Brian and Courtney Halye, unresponsive and cold in their bedroom. The children, ages 9 to 13, dialed 911. “My mom's on the floor and my stepdad's basically pale and they're not waking up,” Courtney Halye's daughter told an emergency dispatcher through tears. (Bever, 3/21)
Only one exchange site exists in Northern Kentucky, two years after a state law was changed to allow such programs, and it's outside the population centers of Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties. In Southwest Ohio, the only needle exchange program is limping along with spotty funding and little government support. Needle exchange is lagging locally although the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supports such exchanges to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, including hepatitis B and C and HIV. (DeMio, 3/21)
