As a landmark federal opioid trial nears completion, West Virginia communities are demanding $2.5 billion in compensation. Drug firms say they acted responsibly in shipping millions of pills.
Documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney investigated the opioid crisis. He says it was created by pharmaceutical companies, distributors, pharmacists and doctors, all looking to profit.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada has struck a $45 million settlement deal with global consulting firm McKinsey & Company for its role in advising opioid makers how to sell more prescription painkillers amid a national overdose crisis.
Attorneys, forensic analysts and other financial experts working for Purdue Pharma spent nearly two years looking for evidence of wrongdoing by the Sacklers. Critics want the findings made public.
The Justice Department says the retailer ignored red flags for years, filling suspicious prescriptions for opioids and contributing to America's deadly addiction crisis. Walmart denies wrongdoing.
Damages could total in the billions. "Walmart had the responsibility and the means to help prevent the diversion of prescription opioids. Instead, for years, it did the opposite," the government said.
Members of the family have worked to keep their role in Purdue Pharma's operations private. In a surprise move, David and Kathe Sackler agreed to testify under oath.
Critics say the settlement doesn't hold company executives or members of the Sackler family accountable for their aggressive marketing of OxyContin, which helped fuel the nation's opioid epidemic.
Even though Vinton County, Ohio, hasn't had high infection rates of the coronavirus, social restrictions have made it harder to keep drug users and their children safe, says Trecia Kimes-Brown.
After a two-year legal saga, Safehouse says it will open next week, allowing users to administer illegal drugs under supervision. Federal officials say they will try to stop the site from opening.
His sentencing is the culmination of a months-long criminal trial that resulted in the first successful prosecution of pharmaceutical executives tied to the opioid epidemic.
This was meant to be the year we answered a big question about the deadly opioid epidemic: Will drug companies that make and sell prescription pain medications be held liable? That clarity never came.
According to a court filing Monday, the family pulled about $10.7 billion from Purdue since 2008 — ramping up withdrawals even after executives pleaded guilty to misleading regulators about OxyContin.
Four defendants, including three big U.S. distributors, have struck a deal with Summit and Cuyahoga counties. It doesn't resolve thousands of other lawsuits filed against the firms across the U.S.
A new study estimates that the opioid epidemic has cost the U.S. economy about $631 billion due to health care costs and the unrealized lifetime earnings of people who died of overdoses.
The largest-ever federal action related to the U.S. opioid crisis is on the cusp of its first trial next week — and it's complicated. So here's a brief(ish) explainer breaking it all down.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada's Attorney General says he won't accept a tentative deal that OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma has reached with about half the states and thousands of local governments over the deadly opioid epidemic.
Around 20% of U.S. adults live with chronic pain. Medical schools traditionally haven't dedicated much time to teaching about pain and pain control, but one top school now has a mandatory course.
The private attorney representing Clark, Washoe and several other Nevada counties in suing drug manufacturers says it will take decades to address the legacy of the opioid epidemic.
Efforts to combat Philadelphia's opioid crisis with a supervised injection site could be stymied by a portion of federal law meant to protect neighborhoods during the crack epidemic of the 1980s.
Fentanyl, Inc. author Ben Westhoff says the opioid, while useful in hospitals, is killing more Americans as a street drug than any other in U.S. history. Here's how it moves from China to your corner.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The lawyer heading Nevada's largest lawsuits against drug manufacturers accused of fueling the nation's opioid addiction crisis predicted Wednesday that companies could be on the hook for judgments in the billions of dollars if cases go before juries.
![Bags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, picked up in a 2016 New York City drug bust. "Basically, [fentanyl] is so cheap to produce and it's so powerful, that drug dealers began realizing it was a way to increase their profits," <em>Fentanyl, Inc. </em>](https://knpr.org/sites/default/files/public/styles/thumbnail/public/images/npr-story/757101225_1449456291.jpg?itok=N19p1YW8 "Drew Angerer, Getty Images")
