After a brutal year where thousands of Canadians died of opioid overdose, British Columbia is taking prescription opioid makers to court.
On Wednesday, the province hit hardest by the opioid crisis launched a class action lawsuit against 40 drug companies and distributors, including Oxycontin producer Purdue Pharma.
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“It’s time opioid drug companies take responsibility for the human and financial toll their products have taken on so many families across British Columbia,” NDP Attorney General David Eby told reporters Wednesday. “In court, we will argue that these drug companies deceptively marketed their products knowing full well the potential consequences, and as a result, British Columbia has incurred great costs.”
Across Canada, close to 4,000 people died from opioid-related overdose in 2017, fueled by the spread of highly-addictive synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Nearly 1,500 of those deaths were in BC, and more than 800 overdose deaths have been recorded across the province in the first half of 2018.
Canadian doctors have been advocating for legal action against opioid makers for some time. In spring, several doctors across Canada signed a letter to the federal government asking the feds for a criminal investigation into the way opioids were marketed to doctors, resulting in an epidemic of addiction.
“We’re doing this because of the health consequences we see,” Toronto emergency room doctor Joel Lexchin told VICE. “I work in an emergency department, and I see some of the consequences of the epidemic that Purdue especially helped trigger in Canada… There are costs to the health system for treating people, there are the costs of the prescriptions.”
Lexchin told VICE Purdue ads in medical journals made misleading claims about its drugs’ low rate of addiction among patients with legitimate pain. The company paid dozens of doctors across Canada to give talks on opioids. Drug makers like Purdue have also been accused of “profiting from both ends of the opioid crisis,” as they supply life-saving naloxone.
The lawsuit follows a citizen-led class action that ended in a proposed $20 million settlement, or $2 million per province—an amount one Saskatchewan judge ruled was not reasonable given the deadly impact of opioids.
South of the border, Purdue is facing similar lawsuits from dozens of American cities and states. Back in 2007, Purdue paid a $600 million settlement to 26 states for “misbranding” Oxycontin. The company has not made a similar admission of wrongdoing in Canada.
BC’s class action suit is the first lawsuit of its kind in the country. The province will be introducing new legislation in the fall, similar to laws that made way for action against Big Tobacco, to assist with the court process.
“I have sat with family members who have lost loved ones to overdose, and we are taking action to address the terrible impact overdose is having on the lives of our children, partners and friends,” Judy Darcy, BC minister of mental health and addictions, said in a statement Wednesday. ”Drug companies must take responsibility for their role, and need to put the lives of people ahead of profits.”
Lexchin hopes to see more provinces take note and join the legal fight. “There are opioid deaths in every province, and heath costs associated with that, with addiction, treatment, and hospitalizations, and I think that every province should be taking Purdue to court.”
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