Palmetto looks to join lawsuits against pharmacy companies for opioid damages

Palmetto joined municipalities across the state, and country, in potentially filing a lawsuit against big pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors for their alleged role in the current opioid epidemic that has killed an estimated 200,000 Americans in the past few years.

The city took action Monday night to authorize city attorney Mark Barnebey to retain an outside legal team to review the financial impacts to the city that the crisis has caused. Among some potential costs associated with the epidemic are for the purchase of narcan, the counteractive drug that stops an overdose, as well as personnel, treatment and litigation.

“It’s come to our attention that a number of jurisdictions are investigating and pursuing possible claims that are pharmaceutical related due to possible deceptive sales and marketing procedures,” Barnebey said.

Barnebey said there are several firms now specializing in taking action against the pharmaceutical companies and it would be a contingency-based hire, meaning it won’t cost the city any money for the legal team to review the city’s case and potentially file the lawsuit. Legal professionals have compared it to the class action lawsuit filed by the Gulf of Mexico states against British Petroleum after the Deepwater Horizon environmental disaster.

Barnebey said there are some similarities, but it’s not a class action suit and all of the municipalities are essentially going at it on their own.

“But if you get enough people that are filing a similar case, the courts will typically prefer a class action suit,” he said. “We aren’t there yet, but I can see it getting to that point.”

Delray Beach became the first city to file a suit in July, and Manatee County had a similar discussion in early November. The county is considering one of two law firms, and a proposal to move forward is expected by late January.

While it has been an unofficial accusation for years, so-called “Big Pharm” is being called out for the aftermath of the “Pill Mill” ordeal when powerful and addictive narcotics were being over prescribed, addicting millions of Americans. When states like Florida cracked down on the pill mills, it left those relying on the medications to find alternative means to feed their addiction. In Delray Beach’s case, the city’s third-party legal team accuses pharmaceutical distributors and manufacturers of engaging in deceptive marketing and that they violated the Florida Unfair Deceptive Trade Practices Act by overselling opioids to doctors while minimizing the threat of addiction.

In 2015, Manatee County had Florida’s highest per capita rate of overdose fatalities related to morphine, fentanyl and cocaine. One year later, the county would be labeled the overdose capital of the country, and while 2017 has seen ebbs and flows in overdoses, the crisis remains in full swing. Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant said the legal team must take into consideration those future numbers and not just settle on the past and present figures.

“This has the potential to be very costly in the long term at the rate this continues to escalate,” Bryant said. “It’s very unfair to our citizens who will be burdened with those costs.”

Pharmaceutical companies also are being accused of failing to alert the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency for suspicious opioid purchases, such as orders of unusual size and frequency. Allegations typically state that the manufacturers exaggerated the benefits of the medications, knew they were being over prescribed and yet failed to warn doctors of the extremely addictive nature of the narcotics. Other lawsuits also state that pharmaceutical companies lobbied politicians and doctors in an effort to artificially increase the use of these same opioids.

This story was originally published December 18, 2017 at 8:36 PM with the headline "Palmetto looks to join lawsuits against pharmacy companies for opioid damages."