The County of Mendocino took an important step in the fight against the national and statewide opioid crisis. The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors has retained the national law firm of Baron & Budd and a joint venture of law firms to initiate litigation against manufacturers and distributors responsible for the opioid epidemic across the country and in Mendocino County.
Mendocino County joins a consortium of thirty California Counties that are working together to take a stand for communities and counties that represent approximately 10.5 million California residents. The intended legal action will include a taxpayer and cost recovery action in addition to equitable relief to help mitigate and prevent current and future problems.
“The County seeks to recovery taxpayer funds used to respond to the opioid epidemic,” says Mendocino County Counsel Katharine Elliott. “Local government services have been subsidizing the impact of the opioid epidemic, created by irresponsible multi-billion dollar corporations, which have placed profits over public safety.”
The California county consortium and its counsel have developed evidence that many of the nation’s largest drug manufactures pushed highly addictive, dangerous opioids—deliberately misinforming doctors by claiming that patients using the drugs rarely experience addiction. The expected manufacturer Defendants include Purdue Pharma; Teva Ltd. (which acquired pharmaceutical maker Cephalon, Inc. in 2011); Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson); Endo Health Solutions, Inc.; Allergan PLC; and Mallinckrodt. Drugs manufactured by these companies include, but are not limited to: OxyContin, Actiq, Fentora, Duragesic, Nucynta, Nucynta ER, Opana/Opana ER, Percodan, Percocet, Zydone, Kadian and Norco.
The consortium will also seek recovery from three of the nation’s largest drug distributors – Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, and McKesson Corp. – which failed to monitor, identify and report suspicious activity in the size and frequency of opioid shipments to pharmacies, in violation of the federal Controlled Substances Act.
