TMC sues big pharma over having to treat opioid overdoses

Citing the increasingly high cost of treating patients who suffer an opioid overdose, Tucson Medical Center has sued Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Cephalon Inc., Purdue Pharma and a host of other pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors.

The lawsuit was filed in Pima County Superior Court and accuses the drug companies of negligence, fraud and conspiracy.

Hospital officials say drug manufacturers chose profit over patients, and created a “pharmaceutical Wild West,” where salespeople persuaded doctors to purchase and prescribe highly addictive and dangerous opioids that caused patients to become addicted.

The full Arizona Republic story is here.