States, cities seek to hold drug companies accountable for public health emergency.
HOUSTON – The Lanier Law Firm’s pharmaceutical litigation team is taking a leading role in partnering with state and local governments across the country to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for a public health emergency caused by the reckless spread of powerful and addictive prescription opioids.
The Lanier Law Firm’s trial lawyers have special expertise with legal claims against pharmaceutical companies and a long track record of significant verdicts and settlements. The firm is working closely with governments and other stakeholders suing the pharmaceutical industry for fueling dramatic increases in opioid abuse and deaths by indiscriminately flooding rural and urban communities with these powerful prescription drugs. The drugs in question include brand names such as OxyContin and Percocet, as well as generics such as fentanyl and oxycodone.
As pharmaceutical companies’ profits have soared, the result has been a public health emergency. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioid overdose deaths have quadrupled since 1999 along with sales of those prescription drugs. From 1999 to 2015, the deaths of more than 183,000 people have been attributed to prescription opioid overdoses. Overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50.
With special expertise in multidistrict litigation (MDL) against pharmaceutical conglomerates, the Lanier team has taken the lead in this litigation, which argues that pharmaceutical companies overstated the benefits and downplayed the risks of using opioids. As a result, local governments have been burdened with a mountain of costs and services needed to fight the crisis, including treatment centers and medical services for addicted residents.
“The behavior by these corporations that caused the opioid epidemic is one of the worst examples of corporate greed that I’ve ever seen,” said trial lawyer Mark Lanier, founder of The Lanier Law Firm. “These companies made a conscious decision to choose obscene profits over the health and safety of American citizens.”
With offices in Houston, New York, and Los Angeles, The Lanier Law Firm is committed to addressing client concerns with effective and innovative solutions in courtrooms across the country.
