5 Illinois Counties Sue Drug Companies Over Rampant Opioid Use

WHEATON, IL — Five Illinois counties are collectively going after painkiller manufacturers in an attempt to curb the monumental effect opioids have had on the region and the nation. DuPage, Kane, Will and McHenry County state’s attorneys spoke in a press conference Thursday about their lawsuits against 13 pharmaceutical companies and three doctors. Lake County joined the coalition Thursday morning by filing a similar lawsuit.

The counties allege the drug companies, which include Johnson & Johnson and Purdue Pharma, of being the catalyst for the nation’s opioid epidemic. Purdue created OxyContin, which was approved by the FDA in the mid-90s. The four counties are seeking relief, including compensatory and punitive damages for the millions of dollars they spend each year to combat drug-related crimes, and the public nuisance created by the crisis. The amount which they are seeking was not specified.

In DuPage County, 78 people died in 2016 from overdosing on heroin, fentanyl or a combination of both. That number has climbed to 81 so far this year. DuPage County Board Chair Dan Cronin said since 1999, prescription opioid deaths had risen fourfold, even though the need for these types of pain medication isn’t there.

DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin called those numbers “staggering.” The lawsuits are an attempt, he said, to hold companies responsible “for the enormous cost, rise in crime rates, escalated social issues, and increased cost in productivity in the workplace incurred by each of these five counties.”

Berlin compared drug manufacturers’ “coordinated and sophisticated and highly deceptive marketing campaign” for opioid drugs to that of the tobacco industry’s efforts to push its products.

All five state's attorneys spoke to the detriments of opioids, and how they’re individually expanding the fight beyond the streets and into the pharmaceutical industry.

“Over the last 6 years, 257 people have died in Kane County from opiate use,” said Kane County State’s Attorney Joseph McMahon. He added that these prescription drugs are aggressively marketed to physicians.

In Will County, 77 people died of opioid-related overdoses in 2016. So far this year, 75 had died of heroin/fentanyl overdoses as of Dec. 19.

Nationwide, 2016 was the deadliest year on record for overdose deaths. More than 63,600 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2016, and about two thirds of those deaths were attributed to opioid-related overdoses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. More than 2,400 died in Illinois.

Prosecutors expect the litigation to be contested. They also expect more counties from Illinois to join in, and some have already filed similar complaints.

Taxpayers are not going to cover direct costs for the litigation. Instead, the costs will be covered by outside council, officials confirmed. The council they’ve partnered with— Meyers & Flowers and Simmons Hanly Conroy— will receive 25 percent of what they have recovered in the lawsuits, which are expected to last years.

Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow nodded toward the other state’s attorneys behind him.

“None of the gentlemen standing up here with me like to lose. So we don’t expect to lose.”

Images: Caitlin Ketel. Main image: County officials and state's attorneys gather at Dec. 21 press conference in Wheaton, IL