'Innocent victims': Lawsuit from Nashville children targets opioid companies
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Six Nashville children born addicted to opioids, now between 2 and 8 years old, are suing top opioid manufacturers like Endo and Johnson & Johnson as well as the pharmacies CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens.
The children together sued the companies who produce opioids, as well as distributors, pharmacies and locals accused of running pill mills for what could be a huge damages settlement.
All of the children are referred to by pseudonyms like Baby Doe and Baby Roe, and are represented by a court-appointed guardian.
Each was born dependent on opioids and suffered extreme withdrawal symptoms in their infancy, according to the suit, including excessive crying, arching their backs, refusal to eat and shaking.
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"After more than a decade of unbridled distribution of prescription opioids by Defendants, their birth mothers' community was awash in painkillers, fueling a dramatic increase in those exposed to and addicted to opioids," the suit argues.
Originally filed this summer in Davidson County Circuit Court, the case moved to federal court late last month. Leading the challenge is a team from Nashville law firm Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings, which has been at the forefront of Tennessee's litigation in the nation's deadly opioid crisis.
"Babies born dependent on opioids are innocent victims of the opioid crisis," lead attorney Tricia Herzfeld told The Tennessean, a part of the USA TODAY Network. "We filed this lawsuit to get these babies the help that they need from those who profited from this crisis."
It is the first suit filed in Davidson County by the team, Herzfeld said. But it joins a long list of suits under Tennessee's Drug Dealer Liability Act that allows opioid companies to be held financially responsible for harm stemming from their products.
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In a 2019 appellate ruling, Appeals Court Judge D. Michael Swiney wrote: “Drug manufacturers cannot...knowingly seek out suspect doctors and pharmacies, oversupply them with opioids for the purpose of diversion, benefit from the process, and then cynically invoke their status as otherwise lawful companies to avoid civil liability."
In August, the state of Tennessee was included in a separate $450 million federal settlement against opioid manufacturer Endo International, one of the defendants in the new case. It marked a significant win for the Tennessee Attorney General's office, which has repeatedly joined or led litigation against opioid companies in response to the crisis.
The Ireland-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection the same week.
August's settlement also bans the company from promoting its opioid products and requires the company to release millions of documents related to its role in the nation's ongoing opioid crisis to a publicly available online archive and pay $2.75 million for archival expenses.
The babies' suit argues the named companies should have better monitored both the initial spike in opioid prescribing that launched the crisis and the later growth of illegal distribution as populations with opioid addictions turned to other sources without adequate treatment.
"Despite knowing about widespread diversion and illegal distribution by such actors as the Pill Mill Defendants, the opioid producers, distributors, and retailers continued to flood Tennessee with their highly addictive prescription drugs, which both perpetuated their multibillion-dollar drug empire and propelled opioid abuse to unprecedented levels," the suit argues.
Defendants include:
Endo
Par Pharmaceutical
Impax Laboratories
AMNEAL Pharmaceuticals
TEVA Pharmaceuticals
Allergan
Actavis
Watson Laboratories
Johnson & Johnson
Jansen Pharmaceuticals
Amerisourceberger Drug Corporation
Cardinal Health
McKesson Corporation
CVS Pharmacy
Rite Aid
Walgreen Co.
Walmart
The lawsuit also names several individuals and local companies, including some who face federal charges.
A request for comment sent to the lead attorney representing many of the defendants was not immediately returned Monday afternoon.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Lawsuit: Companies liable to Nashville children born opioid addicted
