Sometimes, bad things happen –
February 23, 2020 – Adam H. Weintraub, one of plaintiffs’ attorneys, said that as far as he knows this suit, filed in Superior Court in Los Angeles Jan. 31, is the first personal-injury lawsuit involving Vivitrol, the newest of three medications to treat opioid addiction.
The legal action brings an ironic twist to the debate over the role of pharmaceutical companies in the opioid crisis, said Leo Beletsky, a Northeastern University professor of law and health sciences. Multiple lawsuits have blamed the explosion of opioid-related deaths on the marketing practices of painkiller manufacturers such as Purdue Pharma. “Meanwhile,” Beletsky said, “some of the same practices are happening on the treatment side.”