Pharmacy

Another crisis that has taken many lives in the valley over recent years is headed to court. It's Trumbull county's lawsuit against retail pharmacies for the damage caused by the opioid addiction crisis.

CLEVELAND — Five retail chains flooded two Ohio counties with tens of millions of prescription painkillers through their pharmacies while taking few if any steps to stop drugs from being illegally diverted, according to updated lawsuits unsealed in U.S. District Court in Cleveland.

CVS and Walgreens now face fewer allegations against them in federal opioid litigation after an April 15 appeals court ruling, STAT reported.

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled Wednesday that the trial judge overseeing a massive set of cases involving the opioid crisis had violated the procedural rights of pharmacies who were defendants in the matter. In the case, Judge Dan Polster in the Northern District of Ohio had allowed Cuyahoga and Summit Counties in that state to add legal claims to their complaints against the pharmacies when in a normal case it would have been far too late to do so.

MDLs, Sixth Circuit Judge Raymond Kethledge wrote, “are not some kind of judicial border country, where the rules are few and the law rarely makes an appearance.”

ADA — Steven Martin, dean of Ohio Northern University’s Raabe College of Pharmacy

The number of prescriptions to a life saving overdose reversal medication grew in Ohio grew by 2,328% following a state law change in 2015.

After a lull in appellate proceedings, one of the nation’s most closely watched cases (non-impeachment category) has returned to the Sixth Circuit, at least temporarily.