City of Kent to sue opioid companies for deceptive practices

The Kent City Council unanimously agreed to join hundreds of other cities across the nation to sue opioid manufacturers and distributors for deceptive marketing practices.

The council voted 7-0 Tuesday night to authorize Mayor Dana Ralph to hire the Seattle law firm of Keller Rohrback on a contingency fee basis to file the lawsuit. Council members initially discussed the possibility of a suit during a March 6 executive session.

“A number of cities, counties and states have been filing lawsuits recently against opioid manufacturers and marketers,” City Attorney Pat Fitzpatrick said prior to the council vote. “The foundations of the lawsuits are these companies flooded the market with very, very highly addictive drugs under the guise of prescription medication and that the risk of the drug was not properly disclosed.

“In fact, addiction was in some cases used as a strategy to sell more of the product and the dangers of the drugs were not disclosed. As a result, opioids were over-prescribed, opioid addiction increased dramatically over the last decade, overdose deaths from opioids increased dramatically, and these activities have spawned a heroin epidemic.”

Fitzpatrick said the defendants produced opioid prescription drugs and that 80 percent of those who became addicted to heroin in the past decade started with a prescription to OxyContin or another prescription opioid.

“When their prescriptions ran out and they could no longer get their drug from their doctor, they moved to street heroin – that’s really the foundation of the lawsuit,” Fitzpatrick said.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office reported last year that 360 deaths in 2016 were caused by drugs and 63 percent of those were caused by opioids, including morphine, heroin, oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone.

“Heroin addiction has had a detrimental impact on the entire Kent community – individuals, families, businesses, organizations, schools and our homeless population,” Ralph said. “This drug has also caused an increase in crime, and burdened our jail, court and social service systems. To the extent pharmaceutical companies and marketers are responsible because of deceptive business practices, they need to be held accountable.”

Fitzpatrick talked about the intent of the lawsuit, to be filed against Purdue Pharma, Endo Health Solution, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and other defendants expected to be named later.

“The real goal of the lawsuit is to force these defendants to basically fund the remedy for the problem around our nation,” Fitzpatrick said.

About 250 cities, counties and states sued opioid makers, wholesalers, distributors and marketers last year, according to a January article by USA Today. The companies deny the claims and say litigation should be halted until the Food and Drug Administration-ordered studies on the long-term risks and benefits of opioids are completed, according to the article.

Cities in Washington that have sued the drug makers include Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Mount Vernon, Burlington and Sedro Woolley. Many of the cases have been transferred to U.S. District Court in Ohio, which is overseeing hundreds of similar cases. Fitzpatrick said Kent’s suit will probably end up in Ohio as well.

Fitzpatrick said hiring Keller Rohrback on a contingency basis means the city will not have to pay any money, but the law firm will get its fee from any settlement in the case.

Councilman Dennis Higgins emphasized the importance of the suit.

“I really feel this action is one of the most important things that we can do to make things better, not just here in Kent but in our country and our society,” Higgins said. “We need to see a change in our society and oftentimes that is out of our capability to affect. But this is something concrete we can do to make that happen.”