Anonymous ID: 6fc841 April 7, 2019, 5:53 p.m. No.6090311   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0338

Exclusive: Pain-care specialist agrees to testify against Purdue, other drug makers - court documents

 

(Reuters) - A physician ally of Purdue Pharma LP whose views helped drive the explosive growth in the use of addictive pain relievers for common aches and pains in the United States has agreed to testify against the OxyContin maker and other drug companies, newly disclosed court records show.

 

Dr. Russell Portenoy, a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, was an early advocate for the use of opioids for chronic pain, a position he shared in medical journal articles, with regulators, at physician conferences and in other forums. He also was named as a defendant in some of the lawsuits filed by cities, counties and states seeking to hold opioid makers - including Endo and Mallinckrodt Plc - and their distributors liable for the cost of the U.S. opioid epidemic. But Portenoy began talking to plaintiffs’ lawyers as early as January 2018 and later struck a deal with the plaintiffs to serve as a cooperating witness, the records show. In exchange for his dismissal from the suits, Portenoy provided the plaintiffs with documentation of opioid makers’ payments to him over the years, as well as a 36-page declaration that lays out what he would say on the witness stand.

 

Portenoy’s previously confidential cooperation agreement and declaration were made public Friday as a part of a discovery ruling by David Cohen, a special master in the federal court in Cleveland, Ohio, where hundreds of the opioid lawsuits have been consolidated. In an email, Cohen said it was possible the records should have been filed under seal out of public view. Their disclosure offers a glimpse into the largely secretive evidence gathering phase of the litigation. Purdue executives have said the privately-held company is considering bankruptcy in the face of its potential liability. The company avoided having to stand as a defendant in a trial scheduled for May in Oklahoma by agreeing to pay the state $270 million. Portenoy could not be reached for comment. His lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Purdue spokesman Bob Josephson declined to comment on Portenoy’s declaration and new role in the litigation. Other companies, including Endo and Mallinckrodt, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

 

Portenoy, who has held leadership positions at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Mount Sinai Beth Israel, was among the first physicians to espouse opioids as an option for the treatment of chronic pain, a condition that afflicts tens of millions of Americans, in medical journal articles published in the 1980s and 1990s. Later, he shared his views with physicians at conferences and in training videos sponsored by opioid makers, he said in the declaration. Previously, physicians had been trained to reserve opioids for cancer and end-of-life pain. Opioids are chemically similar to heroin and the risk of addiction was viewed as too great for their widespread use.

 

In his declaration, Portenoy said he never altered his positions because of opioid makers’ payments for research, speeches, consulting and other work. But, he said, the companies paid only for work that supported their interests and cited it selectively “to promote opioids by referencing the positive statements that I made repeatedly without providing the background, analysis of the literature, and cautions that accompanied these positive statements.” These “unbalanced communications” encouraged the prescribing of opioids to patients unsuited for them and by physicians who lacked the skills to manage addiction, abuse and overdose, Portenoy said. All of this, he concluded, “contributed to the rising incidence of drug addiction and overdoses.”

 

Opioids are involved in about 50,000 deaths a year in the United States. In an effort to staunch the toll, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2016 recommended against opioids as a first-line treatment for chronic pain. In a tentative decision issued on Friday, special master Cohen ruled that Portenoy may serve as a witness for the plaintiffs - just not in the first trial scheduled to take place in federal court in Cleveland later this year. Cohen was responding to a complaint from the defendant companies that they had inadequate notice of Portenoy’s new role. Josephson said Purdue believed the special master’s ruling was appropriate. He did not elaborate.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-opioids-litigation-exclusive/exclusive-pain-care-specialist-agrees-to-testify-against-purdue-other-drug-makers-court-documents-idUSKCN1RJ0PG

Anonymous ID: 6fc841 April 7, 2019, 6 p.m. No.6090400   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0405 >>0436 >>0642 >>0884

Britain plans social media regulation to battle harmful content

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain proposed new online safety laws on Monday that would slap penalties on social media companies and technology firms if they fail to protect their users from harmful content. Easy access to damaging material particularly among young people has caused growing concern worldwide and came into the spotlight in Britain after the death of 14-year-old schoolgirl Molly Russell, which her parents said came after she had viewed online material on depression and suicide.

 

Governments across the world are wrestling over how to better control content on social media platforms, often blamed for encouraging abuse, the spread of online pornography, and for influencing or manipulating voters. Global worries were recently stoked by the live streaming of the mass shooting at a mosque in New Zealand on one of Facebook’s platforms, after which Australia said it would fine social media and web hosting companies and imprison executives if violent content is not removed “expeditiously”.

 

In a policy paper widely trailed in British media, the government said it would look into possibly using fines, blocking access to websites, and imposing liability on senior tech company management for failing to limit the distribution of harmful content. It would also set up a regulator to police the rules.

 

TechUK, an industry trade group, said the paper was a significant step forward, but one which needed to be firmed up during its 12-week consultation. It said some aspects of the government’s approach were too vague. “It is vital that the new framework is effective, proportionate and predictable,” techUK said in a statement, adding not all concerns could be addressed through regulation. Facebook said it was looking forward to working with the government to ensure new regulations were effective, repeating its founder Mark Zuckerberg’s line that regulations were needed to have a standard approach across platforms.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-tech-regulation/britain-plans-social-media-regulation-to-battle-harmful-content-idUSKCN1RJ0QP?il=0

Anonymous ID: 6fc841 April 7, 2019, 6:03 p.m. No.6090431   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0437 >>0491

>>6090338

It could be, but still I don't believe anyone involved in the cover up and profiting at the same time should get off this easily..they should be held responsible as an accomplice to crime of adding and abetting the criminal actions..it's really not and different than driving the get away car in a bank robbery.

Anonymous ID: 6fc841 April 7, 2019, 6:36 p.m. No.6090843   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0877 >>0943

>>6090754

Just found this:

 

Trump Nominee Malpass Selected as Next World Bank President

The former undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs has been a critic of the international development bank

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-nominee-malpass-selected-as-next-world-bank-president-11554482367?mod=rsswn