Ontario’s Attorney General has called out a major pharmaceutical manufacturer following a tentative settlement with U.S. state and local governments for not accounting for the impact the opioid epidemic has had on Canadian jurisdictions.
Pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma recently made a deal with multiple U.S. jurisdictions that could amount to $12 billion over time, which Purdue has called a ‘global resolution.’ However, Ontario’s Attorney General Doug Downey released a statement last week saying any global resolution must account for Canadian claims as well. In the statement, Downey noted that if “Ontario is not included in this process, we are determined to continue to pursue our claims to the fullest extent permitted by law.”
The opioid crisis has had a devastating effect on Canada, leading to over 1,400 deaths during 2018 in Ontario alone. In May 2019, the Ontario government introduced legislation that would allow Ontario to join British Columbia in its national class action lawsuit, launched last year against over 40 opioid manufacturers and wholesalers. With this lawsuit, both provinces are hoping to recoup the health-care costs lost to the opioid epidemic and invest into frontline mental health and addiction services.
In the United States, similar lawsuits have already started being heard in court, with one case in Oklahoma resulting in consumer packaged goods company Johnson & Johnson being found guilty of its role in the opioid epidemic.
In 2016, Ontario announced a provincial strategy addressing opioid addiction and overdose, outlining steps to modernize the process of opioid prescribing and monitoring, improving the treatment of pain, and enhancing addiction supports and harm reductions. Part of their strategy included expanding access to naloxone, an opioid antagonist, for which CMHA Ontario created a resource. Reducing Harms: Recognizing and Responding to Opioid Overdoses in Your Organization takes a harm reduction approach to the opioid epidemic in Ontario, provides steps to administering naloxone and guidelines for implementation at an organizational level.