Article: Facing $50B Trial, Drugmakers Minimize Roles In Opioid Sales

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Facing $50B Trial, Drugmakers Minimize Roles In Opioid Sales

Emily Field and Jeff Overley, 20 April 2021

Allergan PLC on Tuesday downplayed its Golden State opioid sales, echoing the strategies of fellow drugmaker defendants from the day before in a closely watched trial where major California counties are seeking $50 billion over the addiction epidemic.

Donna Welch of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, counsel for Allergan, said during the livestreamed bench trial that the company was responsible for one brand-name opioid, Kadian, from 2009 until it was taken off the market in 2020, and that its market share during that time was minuscule — less than a fraction of 1%.

In addition, Allergan stopped marketing the drug in 2012, and even before then, the marketing was conservative and had little if any impact on sales, Welch said. Continue reading “Article: Facing $50B Trial, Drugmakers Minimize Roles In Opioid Sales”

Article: 5 Key Details As Drugmakers Face $50B Opioid Trial In Calif.

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5 Key Details As Drugmakers Face $50B Opioid Trial In Calif.

Jeff Overley, Cara Salvatore and Emily Field, 16 April 2021

Barring last-minute settlements, Johnson & Johnson, Endo Pharmaceuticals and other major drugmakers are poised to go to trial Monday against some of California’s largest counties, which are seeking $50 billion in one of the nation’s oldest opioid-crisis cases.

The West Coast clash centers on now-familiar allegations that pharmaceutical manufacturers — divisions of J&J, Endo, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Allergan PLC — to varying degrees bankrolled pernicious promotional campaigns for prescription painkillers, unleashing a devastating wave of drug dependence and death. Continue reading “Article: 5 Key Details As Drugmakers Face $50B Opioid Trial In Calif.”

Article: Did The NFT Boom Just Burst?

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Did The NFT Boom Just Burst?

TYLER DURDEN, 03 April 2021

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are changing the way we think about art (and other collectibles), and in 2021, investors have started to take notice. As Decrypt writes, in the last year, NFTs have shot to the forefront of the crypto space. The cryptographically-unique tokens make it possible to create real-world scarcity for digital objects, and artists have seized on the opportunity presented by the technology.

“It’s not meaningful to characterize a concept as a financial bubble,” said Chris Wilmer, a University of Pittsburgh academic who co-edits a blockchain research journal. Continue reading “Article: Did The NFT Boom Just Burst?”

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