Opioid Overdoses

The annual Healthy State Alliance Opioid Symposium takes place Saturday. The virtual event for health care providers will focus on several topics,…

As a landmark federal opioid trial nears completion, West Virginia communities are demanding $2.5 billion in compensation. Drug firms say they acted responsibly in shipping millions of pills.

Payouts will be spread over the next 18 years, with much of the funding going to help communities struggling with high rates of opioid addiction and overdose deaths.

Four of the biggest American health companies have tentatively agreed to pay $26 billion to settle their opioid liability. Tax breaks could allow them to claw back $4 billion.

McKinsey is the latest major American corporation to face legal, financial and public relations peril stemming from its role in the nation's deadly opioid epidemic.

The giant retailer shipped billions of opioid pills to pharmacies nationwide. An NPR investigation found employees warned company executives their stores were being used by "pill mill" doctors.

Damages could total in the billions. "Walmart had the responsibility and the means to help prevent the diversion of prescription opioids. Instead, for years, it did the opposite," the government said.

The corporate consulting giant issued a rare apology for its behind-the-scenes work with Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin. One senator called McKinsey's behavior "abhorrent."

The controversial deal hashed out between the Department of Justice and the maker of Oxycontin provides hundreds of millions of dollars of relief for communities hit hard by the opioid epidemic.

President Trump promised to end America's opioid crisis. On his watch overdose deaths flattened in 2018 then surged again to record levels.