大象传媒

Could law-suits from the opioid epidemic prove a reckoning for Big Pharma? It's been some 20 years since the opioid epidemic first began to spread across the US - supposedly non-addictive painkillers meant to treat all kinds of basic conditions, from back-pain to toothache, that have since turned more than 2 million Americans into addicts. Today it's estimated some 50,000 people are dying in the US annually as a result of opioid overdose, a three-fold increase since the start of the century. We hear from one community, Huntington in West Virginia, which has the highest rate of addiction recorded anywhere in the US. The Mayor is one of many local leaders bringing lawsuits against US pharmaceutical companies and their distributors. We hear from the Nobel laureate who helped to bring the epidemic to public attention, Professor Angus Deaton of Princeton University. We also speak to an addiction specialist in Detroit Michigan, Dr. Dwight Timothy Gammons, and we hear from a legal expert, Professor Richard Ausness of the University of Kentucky who wonders whether the latest litigation could prove as damaging to Big Pharma companies, as the multi-billion dollar law-suits against Big Tobacco in the 1990s.

(Picture: A woman lying on the floor, Credit: Getty Images)