Pennsylvania SR 173: A Resolution urging the Governor and the Office of the Attorney General to file lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies that engage in practices that caused the ongoing opioid epidemic within this Commonwealth.

Bill Text

2017-2018 Regular Session SR 173 PN 1141 Bill Text (HTM) 

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PRINTER'S NO. 1141 

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

SENATE RESOLUTION 

No.

173 

Session of 

2017 

INTRODUCED BY COSTA, BROWNE, FONTANA, BREWSTER, STREET, HUGHES 

AND TARTAGLIONE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2017 

REFERRED TO RULES AND EXECUTIVE NOMINATIONS, SEPTEMBER 11, 2017 

A RESOLUTION

Urging the Governor and the Office of the Attorney General to 

file lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies that engage in 

practices that caused the ongoing opioid epidemic within this 

Commonwealth.

WHEREAS, Prescription opioids are narcotics that are derived 

from or possess properties similar to opium and heroin; and

WHEREAS, Certain pharmaceutical companies spend hundreds of 

millions of dollars to mislead the public about the 

addictiveness of powerful prescription opioid drugs; and

WHEREAS, These pharmaceutical companies continue to engage in 

fraud, conspiracy and negligence in the development and 

marketing of highly addictive opioid drugs; and

WHEREAS, These pharmaceutical companies continue to use 

sophisticated and highly deceptive and unfair marketing 

campaigns in an effort to reverse the medical community's 

understanding of opioids to increase opioid drug use; and

WHEREAS, These pharmaceutical companies know that prolonged 

use of opioids is addictive, subject to abuse and that opioids 

should be used only as a last resort; and

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WHEREAS, These pharmaceutical companies know that prolonged 

use of opioids causes the effectiveness of the drugs to wane, 

requiring an increase in the dosage and markedly increasing the 

risk of significant side effects and addiction; and

WHEREAS, These pharmaceutical companies continue to use 

misleading scientific data to convince the medical community to 

increasingly prescribe opioid drugs; and

WHEREAS, Certain pharmaceutical companies have used illegal 

kickbacks in the past to encourage physicians and nurses to 

prescribe opioid products; and

WHEREAS, Certain pharmaceutical companies' marketing efforts 

and the lack of medical breakthroughs prescribing opioids for 

chronic pain opened the floodgates of opioid use and abuse; and

WHEREAS, A recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine 

found a direct correlation between physicians receiving 

manufacturer-sponsored meals and increased prescribing rates of 

drugs promoted during the meal; and

WHEREAS, Certain opioid pharmaceutical companies set sales 

quotas for their sales representatives that are impossible to 

meet unless the drugs are promoted for off-label use; and

WHEREAS, These pharmaceutical companies continue to earn 

billions of dollars in profits from their questionable opioid 

products and sales tactics; and

WHEREAS, Americans represent only 4.6% of the world's 

population but consume 80% of the world's opioids and 99% of the 

global hydrocodone supply; and

WHEREAS, Opioid sales generated $8 billion in revenue for 

drug companies in 2012 and an estimated $15.3 billion in 2016; 

and

WHEREAS, The Associated Press and the Center for Public 

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Integrity published an investigation outlining how certain 

pharmaceutical companies and their allies have adopted a 50-

state strategy that includes hundreds of lobbyists and nearly $1 

billion spent on lobbying and campaign contributions from 2006 

through 2015 to help kill or weaken measures aimed at stemming 

the tide of prescription opioids; and

WHEREAS, In the 2014 National Drug Threat Assessment, the 

Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reported that approximately 129 

people die every day as a result of drug poisoning and more than 

60% of those overdose deaths are due to pharmaceutical opioids 

or are heroin related; and

WHEREAS, According to the Centers for Disease Control and 

Prevention, in 2015, 52,000 people died from drug overdoses and 

approximately two-thirds of them had used prescription opioids; 

and 

WHEREAS, Recent data for this Commonwealth shows 10,394,466 

prescriptions for opioid medications were filled by individuals 

in 2015; and

WHEREAS, In 2015, a report from the DEA identified 3,383 

drug-related overdose deaths in this Commonwealth, an increase 

of 23.4% over 2014; and

WHEREAS, This Commonwealth is in the midst of an opioid and 

heroin epidemic causing thousands of overdose deaths and 

destroying communities and families; and

WHEREAS, Opioid abuse causes a $78.5 billion loss to the 

United States economy each year; and

WHEREAS, The financial toll this epidemic is having on the 

limited resources of the Commonwealth is staggering; and

WHEREAS, States have historically filed lawsuits against 

industries that engage in illegal business practices, such as 

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