Walgreens is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States,behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions,health and wellness products,health information,and photo services. It was founded in Chicago in 1901,and is headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield,Illinois. On December 31,2014,Walgreens and Switzerland-based Alliance Boots merged to form a new holding company,Walgreens Boots Alliance. Walgreens became a subsidiary of the new company,which retained its Deerfield headquarters and trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol WBA. In 2021 the company was found by a federal jury to have "substantially contributed to" the opioid crisis.
Drug diversion is a medical and legal concept involving the transfer of any legally prescribed controlled substance from the individual for whom it was prescribed to another person for any illicit use. The definition varies slightly among different jurisdictions,but the transfer of a controlled substance alone usually does not constitute a diversion,since certain controlled substances that are prescribed to a child are intended to be administered by an adult,as directed by a medical professional. The term comes from the "diverting" of the drugs from their original licit medical purpose. In some jurisdictions,drug diversion programs are available to first time offenders of diversion drug laws,which "divert" offenders from the criminal justice system to a program of education and rehabilitation.
Kirkland &Ellis LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Chicago,Illinois. Founded in 1909,Kirkland &Ellis is the largest law firm in the world by revenue and the seventh-largest by number of attorneys,and was the first law firm in the world to reach US$4 billion in annual revenue.
Purdue Pharma L.P.,formerly the Purdue Frederick Company (1892–2019),was an American privately held pharmaceutical company founded by John Purdue Gray. It was sold to Arthur,Mortimer,and Raymond Sackler in 1952,and then owned principally by the Sackler family and their descendants.
CVS Health Corporation is an American healthcare company that owns CVS Pharmacy,a retail pharmacy chain;CVS Caremark,a pharmacy benefits manager;and Aetna,a health insurance provider,among many other brands. The company is the world's largest healthcare company,and its headquarters are in Woonsocket,Rhode Island. In 2023,the company was ranked 65th in the Forbes Global 2000.
In the United States,Medicare fraud is the claiming of Medicare health care reimbursement to which the claimant is not entitled. There are many different types of Medicare fraud,all of which have the same goal:to collect money from the Medicare program illegitimately.
William Mark Lanier is an American trial lawyer and founder and CEO of the Lanier Law Firm. He has led a number of high-profile product litigation suits resulting in billions of dollars in damages,including Johnson &Johnson baby powder and Merck &Co.'s Vioxx drug.
Dan Aaron Polster is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. Polster mediated a settlement between the city of Cleveland and the family of Tamir Rice,a 12-year-old black boy who was killed by a white police officer in 2014. In December 2017,a federal judicial panel selected Polster to preside over more than 3,000 consolidated prescription opioid-related lawsuits in multidistrict litigation known as the National Prescription Opiate Litigation. A trial for the litigation began in October 2021.
A pill mill is an illegal facility that resembles a regular pain clinic,but regularly prescribes painkillers (narcotics) without sufficient medical history,physical examination,diagnosis,medical monitoring,or documentation. Clients of these facilities usually receive prescriptions only against cash. Pill mills contribute to the opioid epidemic in the United States and are the subject of a number of legislative initiatives at the state level.
The Medicare Fraud Strike Force is a multi-agency team of United States federal,state,and local investigators who combat Medicare fraud through data analysis and increased community policing. Launched in 2007,the Strike Force is coordinated by the United States Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services. It combines the data-analysis capabilities of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,the investigative resources of the FBI,and the prosecutorial resources of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorneys' Offices.
Joyce Alene White Vance is an American lawyer who served as the United States attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2009 to 2017. She was one of the first five U.S. attorneys,and the first female U.S. attorney,nominated by President Barack Obama.
Founded in 1990,Insys Therapeutics was an American specialty pharmaceutical company based in Chandler,Arizona. Its main product was Subsys,a sublingual liquid form of the drug fentanyl. Fentanyl is an extremely fast-acting and powerful opioid used to relieve peaks of pain in cancer patients.
Rajendra Bothra is an American surgeon,humanitarian and politician of Indian origin. He is a former Chief of Surgery at the Holy Cross Hospital,Detroit and practices interventional pain management at the Pain Centre USA,Warren. He is a Fellow of the American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians (ABIPP) and is associated with Indian health organizations in conducting lectures to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and substance abuse. He is politically aligned with the Republican Party and was appointed by George H. W. Bush as the co-chairman of the Asian-American Coalition for the 1988 United States presidential election. He was awarded the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri,by the Government of India,in 1999.
There is an ongoing opioid epidemic in the United States,originating out of both medical prescriptions and illegal sources. The epidemic began in the United States in the late 1990s,according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),when opioids were increasingly prescribed for pain management,resulting in a rise in overall opioid use throughout subsequent years.
Joseph D. Brown is an American lawyer who served as the United States Attorney for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas from February 26,2018,until May 31,2020. He was formerly the District Attorney for Grayson County,Texas. Brown served as Grayson County's District Attorney for 17 years. He previously served as an associate attorney for the law firm of Cowles and Thompson and on the state board of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. Brown received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas in 1995 and his Juris Doctor from Dedman School of Law. Brown is the son of former District Judge David Brown and the nephew of the late U.S. District Judge Paul Neeley Brown. On February 15,2018,his nomination to become a U.S. Attorney was confirmed by voice vote. He was sworn in on February 26,2018.
Erica Hinkle MacDonald is an American lawyer who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota from 2018 to 2021. She served as a judge of the District Court for the First Judicial District of the State of Minnesota from 2010 to 2018;as an Assistant United States Attorney from 2000 to 2009;a litigation associate in 2000;and a federal judicial law clerk from 1997 to 1999.
Ada Elene Brown is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. She is a former trial judge of the Dallas County courts and a former Justice of the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas. She is the first African-American woman federal judge nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate. She is also the first African American woman to sit as a federal judge in the 140- year-history of the Northern District of Texas. A citizen of the Choctaw Nation,Brown is also one of six actively serving Native American federal judges of 673 federal district court judges. When appointed to the federal bench,Brown became the only woman judge in the 233-year history of the Choctaw Nation to serve as a federal judge.
The timeline of the opioid epidemic includes selected events related to the origins of Stamford,Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma,the Sackler family,the development and marketing of oxycodone,selected FDA activities related to the abuse and misuse of opioids,the recognition of the opioid epidemic,the social impact of the crisis,lawsuits against Purdue and the Sackler family.
Curtis Wright IV is an American former government official known for his role in the Food and Drug Administration's approval of OxyContin for Purdue Pharma in 1995,followed by his subsequent employment by the company,which led to portrayals in films and reports in nonfiction books,magazines,and news media outlets of his alleged role as one of the key figures in the current opioid epidemic in the United States. Wright was implicated in a criminal conspiracy outlined in a 2006 United States Department of Justice review document that was first made public in Purdue Pharma's 2019 bankruptcy proceedings. Although that case was settled in a 2007 plea agreement deal,members of United States Congress have requested the full 2006 documentation from the Department of Justice with the goal of opening a new case based upon the evidence then gathered. Parts of Wright's sworn depositions in 2003 and 2018 have internal contradictions and differ from documentary evidence described the 2003–2006 U.S. Federal Government investigation into Purdue Pharma.
Cinde Warmington is an American attorney,politician,and former lobbyist. A Democrat,Warmington was elected to the Executive Council of New Hampshire in November 2020,assuming office on January 6,2021. She is currently a candidate in the 2024 New Hampshire gubernatorial election.
