Finance Committee - 9/6/2017 Page 7
nevertheless marketed them that way and in some cases mislead doctors, mislead the public in that regard.
The city has expended substantial sums as a result in such areas as police, fire, public health. The safe
stations program is one notable area. A prominent New Hampshire law firm, Nixon Vogelman - and Attorney
Lawrence Vogelman is here with us tonight - has affiliated themselves with a New York firm that has
experience in this large tort litigation area. They have agreed if we agree to essentially look at Nashua, look at
the potential for a lawsuit against some or many drug manufacturers and distributors with the idea of having a
recovery. These firms have graciously offered to investigate this potential at no charge to us to take a
contingency fee if successful but otherwise there will be no cost to the City of Nashua. They will pay the costs
up front of any investigation, any witnesses required, any other litigation expense. So my assessment is we’re
dealing with reputable people with good firms and we have nothing to do but gain should they be successful,
should we be successful. As said, Attorney Lawrence Vogelman whose many years practicing in New
Hampshire, as | said with a very prominent firm, is here representing that firm and their New York affiliate and
can answer any questions. If he has anything to address that | haven’t, Larry the floor is yours.
Attorney Vogelman
The only thing is that on Friday we filed our complaint on behalf of the City of Manchester. Here itis. It’s a
pretty big complaint. Some of you may have — most of you I’m sure heard that the State has filed a similar
action. It’s a little different in that we have over 20 different defendants in our lawsuit. They only have sued
one. So it’s far more limited than our case. Napoli Shkolnik has already filed suit in Akron, Ohio and | believe
has filed suit for Nashua County, New York. I’ve seen the complaint. Whether it’s actually filed or not | don’t
know. I'll answer any questions that you have. We'll be local counsel which means that we’re just up the road
in Manchester for you to yell at if something happens that you’re not thrilled with. Obviously you want
everything by Steve. The real expertise is Napoli Shkolnik | didn’t bring copies of the Manchester complaint to
share with all of you. | didn’t want to kill that many trees. | think it’s like 270 pages. Most of it is specific factual
information about the opioid crisis in Manchester and the damage to the State.
The folks in New York will be doing the same thing for Nashua if you decide to hire us. The good news about
that is that they have a bunch of overworked and from my perspective overpaid young lawyers that will just get
on the computer and just get the statistics for Nashua without bothering department heads. We'll run
everything by the department heads to make sure that the numbers are accurate and things like that but in
addition to not costing you anything financially, we’re hoping to not cost too much as far as person power
within the city. If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them. It’s a little bit like the tobacco litigation.
If | were a bookie and you asked me are you going to be successful, | would probably say 50/50 because the
first suits around the country have just been filed. It’s kind of a creative lawsuit saying that Nashua has been
injured because the opioid manufacturers and distributors have been defrauding doctors and hospitals not
defrauding Nashua. We think there’s a pretty good theory that the doctors and hospitals still do pretty well.
They're not losing any money because they’re prescribing this and that the real people that are getting hurt is
the city and the citizens of the city. We have what we think is factually a smoking gun. The medical literature
for over 10 years, 15 years has shown that opioids are useless for chronic pain. They’re great. You have
surgery. You have a shoulder operation for the first week or two. | had one. It’s really nice to have that
medication. End of life if you’re in hospice and you’re in a lot of pain, really nice to have that medication. The
doctors have known for years that if you’ve got a bad back, you’re better off taking Tylenol or Advil than opioids
because opioids very quickly you develop a tolerance to them. That’s really what’s led to the illegal opioid
epidemic is that doctors are throwing these opioids at people. They then take them off the opioids, they're
addicted to them, out on the street one OxyContin could cost you $50. Heroin is a lot cheaper and that
unfortunately is what the folks in New Hampshire have been turning to is Heroin and Heroin spiced with
Fentenol which is causing tremendous damage to our community. That’s what it’s about. I’d love to answer
any of your questions.
Alderman Siegel
Is the suit being filed in New Hampshire courts?
