Finance Committee - 9/6/2017 Page 9
Attorney Vogelman
| have the list right here. There’s Purdue which is the biggest one that is actually three different corporations.
There’s Teva Pharmaceutical, Cephalon, Johnson, Ortho McNeil Johnson, Endo, Allergan, Actavis, Watson
Laboratories, McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen Corporation, Russel Portenoy and
then there’s three doctors who've kind of been in the employ of the pharmaceutical companies that have been
traveling around the country lecturing about the benefits of opioids. There’s two doctors in Salt Lake City, one
in California and they're being sued individually as well. The way it works with our patent laws and the cost of
pharmaceuticals is that for every pill like for OxyContin, there’s only one company that makes it. Then for
Vicodin, there’s only one company that makes it. That’s why you get so many defendants. That’s also why it’s
so expensive because where only one company makes it, they can charge whatever they want. Those are the
defendants that we’re suing. As you might imagine, there’s going to be some high powered lawyers from
around the country defending it. | know since the only one who’s been sued so far in New Hampshire by the
state is Purdue. They’re local counsel actually was the Attorney General. A different lawyer at Nixon Peabody
obviously is going to handle it because he can’t both be the plaintiff and the defendant. Some of the big firms
in New Hampshire I’m sure will be local counsel too. It’s going to be a long and grueling legal battle that will
not end quickly.
Alderman Clemons
| guess my other question couple questions — one is maybe this is in the discovery process | don’t know. How
much would we be looking to sue these people for?
Attorney Vogelman
| have no idea. Millions. Probably tens of millions. In New Hampshire both in federal court and state court we
have the luxury in that you’re not even allowed to sue for a certain sum. You just sue and then whatever it
turns out to be is what you collect. You’re suing the federal government for instance, you’ve got to put that in a
number and it can never go over that number. We don’t have to do that and a lot of it will be when the
numbers get crunched for each plaintiff and we figure out what the costs are to the City of Nashua, that’s what
we'll be asking for. What it ends up at, | have no idea. Obviously we’re looking at numbers high enough that
we're willing to invest $1 million or so in order to collect back. We're not looking at like $1 million, $500,000.
That would be very bad lawyering. My guess is tens of millions.
Alderman Clemons
My other question is how these lawsuits are going to — they’re being filed across the country from what it
sounds like. I’m just questioning —| don’t Know. It’s nice to | guess if you will get on the gravy train but |
worder if it’s the right thing to do or not. | personally growing up | think | was in high school when the tobacco
lawsuit came out and | was not a fan of that either. | think people at the end of the day — doctors,
manufacturers, and things like that | think have to really take personal responsibility for stuff as well as people
who are taking medications as well. It’s a tough situation. It’s going to be tough call for me as far as how |
vote on it.
Attorney Vogelman
Let me address that because to me at least at least — most of what | do is civil rights though. If 1 was some
other area of the law or if | stayed in New York City I’d be driving a nice Ferrari instead of my Subaru. One of
the reasons you do that is because that effectuates change. In addition to whatever monies there are, | can
tell you that these companies already have cut back markedly in their marketing, in going to all these doctors,
conventions, and stuff. It’s already a changed behavior. To a certain extent when | do these things, changing
behavior is to me at least as important as whatever money you make. If filing these lawsuits saves a couple
hundred kids’ lives, great whether | make a penny or not. It’s just a terrible thing out there and it’s only one
arrow in the arsenal. It’s a terrible sickness. One of my kids had a problem. Thank fully he’s doing okay. If
there was a magic bullet other than a lawsuit to end or ameliorate the opioid crisis, we’d all jump on that magic
