US States, Purdue Pharma Reach New Settlement in OxyContin Lawsuit

U.S. pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma, the maker of opioid painkiller OxyContin, has reached a new settlement with eight U.S. states and the District of Columbia to pay up to $6 billion in damages for the company’s role in the U.S. opioid epidemic.

The deal, described in a court filing Thursday in White Plains, New York, came after the plaintiffs appealed an earlier settlement late last year, saying it did not properly hold the Sackler family, which owns the drug company, accountable. The new settlement includes more money and other terms, including an apology from the family.

In exchange, the settlement provides the Sacklers with protection from further litigation. It does not protect them from criminal prosecution, though there are no charges pending.

In a prepared statement, the family said, “While the families have acted lawfully in all respects, they sincerely regret that OxyContin, a prescription medicine that continues to help people suffering from chronic pain, unexpectedly became part of an opioid crisis that has brought grief and loss to far too many families and communities.”

The plaintiffs in the case, which include numerous local jurisdictions as well as state attorney generals, maintained Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family fueled the U.S. opioid epidemic through deceptive marketing of the highly addictive pain medicine.

A report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that beginning in the late 1990s, doctors increased prescriptions of opioid medications after drugmakers assured them they were nonaddictive. That led to widespread misuse of both prescription and nonprescription opioids before it became clear that the medications could indeed be highly addictive.

By 2017, HHS declared a public health emergency over opioid abuse. The agency said that in 2019, 10.1 million people were misusing opioids and 70,630 had died from overdoses.

The company has pleaded guilty of misbranding and fraud charges related to its marketing of OxyContin, though the Sackler family has denied wrongdoing.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.

Huawei in Talks With South Africa on Labor Lawsuit

Johannesburg — 

South Africa’s labor ministry says Chinese tech firm Huawei is non-compliant with the country’s employment policies.

Huawei is in talks with the ministry over infringements of the country’s employment policies that require 60% of staff to be local hires. It’s still unclear what a settlement could mean for Huawei and other foreign businesses operating in the country.

The ministry’s employment equity act sets requirements for the number of local hires, including those of disadvantaged backgrounds, at various levels within a corporate structure. And it does regular checks across industries for compliance.

“There is room to employ foreign nationals, especially on companies or employers that come to the country to invest… and also to transfer skills to South Africans. We do allow them to bring 40% of their employees…. We realized that 90% of its workforce, that Huawai is foreign nationals, which is against our employment policies,” says Fikiswa Mncanca-Bede, a lawyer for South Africa’s Department of Employment and Labor.

The labor department launched legal proceedings against Huawei earlier this month.

On Friday, the ministry confirmed it was in settlement negotiations with the tech firm on how to correct the discrepancies.

Huawei did not respond to requests for comment.

Mncanca-Bede says the government’s action should send a signal to all companies that non-compliance will not be tolerated.

“We’re not targeting Huawei, but we’re also coming for the big companies in South Africa, … because we want to ensure that transformation does not just become a talk, but it must be seen as a reality…. Transformation means even if you employ South Africans, who are the South Africans that were employing? Are they addressing the imbalances of the past?” Mncanca-Bede asked.

The employment equity act aims to correct historic inequalities in the country, including racial preferences from the apartheid era that benefited white workers.

But those regulations are still not playing out as planned in the workforce.

“There’s rampant violation of regulations by big companies and small company, and South African companies, not just, you know, these international companies. I would definitely say in relation to all of our labor laws, there’s enforcement problems. I think that the Department of Labor is under resourced,” said Kgomotso Musanabi, a law lecturer at the University of Johannesburg.

In addition to inequities, South Africa is experiencing rampant unemployment, with upwards of 35% of people being jobless.

Musanabi says it’s even worse among the country’s youth.

“I think that government is trying to make an attempt to ensure that all South Africans are employed. But not only that South Africans are employed, but that they acquire sort of globally relevant skills that they need to compete in international markets, particularly tech skills,” Musanabi said.

Companies that are non-compliant face fines.

But labor lawyer Johanette Rheeder says for companies as big as Huawei, those fines are a drop in the bucket and unlikely to have a broader chilling effect.

“In South Africa there’s in many businesses also an attitude of we’ll fix it when we’re caught out. Bigger businesses that’s got a better a better social conscience, if I can call it that, do comply…. The middle size and the smaller businesses who just can’t afford to comply with all of these legislations, so they basically fix it when they offered when they caught out,” Rheeder said.

Instead, she says bridging education and skills gaps in the country — rather than going after foreign workers — is the best way to address unemployment and inequity.

“The biggest, biggest thing that we can do in my view in this country is to upskill people… there are some strategies that [are] in place, but it’s always the struggle between upskilling our local people and not giving jobs to foreigners,” Rheeder said.

The labor department said talks with Huawei are expected to conclude Friday.

Lawsuit of students and their families originates shots in school of Jamundí - Cali - Colombia

The shots in the college Yampai High School, in Jamundi they were committed with a traumatic weapon and would have originated in differences between the families of two students from the same campus. The latter are suspended, while the authorities and on campus investigate more about what happened.

The deputy commander of the Police Metropolitan of calli, Colonel William Quintero, reported that on Friday (February 4), two families had had a discussion due to differences between two students of the institution.

The Police of the capital of the Valley del Cauca has interference in Jamundí, a municipality in the south of the region, as it is the metropolitan area of ​​Cali.

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“Immediately, the patrol that arrives at the scene requests the intervention of the Police for Children and Adolescents and the Judicial Police and began the collection of evidentiary material at the scene, in order to be able to determine with a security camera and some witnesses, and thus establish effectively what happened and to be able to carry out the corresponding investigations,” said the officer.

He added that “it was possible to determine that a traumatic weapondue to the fact that some pods used by this type of weapon were found”.

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The colonel noted that an accompaniment route was started to resolve the conflict between these two families and prevent a tragedy from being triggered.

Likewise, there would be a suspect, but the traumatic weapon was not found, when the Police found his whereabouts.

“The national quadrant surveillance model locates the vehicle, registers it, locating a person and not being able to locate the weapon,” said Colonel Quintero.

At school they indicated that they regret the situation, apparently of intolerance, and agreed with Colonel Quintero’s explanation that everything would have been caused by differences between the two families, when the minors argued.

“The meeting was triggered by physical and verbal attacks in which one of those involved in the discussion fired several shots into the air with a blank weapon, without consequences for any of those present who were in the institution at that time,” it is indicated. in a school statement referring to the “embarrassing incident”.

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“The institution will carry out due process internally, in order to determine the sanction corresponding to the situation of the students involved based on the Liceo’s Coexistence Manual,” the letter reads.

“The parents of the students were informed that their children were immediately suspended until a decision was made in accordance with said behavior, where the corresponding sanction will be communicated to them,” the school statement notes.

On campus they also pointed out that they do not agree with violence, since it is not the way to resolve differences of opinion.

CALI