A Quebec class action has sanctioned 16 pharmaceutical companies for their role in the opioid crisis

In Quebec, legal action has been granted against 16 pharmaceutical companies for their role in the manufacture, sale, marketing and distribution of opioid drugs.

The lawsuit has involved people diagnosed with opioid use disorder since 1996, and their immediate heirs if they died.

That means there could be thousands of people in the province who could get involved, said Margo Siminovic with Montreal-based firm Fishman Flanz Meland Paquin (FFMP).

“This is an important event for our firm to seek justice for people who have been harmed by the pharmaceutical industry, who have made millions of dollars from this drug while downplaying the risks of opioids,” Siminovich said.

His firm has joined forces with Montreal-based Trudel Johnston & Lesperance to prosecute the case on behalf of Jean-Francois Bourassa of Laurentian.

“He's been through a lot,” Siminovich said, and it all started with a bad fall at work.

He owned a roofing company. He was 30 years old when he slipped and fell on ice while working on a roof, breaking his ankle and leg. During his hospital stay, he was prescribed opioids because of severe pain, Siminovich said.

He was released from the hospital, went to a clinic for pain and had his opioid dose increased, he said. He then stayed with them for ten years and became very dependent, which affected his career and home life, he said.

“He thinks he couldn't be around his young family,” Siminovich said. “He could only work very intermittently. In the end, he became disabled and could not work at all.”

He was diagnosed with severe opioid use disorder, a condition in which people compulsively use drugs even when they want to stop.

$30,000 per plaintiff, $25 million per defendant

The plaintiff seeks $30,000 in damages for each member of the class action and $25 million from each defendant.

Pharmaceutical companies named include Sanofi Canada, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer Canada.

The lawsuit does not include those taking Oxycontin and Oxyneo, as well as those using an over-the-counter opioid drug available only in a hospital setting.

FFMP attorney Mark Meland said in a press release that the court's approval of the lawsuit “allows victims whose lives have been destroyed by prescription opioid use to seek and receive legal redress for harm caused by pharmaceuticals.” companies that manufacture and supply these dangerous drugs.”

Review how medications are prescribed

David Jurlink, head of clinical pharmacology and toxicology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences in Toronto, said it's time to look at how these drugs are prescribed.

A person may need the drug three to five days after surgery, but it is prescribed to last two to three weeks, he said.

Doctors in North America have been taught to increase the dose of someone who has developed drug resistance and is still sick, he said.

Looking back 30 years ago, the potential for severe opioid addiction was not realized, he said, and people are suffering from addiction now.

“It can be very difficult to stop,” he said. “Millions of people using opioids now can't get off them.”