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OH-Sen: FAIL! Vance (R) Cancels Fundraiser With Big Pharma Doctor Involved In Opioid Crisis Lawsuit [1]
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Date: 2022-10-14
EPIC FAIL!!!
x New:
A weekend fundraiser for #OHSen candidate @JDVance1 was abruptly canceled Friday after Spectrum News notified the Vance campaign it would report the host is one of several Ohio pain doctors cited in a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma & other drugmakers.
https://t.co/yS3iseNK9C — Taylor Popielarz (@TaylorPopielarz) October 14, 2022
A weekend fundraiser for Ohio U.S. Senate candidate JD Vance was abruptly canceled Friday after Spectrum News notified the Vance campaign it would report the host is one of several Ohio pain doctors cited in a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and others for the amount of opioids they prescribed and the amount of money they received from major drug companies.
Vance, a Republican venture capitalist and author, and Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan are battling for the seat held by retiring GOP Sen. Rob Portman, a contest in which the opioid crisis in Ohio has been a flashpoint.
When Spectrum News first reached out to the Vance campaign Wednesday, the campaign said it was unaware the host was cited in the lawsuit and that he “hasn’t ever been accused of wrongdoing, never mind found guilty of wrongdoing in a court of law.” On Friday, shortly after being told Spectrum News was about to publish the story, the campaign replied that the organizers decided to cancel the fundraiser so it wouldn’t distract from Vance’s campaign.
The fundraiser was scheduled for Saturday at the Cincinnati home of Dr. Rajbir Minhas. “The Asian Indian Alliance invites you to [a] special reception with Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance,” according to a copy of the invitation obtained by Spectrum News. The alliance is an organization that “seeks to promote active participation in the political process by Asian Indians and create a strong political presence in the State of Ohio,” and Minhas is its vice president, according to its website.
The sweeping lawsuit was filed by Medical Mutual of Ohio against Purdue Pharma and other drug makers, distributors and pharmacies for their roles in the opioid crisis.
In an updated filing in 2018, Medical Mutual of Ohio listed Minhas and 11 other Ohio doctors in a section focusing on a widespread industry practice of drug manufacturers paying doctors to pitch opioids to their colleagues. The filing alleges the companies “regularly used” these “speaker program monies to reward ‘high writer’ Ohio doctors.”
“Cincinnati, Ohio pain doctor Dr. Rajbir Minhas is among the top-10 prescribers of Oxycodone-Acetaminophen in the country and has received some $145,281.11 between 2013 and 2016 from eight of the defendants: Insys, Teva, Depomed, Mallinckrodt, Janssen, Purdue, Endo, and Actavis,” the complaint reads.
The filing cites information in databases compiled by the news organization ProPublica and by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS. After the 2018 filing, ProPublica updated the database in 2019; Minhas dropped one notch, to be the 11th-top prescriber of the drug nationally. ProPublica has not updated the database since then.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/14/2129028/-OH-Sen-FAIL-Vance-R-Cancels-Fundraiser-With-Big-Pharma-Doctor-Involved-In-Opioid-Crisis-Lawsuit
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