Two-thirds of Wisconsin counties have now sued opioid-makers in federal court

Two-thirds of all Wisconsin counties — 48 of 72 — have now filed lawsuits in federal district court in Milwaukee against the makers of prescription opioid painkillers.

Kenosha, Dodge, Manitowoc and 17 other counties sued the drug-makers Tuesday and joined 28 counties that fired the first volley Nov. 7.

Each of the lawsuits alleges several pharmaceutical drug-makers and physicians engaged in fraudulent marketing of the painkillers that contributed to a nationwide public health crisis of opioid addiction and overdose deaths.

The lawsuits seek compensation for millions of dollars that the counties spent on social services, courts, law enforcement, health services and emergency care in responding to the opioid epidemic.

"Counties are bearing a large burden of the costs associated with combating this public health emergency," said Erin Dickinson of Crueger Dickinson LLC in Whitefish Bay, lead attorney in the lawsuits filed Tuesday. Crueger Dickinson is joined by Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC, a New York City-based national law firm, as co-counsel.

"Kenosha County has been affected by the opioid crisis in our county and it has a responsibility to those in need," Kenosha County Board Chair Kimberly Breunig said in a statement. "Those companies that made misrepresentations and false claims to physicians and others in our community should be held accountable for their part in the crisis."

The counties' lawsuits allege the opioid-makers misled local physicians, patients, health care providers and health care insurers with a campaign of misinformation that claimed using opioids to treat chronic pain was safe for most patients and that the drugs' benefits outweighed the risks.

Milwaukee County is in the process of hiring legal experts to prepare its own lawsuit against opioid-makers and distributors.

RELATED: 28 Wisconsin counties sue prescription drug-makers to recover costs of fighting opioid epidemic

RELATED: Opioid lawsuits by Wisconsin counties follow years of Journal Sentinel investigations

RELATED: Heroin overdose deaths play no favorites as they engulf both Wisconsin political parties

Dozens of states, cities and counties throughout the U.S. have filed similar lawsuits in federal and state courts attempting to hold pharmaceutical drug-makers and distributors accountable for bad faith business practices and misrepresentation in marketing of opioids.

A hearing is scheduled Thursday in St. Louis before a U.S. judicial panel on multidistrict litigation to consider consolidation of all of the lawsuits filed in federal district courts.

The rate of opioid overdose deaths in Wisconsin nearly doubled from 5.9 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2006 to 10.7 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2015, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Opioid overdoses caused 1,824 deaths in Wisconsin between 2013 and 2015.

Kenosha County reported 103 opioid overdose deaths in that three-year period. The crisis kept pace in 2016 with 35 deaths in the county.

In 2015, there were nearly six hospitalizations and emergency room visits due to opioids for every death involving opioid overdoses in the state. Kenosha County reported 979 opioid-related hospital visits that year.

The defendants in the Wisconsin lawsuits are: Purdue Pharma L.P.; Purdue Pharma Inc.; The Purdue Frederick Co. Inc.; Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.; Cephalon Inc.; Johnson & Johnson; Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Janssen Pharmaceutica Inc.; Endo Health Solutions Inc.; Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc.; and physicians Perry Fine of Utah, Scott Fishman of California and Lynn Webster of Utah.

The physicians allegedly were "instrumental in promoting opioids for sale and distribution nationally" and in Wisconsin, according to the lawsuits.

Purdue Pharma is the maker of OxyContin and Dilaudid. Endo Pharmaceuticals is the maker of Percocet and Percodan. Janssen Pharmaceuticals makes a fentanyl skin patch. Cephalon makes a fentanyl lozenge. Fentanyl is a pain medication 50 times more powerful than heroin.