Iowa Part of Probe into Opioid Pharmaceutical Marketing and Sales

State Attorney General Tom Miller announced Thursday that his office is part of an ongoing multi-state investigation into whether certain opioid manufacturers have unlawfully marketed and sold the powerful painkillers, according to an Iowa Department of Justice release.

A bipartisan group of state attorneys general is investigating the role that prescription opioid manufacturers may have played in creating and prolonging the nation's opioid abuse epidemic, the release states.

The investigation has been underway for over a year, and the state attorney general's office became involved about a year ago, according to the office's communications director Geoff Greenwood.

The probe — which the release say includes the majority of states — begins after Ohio filed a lawsuit against five major opioid manufacturers. The lawsuit alleges that some manufacturers misrepresented the risks and benefits of the drugs in marketing campaigns. Mississippi filed a similar lawsuit in late 2015 which is still pending.

Opiods are narcotics doctors often prescribe when ailments such as head or muscle pain are so severe they don't respond to other painkillers. Heroin is associated with non-medical use of prescription opioid pain relievers.

Nationwide, opioids — both prescription and illicit — are the main driver of drug overdose deaths. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest report, opioids were involved in 33,091 deaths across the U.S. in 2015. Opioid overdoses have quadrupled since 1999.

The probe is using its civil law enforcement authority, including investigative demands for documents and testimony, to determine the appropriate course of action, according to the release.

“We’re asking tough questions and we’re seeking solid evidence to help us understand how pharmaceutical companies have mass-marketed and sold these highly addictive pain medications, including claims they’ve made about their products,” Miller said. “These are prescription drugs that we know have helped fuel epidemic levels of addiction to opioids and heroin.”

Over the last decade in Iowa, according to the latest Iowa Department of Public Health report on heroin and opioids, there have been “significant increases” in the number of Iowans identifying heroin and opioids as their drug of choice when they began seeking treatment, while there have been jumps in the number of overdose deaths.

Between 2005 to 2015, opioid painkiller-related treatment admission rose 279 percent, while heroin-related admissions increased by 386 percent, the report states.