In 2016, 36 states joined a lawsuit against Reckitt Benckiser Group that alleged that the company had profited from the opioid crisis and siphoned money from Medicaid. The drug company allegedly worked to preserve its monopolistic hold on profits drawn from its control of addiction treatment drug Suboxone.

The 2016 lawsuit in Philadelphia has received little news coverage since its announcement. Reckitt is accused of spinning the court case out and has banked $5.8 billion in revenue from Suboxone just while the trial has been pending. It’s another example of a corporation tying up legal proceedings as it continues to profit off alleged bad practices. (From Tarbell, who investigate the activities of profiteering Big Pharma companies).

If you follow the money you discover why it is so difficult to police American pharmaceutical companies, and why the rational and common sense idea of allowing Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate prices, as is done centrally in other advanced countries, will never happen because Big Pharma fund the politicians. A huge, corrupt system which acts against the interests of the poor and sick. Meanwhile, we have a government trying to ensure that poor people have zero healthcare. No wonder Epicurus despise politics and politicians!