Sanders bill would hold drug firms accountable in opioid crisis

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, introduced a bill Tuesday to fight the nation’s opioid epidemic, a topic he addressed in November at Burlington High School. File photo by Cory Dawson/VTDigger

WASHINGTON — A new bill from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., seeks to penalize pharmaceutical companies that were aware of health risks of prescription opioids.

Under the proposal, companies found to be responsible for drug crisis would face fines of $7.8 billion, and executives of companies involved in the crisis could face criminal penalties of up to 10 years in prison.

In describing the objective of the bill in an interview Tuesday, Sanders said: “It is holding large companies responsible for selling a product that they likely knew was addictive.”

The bill would also ban marketing that does not make clear the risks of addiction associated with the drugs and put restrictions on the quantities of pills that can go to states.

While there are state and local efforts across the country to address the opioid crisis, Sanders said companies should be held responsible for their role in creating the crisis.

“It is wrong for taxpayers to have to pick up the burden at the local, state and federal level for dealing with a problem that was perhaps knowingly caused by a handful of drug companies,” Sanders said.

Meanwhile, some states are bringing legal challenges against pharmaceutical companies, “but we have done virtually none of that at the federal level,” he said.

The senator called for hearings with the top executives of pharmaceutical manufacturers that distribute opioids in order to press them on whether they were aware of the addictive quality of the drugs.

“What we need and what the federal government can uniquely do is bring these people forward before the Congress and under oath demand to know from them what they knew and when they knew it,” Sanders said.

He likened the crisis to the situation with large tobacco companies, when it emerged that the manufacturers were aware of the health risks of their products.

Sanders does not have any co-sponsors on the legislation.

The federal government’s role in addressing the opioid crisis has been a focus of committees in both the House and Senate. A Senate committee unveiled legislation Tuesday that would expand the powers of federal agencies to address the crisis.