In a lawsuit against a group of drug companies, the city of Chicago and its outside lawyers at Cohen, Milstein, Sellers & Toll described a concerted—and allegedly deceptive—marketing effort to brighten the medical community’s view of addictive painkillers. What the city didn’t detail, at least to the satisfaction of a federal judge, were specific examples of deception in the companies’ interactions with doctors.
U.S. Circuit Judge Jorge Alonso on Friday dismissed most of the city’s suit, which alleges that several drug manufacturers concealed the true addiction risks of opioid painkillers. The judge held that the complaint’s claims of deceptive marketing and misrepresentations weren’t specific enough.
