Opioid Crisis Set to Escalate Without Urgent Steps, Study Finds

(Bloomberg) -- The opioid epidemic could claim another 1.2 million lives in North America over the next seven years and widen globally without stricter regulation and revamped public-health policies, according to a report.

Covid-19 has exacerbated the crisis, increasing pressure on health systems and hampering access to services, the study showed. The loss of jobs, disabilities and deaths of family members and friends in some cases have led to greater drug use and addiction, according to the report, published in the Lancet medical journal Wednesday.

“It's really the worst of all possible worlds -- it has amplified all the risk factors and taken away a lot of the protective factors,” Keith Humphreys, a professor at Stanford University and one of the authors, said in an interview.

Despite increased efforts to tackle the problem and heightened scrutiny of the industry, researchers warned that the epidemic may continue to expand unless urgent steps are taken. Several countries targeted by the pharmaceutical industry, including the Netherlands, Iceland, England and Brazil, have seen increases in opioid prescribing in recent years, the authors said.

Stronger regulation is needed to stop companies from exporting aggressive opioid promotion abroad, like the tobacco industry did when subjected to tighter rules in the U.S., they wrote. The report also called for efforts to curb over-prescribing and to reduce the industry's influence on the government.

‘Global Obligation'

“The United States has a global obligation here,” Humphreys said. “It's not clear yet if we have that political will or not.”

More than a dozen companies involved in opioids -- including manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies -- are facing thousands of suits filed by states, local governments and tribal leaders. The lawsuits seek compensation for billions of tax dollars spent battling the epidemic. Since 1999, an estimated 600,000 people have died from opioid overdoses in the U.S. and Canada.

Johnson & Johnson and the three largest U.S. drug distributors agreed this week to pay about $590 million to more than 400 Native American tribes to settle lawsuits over the opioid epidemic. The companies are offering to pay a combined $26 billion to resolve all outstanding litigation. The agreement with the tribes would be part of that larger offer, which hasn't yet been finalized.