Alberta Looking to Get ‘Every Single Red Cent’ From Opioid Class-Action Lawsuits

5-mg Oxycodone pills in a file photo. Keith Srakoci/AP Photo/The Canadian Press

Alberta is pushing for legislation changes that would allow it to expand and adjust class-action lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and wholesalers in a bid to recover health-care costs associated with the province’s ongoing addiction crisis.

Mental Health and Addiction Minister Dan Williams said he is “determined to get every single red cent I can from those who are responsible for causing this crisis.”

The Opioid Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act was passed in 2019, allowing Alberta to join with British Columbia in class-action lawsuits to recover health-care costs associated with the opioid epidemic, according to court documents.

The lawsuits were filed against approximately 40 companies that the governments say created, distributed, and promoted the use of opioids, leading to a health crisis in both provinces.

Alberta is now looking at some changes to the act that would impact the lawsuits.

“This bill proposes important amendments to the original 2019 legislation that will further strengthen Alberta’s position on a class action member in B.C. litigation,” Mr. Williams told reporters in a news conference Oct. 31, adding that other provinces have made, or are expected to make, similar amendments to legislation.

He said addiction treatment, and the costs associated with overdose and addiction, have a “significant financial cost” and place a strain on the health care system.

The proposed Bill 3, the Opioid Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Amendment Act, would make changes that would allow the government to include consultants in the lawsuit, adjust the market share formula that would impact costs awarded by the court, and also include “active ingredient” in the definition of opioid product.

The changes would expand who is held responsible for opioid addictions, such as McKinsey & Company, which has been named in the lawsuit because it was “involved in the design, strategy, and execution of marketing efforts to promote and sell addictive and harmful opioid products in Canada, thereby causing loss and damages to the Province and proposed class members in the form of health care costs associated with a resulting ‘opioid epidemic,’” court documents said.

The company recently lost its attempt to strike claims made about its involvement.

“McKinsey does not dispute that it provided advice to various clients, but it strongly disputes that it was involved in making representations that may have ultimately led opioid users to harm,” the court record says. “McKinsey, therefore, submits that it did not have sufficient proximity to the end users of opioids to give rise to a duty of care.”

McKinsey added that the “province seeks to extend the duty of care to an unacceptable degree.”

Mr. Williams said in a news release that the current addiction crisis can be linked to the actions of opioid manufacturers, distributors, and their consultants “who sought to sell as much of these dangerous drugs as possible for their own profit.”

“Their actions have resulted in billions of dollars of costs to Albertans, not to mention the devastating pain it has caused families and individuals suffering and dying from the deadly disease of addiction,” he said.

He said the government is looking for legislative support to hold “those responsible for starting this crisis accountable.”

Mr. Williams said any damages awarded as a result of class-action suits or settlements will help to “provide recovery for anyone suffering from mental health challenges.”