Australia admits cyber defences 'inadequate' as medical hack hits millions

 France24 – AFP, 26 October 2022 

Hackers have accessed millions of medical records at Medibank, one of Australia's
largest private insurers SAEED KHAN AFP/File

Sydney (AFP) – Hackers accessed millions of medical records at one of Australia's largest private health insurers, the company said Wednesday, prompting the government to admit the nation's cyber safeguards were "inadequate". 

This was the latest in a series of hacks targeting millions of people that have brought Australian companies' lax approach to cyber security into sharp relief. 

Medibank chief executive David Koczkar said information about each of the company's 3.9 million policy holders -- some 15 percent of Australia's population -- had been compromised. 

"Our investigation has now established that this criminal has accessed all our private health insurance customers' personal data and significant amounts of their health claims data," he said in a statement to the Australian stock exchange. 

"This is a terrible crime. This is a crime designed to cause maximum harm to the most vulnerable members of our community." 

The cyber attack was revealed last week, but it was not known until now how many people were impacted. 

The hackers have previously threatened to leak the data, starting with 1,000 famous Australians, unless Medibank pays a ransom. 

Medibank on Wednesday also confirmed it was not insured against cyber attacks, estimating the hack could cost the company as much as Au$35 million (US$22 million). 

The Medibank hack followed an attack on telecom company Optus last month that exposed the personal information of some nine million Australians -- almost a third of the population. 

The Optus attack was one of the largest data breaches in Australian history. 

'Inadequate'

Australia's Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has previously accused companies of stockpiling sensitive customer data they did not need. 

Firms currently face paltry fines -- Au$2.2 million -- for failing to protect customer data. 

Dreyfus last week said these fines would be ratcheted up to Au$50 million. 

"Unfortunately, significant privacy breaches in recent weeks have shown existing safeguards are inadequate," he said. 

"It's not enough for a penalty for a major data breach to be seen as the cost of doing business." 

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil on Tuesday said the fallout from the Medibank hack was "potentially irreparable". 

"One of the reasons why the government is so worried about this is because of the nature of the data," she told Australia's parliament. 

"When it comes to the personal health information of Australians, the damage here is potentially irreparable." 

O'Neil has previously described hacking as a "dog act" -- an Australian phrase reserved for something especially shameful or despicable.

“Hidden Attributes of Innate” – (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Kryon.com, October 27, 2021 

Live Kryon Channelling. Healing Wednesday livestream 

Lee Carroll

Greetings, dear ones, I am Kryon of Magnetic Service. 

This is lesson four of four regarding that amazing thing called Innate. We encourage you to hear the other three channels that give information in a sequence that makes sense of this teaching. What is Innate? Where is it? How do you access it? And finally, what are some of the attributes that might be a mystery? [www.kryon.com/freeaudio] 

Innate is that amazing smart body, an attribute within you, which knows what you don’t about you. Innate is used for muscle testing. It’s responsible for “the placebo effect,” and for spontaneous remission. It is that which has many mysteries not yet solved regarding exactly how it works. 

The first mystery is that it exists at all because it is not truly understandable, and often is seen as a miracle. There are processes in your body (I’ll call them triggers) that start a cascade of healing energy. When you can have a disease that goes into a spontaneous remission so fast you would assign it as a miracle, there must be some kind of process that your body has, which Innate triggered. It is truly amazing. What if Innate knows things about your body that can create an enhanced energy of miraculous, cascading healing? These are the things that my partner has seen on this planet with his own eyes. It takes your breath away to see it! 

Instantaneous healing is always assigned to a higher power, or to some kind of miracle. This is because there is no acknowledgment of the fact that this kind of thing might exist internally in your own body. The truth is bigger than you think: These kinds of healings are the actual chemical triggers of your own body. This has never been seen as a direct result of medicine, hence the disbelief. However, it has been seen constantly, especially in spiritual circles, for hundreds of years. I’ll tell you that these are the things that deserve analysis, which many believe are simply not explainable. However, these are the things that Innate has been doing in Humans for a very long time because you have asked for it, or because you needed it. These are life-saving mysteries to this day. 

Innate is very unusual, and we “gave it away” in the last Circle of Twelve session. However, if you are listening to or reading this channel and you are not a member of the Circle of Twelve, I will inform you now: Innate is part of your Soul. Think about this. It is not sequestered to your chemistry. It has to be part of the “Bigger You” for these kinds of miracle-like actions, and especially for the next attribute to be explained. 

There would be those who would say, “Now you’ve gone too far, Kryon, because Innate obviously is something that is part of your cellular structure. It tells you all of the things that you need for your body, and so why would it be part of your Soul?” 

The answer is an answer I will give about many things that you consider “body only.” Your chemistry and cellular structure are not in a prison of skin, as you often see it. Your body is huge, and it has a field that extends way beyond 3D. Do you really think your consciousness comes from your brain? No animal on Earth “ponders its existence.” Only Humans do that. You are part of a much larger system than you think. 

Let’s go slowly. Part of profound healing is getting beyond the blocks that you’ve had from past lives. Let’s say it again. Part of profound healing is dealing with the blocks that have come with you from past lives. There is a subconscious “remembering mechanism” that sometimes comes in with your current life from past-life experience. Most of you know this. Those of you listening to this Circle of 12 program would be aware of it since so many of the guests who have been on the program have discussed it. “Rewriting the codes,” they will call it. Where did the codes come from? Many are with you from birth – from the Akashic memory of past lives. 

There’s a lot of clearing that must be done for the healing of these blocks. Quite often these are the blocks, plus other ones from your current upbringing, which keep healing from happening quickly. So, think about it: There has to be an energy that knows you and works with your subconscious to make anything happen. It must be an energy that knows what these blocks are, an energy that may have even been with you when the blocks occurred in a past life. Welcome to the amazing mystery of Innate. Innate must be part of your Soul because it knows about those blocks, dear ones. Innate, therefore, is multi-dimensional. 

If you start to think that Innate might be something far grander and more powerful than a simple body intelligence, you are on the path to a greater truth. Indeed, Innate might be a Soul partner: It comes in with you with some very, very interesting “awareness of your personal attributes.” Having Innate as part of something bigger explains how it might work. 

Let me give you something else to think about: There are some women listening to or reading this now who have a genomic situation, and when they learn about it, it’s frightening. They will find out they may have an inherited disease that seems to come with the genes at birth somehow. They will say: “My mother died of it; my sister died of it; and I’m afraid of it.” Bless you, if you are one of these (women), for this is something that sits upon your consciousness, perhaps sits upon your very innermost thoughts. These are things that you awaken to and wonder if this situation may visit you. 

Healings are accomplished many, many times that will remove the ancestral DNA or genome attribute that would cause that disease. Did you get that? In order for this to work for you, and be removed from your genome forever, the process has to come out of your past so completely that it affects even the lineage that you have. That is far more than a chemical healing. It’s almost like rewriting part of your lineage – yet the Innate can do it, and does, regularly. There are some of you who are also listening to or reading this who know I am right because you have had all that dysfunctional genomic chemistry eliminated through profound healings that you have generated yourself, through your consciousness, through cognizing the process of talking to your cells. 

So, a woman who says, “Dear Innate, break my ancestral disease link so that I will not get the disease,” starts the process of working with the blocks from her past-life genealogy. If she can cognize this and is successful – are you ready for this? – the link will also be broken in her existing and future children. Think about this one. The inherited negative genes stop here! 

And the question is: can Innate really do that? Yes. I told you from earlier messages that you are in charge of all things biological. It’s a command to Innate because Innate is there as a Soul partner to do the things that you are awakening to and beginning to understand. You are understanding how to be able to speak to Innate. Is that too much to understand? 

The new energy of the planet is starting to enhance the awakening process for many, and they are starting to see how much more there is to their inner structure and the interaction of their spiritual selves to their biological selves. 

You are awakening to your power, you might say, to control your own body. And part of this is that there are dysfunctional ancestral links that you can stop right now. Oh, dear one, there is someone here who needed to hear that. Can we celebrate that together? You needed to hear that. It’s very doable. 

So, how big do you think Innate is now? It knows your biological ancestry. It also knows your Akashic Record. It’s a Soul partner that comes in with you. 

Two more items that you should know about: The Innate has some attributes that you normally assign to Spirit itself. Number One: Innate is quiet. You never know it’s there until you awaken to its presence and start working with it. It’s an interesting thing that would come in with you, yet be silent, isn’t it? You’d think that Innate would arrive ready to help and start working with you immediately. But, if you say nothing, nothing happens. 

If you sit in a restaurant and never order food, it never comes. It’s an odd thing, is it not, to go to a restaurant over and over and simply sit at the table and then leave later? Welcome to humanism because that’s what you’ve been doing. You’ve been coming to that place, wishing to have the healing, never understanding there is a menu in front of you called Innate. 

Innate will do no healing until you awaken to a place where you know you can work together to make it happen. Think of that for a moment. That explains so much. It explains why a Human can go into despair, or fear, or the real attributes of feeling they are a victim of life – and never know about the menu of Innate. If that’s you, now you know. Again, I would ask you to review the first three lessons. [www.kryon.com/freeaudio] 

Number Two: Here is the final attribute, a sobering one, and one that happens all the time: You order the wrong thing from the restaurant’s menu! Innate obeys your passionate instructions. Many are using the “menu” all the time and don’t know it. If you say, “Innate, I want to be sick tomorrow,” you will be sick tomorrow. Innate has no judgment, dear ones. It has no filters. It is here to serve you. 

“Wait a minute, Kryon, who would say that?” Thousands do, when they fear disease and say, “I’m going to catch that. I know it!” or “I wonder if I have that disease I saw on the commercial on TV last night? I think I do!” This is energy given to the menu of Innate.So, in your life, if you are afraid of catching every disease that might be out there, Innate will make sure you do. Did you hear me? This is that Soul partner that does what you ask, dear ones. It does what it sees you are interested in! Hypochondriacs are invested in concentrating most of their efforts on worrying about the diseases – that, unknown to them, they are ordering on the menu. 

Think about your words when you are at home alone. What instructions are you giving to Innate with the things that you say? When you say, “Oh, I knew that would happen. Only bad things are happening to me. I wonder what’s going to happen tomorrow … some more bad things, perhaps?” Innate will line it up for you and make certain you receive what you verbalized. 

For those who would say, “All manner of bad things happen to me all the time. So, is this just me thinking this, or is that really true?” I will tell you, dear ones, yes, it’s really true. It is because you have brought it to you with your words and expectations. Did you ever think of that? 

Maybe it’s time to go to that restaurant, pick up that magnificent menu of healing and create a wonderful, purposefully-worded order. It would be an order that you will not ever, ever forget. It is done with your affirmative expectations and your verbalizations to others. 

One of the things on that menu, at the top, in big letters is this: I am magnificent. Here are the magnificent things: Number one: I am not a victim. Number two: I was born magnificent. Number three: I have a Soul partner called Innate that was built to heal and help and bring me into the magnificence of who I am. Number four: It’s waiting for my order. 

What a concept. 

Mysterious, indeed. Actionable? Yes. Doable? Yes, it’s there in front of you, dear ones, and tens of thousands have discovered this and know about Innate and the magic that can be yours. 

I am Kryon, in love with humanity. 

And so it is. 

KRYON

Israel's Teva reaches potential $4.25 bn US opioid settlement

Yahoo – AFP, 27 July 2022 

Israeli generic drug maker Teva has reached an agreement in principle to pay $4.25 billion over 13 years to settle a series of court cases over its role in the US opioid epidemic. 

If the deal is finalized, Teva would become the latest major company to reach a settlement over the crisis which caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and ravaged communities across the country. 

Teva reached the potential agreement on the terms of a "nationwide opioids settlement" with a working group of state attorneys general and lawyers for Native American tribes and other plaintiffs, the company said in its second-quarter financial results. 

"Teva will pay up to $4.25 billion (including the already settled cases) plus approximately $100 million for the tribes, spread over 13 years," it said. 

The overall figure includes up to $1.2 billion in the generic version of Narcan, which can reverse opioid overdoses. 

The deal will include "no admission of wrongdoing," but "it remains in our best interest to put these cases behind us," the company added. 

Teva has already gone through several opioid-related lawsuits and reached agreements with some states. 

The opioid crisis, which has caused more than 500,000 deaths over 20 years in the United States, has triggered a flurry of lawsuits from victims as well as cities, counties and states impacted by the fallout. 

Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and three major distributors, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health, have agreed to pay out $24.5 billion over several years to end more than 3,000 lawsuits. 

Purdue Pharma, considered by many to be a major driver of the crisis because of its aggressive promotion of its pain killer OxyContin, filed for bankruptcy in September 2019 as it faced a flood of legal action.

Mexico bans sales of 'harmful' e-cigarettes

Yahoo – AFP, 31 May 2022 

The World Health Organization considers electronic cigarettes to be harmful
to health (AFP/Valery HACHE) (Valery HACHE)

Mexico on Tuesday banned sales of electronic cigarettes and other vaping devices because of concerns about their health effects, the government announced. 

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said it was a "lie" to claim that e-cigarettes are a safe alternative to inhaling tobacco smoke.

"The vapors are also harmful for health," Lopez Obrador told reporters as he announced the signing of a presidential decree introducing the ban on World No Tobacco Day. 

He showed a pink vaping device to illustrate how the products are intended to appeal to young people. 

"Look at the color, the design," Lopez Obrador said. 

Mexico prohibited the import and export of vaping devices and cartridges in October, but the companies have continued to sell their inventory, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said. 

The new ban covers "the circulation and marketing of these new products," he added. 

E-cigarettes heat up a cartridge of liquid typically containing nicotine and other chemicals into an aerosol. The user inhales the resulting vapor, mimicking traditional cigarettes. 

Proponents of vaping say it is safer than traditional tobacco. 

The World Health Organization considers electronic cigarettes to be harmful to health and has called for tight regulation to stop young people in particular from using them. 

More than 30 countries have banned sales of electronic cigarettes, the WHO said last July. 

In April, e-cigarette firm Juul agreed to pay $22.5 million in a US lawsuit that alleged the company deliberately targeted teenagers and lied about how addictive its products are.

Dutch doctor says group will keep sending abortion pills to US women

France24 – AFP, 16 May 2022

Rebecca Gomperts, the founder of abortion-rights groups Women on Waves and
Aid Access, is seen in Amsterdam in September 2020 Remko de Waal ANP/AFP/File

Washington (AFP) – Rebecca Gomperts, a 55-year-old Dutch physician, has spent years fighting for women's access to abortion around the world. 

Made famous by her "abortion boat," as recounted in the 2014 documentary "Vessel," she and her Women on Waves group have anchored the ship in international waters off the coasts of Poland, Spain, Mexico and other countries, offering medical abortions to women otherwise unable to obtain them. 

But it is in the United States that interest has been surging in her other organization, Aid Access, which since 2018 has provided abortion pills over the internet. 

Behind the fast-rising demand is what appears -- based on a rare leak from the US Supreme Court -- to be the imminent end of federal protection for abortion rights. Once the court makes its decision official, probably next month, some 20 states are poised to ban or severely restrict abortions. 

"We're already seeing a huge increase in requests," Gomperts told AFP, saying some people were "panicking." 

"It's not only when this takes place; it has already made people aware how vulnerable they are." 

Aid Access, based in Austria, has been working with physicians to fill requests in the 20 US states where abortion pills can be legally prescribed by telemedicine. 

For requests from the other states, Gompert's group has exploited a legal loophole to send the pills from abroad. 

Demand was strong even before word of the high court's intentions leaked out. In a little more than a year (from October 2020 to December 2021), Aid Access says it received more than 45,000 requests from the United States. 

Reasons for the requests vary: the high cost of other abortion services, the cost and difficulty of traveling to distant abortion clinics, or the impossibility of doing so due to job or child-care demands. 

After filling out a questionnaire, women are instructed on how to take the pills at home. The price is adjusted depending on their ability to pay, and the pills are mailed from a pharmacy in India. Aid Access checks in with the women afterward. 

The most vulnerable

The pills are easy to find elsewhere on the internet, usually for a few hundred dollars. But those websites, also based outside the United States, are purely commercial and provide no medical support. 

For Gomperts, who in 2020 was listed as one of the world's 100 most influential people by Time magazine, the fight for abortion rights is a matter of "social justice." 

"The biggest problem is that the women that are not literate, that cannot read and write, that have no access to internet -- the most impoverished group -- they will not be able to find these solutions," she said. 

Many of them would lack the resources to travel to a state where abortion remains legal. 

"These are the women that might be forced to give birth or that will take drastic measures to end their pregnancy."  

These pills -- mifepristone and misoprostol -- can be used in generally very safe
at-home abortions, experts say; this picture comes from the Plan C advocacy
group Elisa WELLS PLAN C/AFP/File

The certain result, Gomperts said, will be an increase in maternal mortality and morbidity. 

A safe method

According to a 2017 survey of several thousand women in the United States, 20 percent of those who had attempted an at-home abortion used the pills, 29 percent used other drugs, 38 percent used plant-based infusions and 20 percent tried physical methods (some used more than one method, so the total exceeds 100 percent). 

During recent demonstrations outside the Supreme Court, women protesters brandished a disturbing object, something that seemed an artifact from a long-ago era: metal clothes-hangers -- a symbol of highly risky abortions performed clandestinely. 

And yet, up to the 10th week of pregnancy, abortion pills are very safe, experts say. 

A demonstrator holds up a clothes hanger marked 'Never Again' during an abortion
rights rally May 3, 2022 outside the US Supreme Court Stefani Reynolds AFP/File

 Today they represent half of all abortions in the United States (in France, by way of comparison, the figure is 70 percent). And their use outside of any medical setting is a "very acceptable" option, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Two drugs are used: first a dose of mifepristone is taken to block the hormones that support a pregnancy; then, 24 to 48 hours later, misoprostol is taken to induce contractions. 

Complications that might require medical help -- an excessive flow of blood, an infection or an allergic reaction -- are rare. 

So, beyond the medical aspect, the real risk to at-home abortions is legal complications. 

The NGO If/When/How has counted 60 cases in which women who allegedly self-managed abortions, or people who assisted them, were arrested, charged or sentenced between 2000 and 2020. 

The group, which says it envisions "a future when all people can self-determine their reproductive lives free from discrimination, coercion or violence," helps find legal representation for such women. 

It fears the trend toward criminalizing abortion will be greatly aggravated if the Supreme Court rules as expected. 

Such a ruling, said Gomperts, "instills fear in people, and especially in health-care providers -- and that is the biggest impact."

World's oldest person dies in Japan at 119

Yahoo – AFP, 25 April 2022 

Kane Tanaka was recognised as the world's oldest person in 2019 (AFP/JIJI
PRESS) (JIJI PRESS)

A Japanese woman certified the world's oldest person has died at the age of 119, local officials said Monday. 

Kane Tanaka was born January 2, 1903, in the southwestern Fukuoka region of Japan, the same year the Wright brothers flew for the first time and Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. 

Tanaka was in relatively good health until recently and lived at a nursing home, where she enjoyed board games, solving maths problems, soda and chocolate. 

In her younger years, Tanaka ran various businesses including a noodle shop and a rice cake store. She married Hideo Tanaka a century ago in 1922, giving birth to four children and adopting a fifth. 

She had planned to use a wheelchair to take part in the torch relay for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but the pandemic prevented her from doing so. 

When the Guinness World Records recognised her as the oldest person alive in 2019, she was asked what moment she was the most happy in life. Her answer: "Now." 

Her daily routine was described at the time as including a 6:00 am wake-up, and afternoons spent studying mathematics and practising calligraphy. 

"One of Kane's favourite pastimes is a game of Othello and she's become an expert at the classic board game, often beating rest-home staff," Guinness said. 

Local governor Seitaro Hattori hailed Tanaka's life after she passed away on April 19. 

"I was looking forward to seeing Kane-san on this year's Respect for the Aged Day (a national holiday in September) and celebrating together with her favorite soda and chocolate," he said in a statement on Monday. 

"I am extremely saddened by the news." 

Japan has the world's most elderly population, according to World Bank data, with around 28 percent aged 65 or over. 

The oldest-ever living person verified by Guinness was Frenchwoman Jeanne Louise Calment, who died aged 122 years and 164 days in 1997.

Cosmetics and personal care products are riddled with microplastics

DutchNews, April 7, 2022 

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Personal care and cosmetic products are riddled with plastic ingredients, with nine in 10 popular brands using them, according to research by the Netherlands’ based Plastic Soup Foundation. 

The EU is poised to take steps to control the unnecessary use of microplastics but most will be exempt, particularly those used by the cosmetics industry, the organisation says in a new report. 

The campaign group looked at the ingredients in 7,704 cosmetic and personal care items from the 10 most popular European brands. 

Of them, 87% contained microplastics, defined as ‘all possible synthetic polymers, whether added in solid, liquid, semi-liquid or water-soluble form, as well as nanoplastics and biodegradable plastics’. 

The foundation said it approached L’Oreal, Beiersdorf, Procter & Gamble and Unilever to find out about their current and future plastic policies.

‘All four have indicated that they want to do more against plastic pollution, but they focus only on microplastics in solid form. They follow the limited definition of microplastics as proposed by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). 

The ECHA says every minute, over seven kilos of microplastics from cosmetics and personal care products end up in the European environment, but this would be 25 times higher using the wider Plastic Soup definition, the campaign group said. 

‘We want to urge the cosmetics industry to look beyond the proposed definition by ECHA, to ensure the environmental and human health safety of the products they bring on the market,’ the campaign group said. 

‘We want to encourage consumers to demand transparency from brands and accountability for the ingredients these brands put into our personal care and cosmetic products.’ 

Two weeks ago, researchers at Amsterdam’s VU university reported finding microplastics in human blood for the first time.

Pharma giants to pay $590 mn to US Native Americans over opioids

Yahoo – AFP, John Biers, with Chris Stein in Washington, 1 February 2022 

Pharmaceutical companies and distributors have agreed to pay $590 million to
settle litigation related to opioid addiction in the Native American population
(AFP/Eric BARADAT) (Eric BARADAT)

A group of pharmaceutical companies and distributors agreed to pay $590 million to settle lawsuits connected to opioid addiction among Native American tribe members, according to a US court filing released Tuesday. 

The agreement is the latest amid a deluge of litigation spawned by the US opioid crisis, which has claimed more than 500,000 lives over the last 20 years and ensnared some of the largest firms in the world of American medicine. 

Pharmaceutical companies McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health had already struck a separate deal with the Cherokee tribe last September for $75 million. 

According to documents filed in an Ohio federal court Tuesday by a committee of plaintiffs, the companies agreed to pay another $440 million over seven years to other Native American tribes. 

The pharmaceutical group Johnson & Johnson, for its part, agreed to pay $150 million over two years to all the tribes, of which $18 million are destined for the Cherokee. 

Native Americans have "suffered some of the worst consequences of the opioid epidemic of any population in the United States," including the highest per-capita rate of opioid overdoses compared to other racial groups, according to the filing from the Plaintiffs' Tribal Leadership Committee. 

"The burden of paying these increased costs has diverted scarce funds from other needs and has imposed severe financial burdens on the tribal plaintiffs." 

Johnson & Johnson, McKesson and the other two companies in the accord -- AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health -- previously agreed to a $26 billion global settlement on opioid cases. 

J&J said Tuesday the $150 million it agreed to pay in the Native American case has been deducted from what it owes in the global settlement. 

"This settlement is not an admission of any liability or wrongdoing and the company will continue to defend against any litigation that the final agreement does not resolve," the company said. 

It was unclear if the other companies would take their portion under the latest agreement from the global settlement. 

'Measure of justice' 

Robins Kaplan, a law firm negotiating on the behalf of the plaintiffs, said the agreement still must be approved by the Native American tribes. 

"This initial settlement for tribes in the national opioid litigation is a crucial first step in delivering some measure of justice to the tribes and reservation communities across the United States that have been ground zero for the opioid epidemic," Tara Sutton, an attorney at the firm, said in a statement. 

Douglas Yankton, chairman of the North Dakota-based Spirit Lake Nation, said the money from the settlement would "help fund crucial, on-reservation, culturally appropriate opioid treatment services." 

Steven Skikos, an attorney representing the tribes, told AFP the group is pursuing claims against other drugmakers. 

"This is hopefully the first two of many other settlements," he said. 

Every tribe recognized by the US government, 574 in all, will be able to participate in the agreement, even if they have not filed lawsuits. 

Many of the lawsuits regarding the opioid crisis have centered on Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, a highly addictive prescription painkiller blamed for causing a spike in addiction. 

A judge in December overturned the company's bankruptcy plan because it provided some immunity for the owners of the company in exchange for a $4.5 billion payout to victims of the opioid crisis. 

The litigation wave has also swamped pharmacies owned by Walmart, Walgreens and CVS, which a jury found in November bear responsibility for the opioid crisis in two counties in Ohio.

US judge bans Shkreli for life from pharmaceutical industry

Yahoo – AFP, Fri, January 14, 2022

A federal judge banned former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli from
working in the drug industry (AFP/SPENCER PLATT)

A federal judge banned Martin Shkreli for life from the pharmaceutical industry, ruling Friday that the former drug executive could again harm society by monopolizing important medications. 

Shkreli, who has been serving a seven-year prison sentence on securities fraud, must also pay $64.6 million in damages to victims, said US District Judge Denise Cote, ruling on a case brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and six states. 

"Banning an individual from an entire industry and limiting his future capacity to make a living in that field is a serious remedy and must be done with care and only if equity demands," Cote wrote. 

"Shkreli's egregious, deliberate, repetitive, long-running and ultimately dangerous illegal conduct warrants imposition of an injunction of this scope." 

"The risk of recurrency here is real," Cote said. "Shkreli has not expressed remorse or any awareness that his actions violated the law." 

Once dubbed "the most hated man in America," Shkreli, 38, became infamous for suddenly raising the price of the HIV drug Daraprim in 2015 by 5,000 percent -- from $13.50 a pill to $750. 

Shkreli reached exclusive supply agreements for a key ingredient for Daraprim, delaying generic competition for at least 18 months, Cote wrote in the decision, which followed a December 2021 trial. 

Shkreli's company, Turing, was renamed Vyera, and settled with the FTC and other parties shortly before the trial, agreeing to pay $40 million in ill-gotten gains. 

In a 135-page ruling, Cote said Shkreli continued to direct Vyera's policies and choose executives even from prison. 

"Whether he used a smuggled phone or the prison's authorized phones, he stayed in touch with Vyera's management and exercised his power over Vyera as its largest shareholder." 

Shkreli has been in prison since 2017 and is set to be released in October 2023, or one year earlier pending succesful completion of an early release program.