Former Vincennes Police Department Chief Dustin Luking was arrested on multiple felony charges Wednesday for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars from an evidence vault for personal use. Also today, Bethany J. Shelton Luking, Dustin’s wife, was arrested for allegedly stealing prescription medication from her employer, a senior center in Vincennes.
The effort to hold drug companies, pharmacies and distributors accountable for their role in the opioid crisis has led to a whirlwind of legal activity around the U.S. that can be difficult keep tabs on.
A jury’s finding this week that three major pharmacy chains are responsible for contributing to the scourge of opioid addiction in two Ohio counties may be just the beginning of a protracted legal battle that ultimately could leave the communities no better off.
The federal government’s assertion that Eli Lilly and Co. violated a program to offer low-income Medicaid and Medicare patients discounted drugs was tossed by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in a 65-page opinion, which also hinted that Congress needs to address the problems with the 340B Drug Pricing Program.
With many Americans who got Pfizer vaccinations already rolling up their sleeves for a booster shot, millions of others who received the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine wait anxiously to learn when it’s their turn.
In a bellwether federal trial starting Monday in Cleveland, Ohio’s Lake and Trumbull counties will try to convince a jury that retail pharmacy companies played an outsized role in creating a public nuisance in the way they dispensed pain medication into their communities.
Indiana Medicaid has recovered $1.8 million as part of a $75 million national civil settlement with New York-based pharmaceutical manufacturer Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., which allegedly overcharged Medicaid programs for drugs for almost a decade.