Cities’ opioid suits move forward

Johnson & Johnson, Cardinal Health and other makers and distributors of opioid painkillers must face lawsuits claiming they banded together to wrongfully push sales of the addictive pills, a judge ruled as the first federal trial over the medicines looms next month.

U.S. District Judge Dan Polster ruled Tuesday that juries must decide whether to hold companies like pharmacy chain Walgreens liable for undertaking “coordinated efforts” to commit “unlawful acts” in the marketing, delivering and selling of opioids.

The ruling clears the way for J&J, Cardinal Health, Walgreens and other companies to face a federal jury in Cleveland on Oct. 21 on claims—by more than 2,000 U.S. cities and counties—that they fueled an opioid crisis that kills more than 100 Americans daily.

Mercedes SUVs pile up at airport

Daimler has been forced to store thousands of undelivered Mercedes-Benz sport utility vehicles at a former military airport in northern Germany after issues with a supplier created delivery delays.

GLE models were lined up in blocks, some of which were 15 cars abreast and seven deep, stretching down the tarmac at the former Ahlhorn airport near the city of Bremen. The cars, which start at about $56,000, were made in the U.S. for European customers.

Daimler has issued four profit warnings in little more than a year, most recently in July, when the company included a “slower model ramp-up” as one of the reasons for cutting its full-year guidance. At that time, Chief Executive Officer Ola Kallenius highlighted issues with the company’s SUVs on a quarterly earnings call. Problems with a supplier in the U.S. caused production bottlenecks, Kallenius said at the time.

Pig deaths affect heparin supply

A Chinese outbreak of African swine fever that has killed millions of pigs in the country has also led to falling U.S. supplies of a widely used drug derived from the animals, the anti-clotting drug heparin.

Heparin’s active ingredient is derived from pig intestines. It’s a critical drug for heart attack patients and is used in surgery to stop clots. Much of the world’s supply of active pharmaceutical ingredient, or API, for the blood thinner comes from China, a byproduct of the nation’s massive pork consumption.

One major producer of heparin, a subsidiary of Germany’s Fresenius SE, said it has started limiting allocations of the drug “due to a potential shortage of raw ingredient,” according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, a trade organization that tracks drug shortages.