The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered health systems’ priorities, leading to the redistribution and reallocation of human and financial resources towards pandemic-related prevention and treatment efforts. During this time, a parallel public health emergency — the national epidemic of opioid-related morbidity and mortality — has continued unabated, with almost 450,000 opioid overdose-related deaths from 1999-2018.

Two U.S. representatives released documents Oct. 27 detailing the Sackler family's role in opioid sales for Purdue Pharma, which the family owned until it agreed to dissolve the company in an agreement reached with the Department of Justice.

Walmart has sued the Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Administration in anticipation of upcoming civil lawsuits against the retail giant for its pharmacies' opioid dispensing practices.

A West Virginia court ordered Walmart to turn over all documents related to its opioid dispensing practices to state and federal authorities, according to court documents.

Purdue Pharma on Oct. 21 agreed to shut down its company, pay roughly $8.3 billion and plead guilty to three federal criminal charges for its role in creating and exacerbating the nation's opioid epidemic.

More than three dozen Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to the U.S. attorney general asking him to consider filing criminal charges against Purdue Pharma executives and members of the Sackler family, STAT reported. 

Johnson & Johnson said Oct. 13 that it is adding $1 billion to the opioid settlement agreement it made with four states last year, bringing its total contribution to $5 billion.

Judges in Ohio have postponed two major opioid trials involving lawsuits that seek to penalize drugmakers and distributors for the opioid epidemic that has killed thousands of Ohioans during the last 20 years, according to Cleveland.com.

Jackson Noel, PharmD, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Sept. 30 for an illegal opioid distribution scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., wrote a letter to Purdue Pharma's board members Sept. 29 requesting they release emails and any other information related to the drugmaker's choice to change its New York address for receiving legal documents from Albany to White Plains.

None of the clinical trials for opioids the FDA approved to treat chronic pain from 1997 to 2018 lasted longer than three months, according to research published Sept. 29 in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Four U.S. senators wrote a letter to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain Sept. 21, in which they urged him to prevent Purdue Pharma from paying its CEO a $3.5 million bonus.

New York 's department of financial services sued Johnson & Johnson Sept. 17, accusing the drugmaker of misrepresenting opioids in its marketing.

The U.S. Appeals Court for the Southern District of New York on Sept. 14 upheld a New York law taxing drugmakers and distributors to help address the opioid epidemic.

The Health Resources and Services Administration, part of HHS, on Sept. 14 awarded $25 million to 80 organizations across 36 states and two territories to combat the opioid crisis.

Opioid overdose deaths are trending up compared to 2019 in at least 21 of the largest counties in the U.S., new data collected by The Wall Street Journal shows.

Medicaid spending on opioid overdose-reversal drug naloxone shot up from $110,000 in 2010 to close to $15 million in 2018, according to a study released Aug. 26 by Washington, D.C. think tank the Urban Institute.

Patients in central Appalachia, the epicenter of the opioid epidemic, face barriers in accessing treatments for opioid use disorder, according to a study published Aug. 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Most Americans could not accurately distinguish opioids from other types of medications in a recent survey conducted by health IT company DrFirst, a finding that is particularly problematic as the opioid crisis continues to be exacerbated by the pandemic.

Purdue Pharma is being sued for $2.15 trillion by 49 states, Washington, D.C., and various U.S. territories for its role in the opioid crisis, according to CNN.