J.D. Vance's Senate campaign says the Ohio Republican candidate has canceled a fundraiser after finding out that one of its hosts is a doctor mentioned in a lawsuit accusing Purdue Pharma and other drugmakers of aggressively promoting opioids.
Vance's campaign told Spectrum News Friday he was scrapping the weekend fundraiser in response to reports that Dr. Rajbir Minhas was hosting the event at his Cincinnati home. Minhas is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, but is described as a top prescriber of a narcotic painkiller. Vance's abrupt cancellation indicates drug addition remains a significant issue in the key Senate race.
The now-canceled fundraiser was sponsored by the Asian Indian Alliance, a group that seeks to encourage political involvement by Ohio's Indian population, reported Spectrum News. The network said Vance's campaign indicated Wednesday it would continue with the event after it brought up Minhas, but pulled the plug on Friday to avoid a distraction.
The lawsuit naming Minhas filed by insurance company Medical Mutual of Ohio in 2018 in federal court accuses Purdue Pharma and other pharmaceutical companies of triggering widespread addiction to opioid painkillers. The lawsuit alleges that the companies undermined safeguards and knowingly sold addictive drugs.
Pharmaceutical companies rewarded "high writer" doctors who prescribed large amounts of opioids with payments from "speaker bureaus" that were used to encourage other physicians to prescribe the drugs, the lawsuit alleges.
"Cincinnati, Ohio pain doctor Dr. Rajbir Minhas is among the top 10 prescribers of
Oxycodone-Acetaminophen in the country and has received some $145,281.11 between 2013 and 2016 from eight of the defendants: Insys, Teva, Depomed, Mallinckrodt, Janssen, Purdue, Endo, and Actavis," the lawsuit states, also alleging that he prescribed other opioid drugs.
Newsweek has reached out to Minhas through the Asian Indian Alliance for comment.
"We were unaware of Dr. Minhas being mentioned in this filing," the Vance campaign told Newsweek in a statement. He's one of the few doctors in Cincinnati who practices non-interventional chronic pain management. This is in stark contrast to [Vance's opponent, Democratic Senate candidate] Tim Ryan who has knowingly taken tens of thousands of dollars from the very Big Pharma companies who had to pay billions in a settlement for their role in Ohio's opioid epidemic."
Previously, Ryan has accused Vance of setting up a "fake non-profit" to help those with addiction.
While the Sackler family, Purdue's owner, was ordered to pay $6 billion for its role in the epidemic, places like Ohio continue to struggle with the aftermath. Figures show that unintentional overdoses in the state have continued to rise and 2020 surpassed 2017 in overdose deaths.
Update 10/17/22, 5:20 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional comment from Vance's campaign.
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Jake Thomas is a Newsweek night reporter based in Portland, Oregon. His focus is U.S. national politics, crime and public ... Read more
