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.
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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 Spectrum News in a statement. “At the same time, Dr. Minhas hasn’t ever been accused of wrongdoing, never mind found guilty of wrongdoing in a court of law. He’s one of the few doctors in Cincinnati who practices non-interventional chronic pain management.”
Vance’s statement also accused his opponent, Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan, of taking tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies. 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 opioid epidemic, places like Ohio continue to struggle with the aftermath. State figures show that unintentional overdoses in Ohio have continued to rise in the state and 2020 surpassed 2017 in overdose deaths.
Newsweek has reached out to the Vance campaign for comment.
