Judge rejects effort to limit Rx evidence in opioid liability lawsuit

A federal judge on April 18 refused to bar San Francisco from introducing evidence about lobbying efforts by drugmakers and Walgreens Boots Alliance in a trial set to start soon over the city's claims that the companies fueled the opioid epidemic, Reuters reports. The ruling is a setback for Walgreens and the drugmakers – AbbVie Inc's Allergan, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and affiliates of Endo International PLC – which have said that evidence about individual overdoses could "severely prejudice" a jury against them.