Indicted Merrick doctor to join Suffolk suit against "Big Pharma"

Belfiore looks to hold opiod manufacturers responsible for epidemic as criminal case proceeds

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A Merrick doctor under federal indictment for allegedly overprescribing opioid pain medication to patients has asked to join in a Suffolk County lawsuit against pharmaceutical giant Purdue and other opioid manufacturers.

Dr. Michael Belfiore, who lives in Westbury and practices in Merrick, was charged in 2014 with unlawfully prescribing oxycodone to an undercover Nassau County detective, and also faces further charges of illegally prescribing the drug to patients.

Belfiore wrote 5,000 prescriptions for 600,000 pain pills between January 2010 and March 2013, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Central Islip.


Part of Belfiore’s defense in the federal criminal case is that he has been “wrongfully prosecuted because he relied upon false and misleading marketing and advertising campaigns,” and that federal regulations about the prescribing of opioids were severely lacking when he was treating the patients in question.

By intervening in the Suffolk case — in which the county is seeking reimbursement for Medicaid and Medicare payments related to the opioid epidemic — Belfiore and his attorney, Tom Liotti, said they hope that a civil victory of any sort would be enough to, at least partially, prove his innocence in the federal criminal case.

“There are literally tens of thousands of victims across this nation where they and their surviving families are not aware of the complicity of the government and Big Pharma in creating these tragic addictions and deaths,” Liotti wrote.

Suffolk’s attorneys assert that the 11 companies and four doctors named in their suit launched a “coordinated, sophisticated and highly deceptive marketing campaign” to convince doctors and patients that the reward of using opioids outweighed the addictive medications’ risks.

Purdue paid a $600 million settlement in 2007 when three executives pleaded guilty in federal court to “misbranding” the medication, according to a New York Times report.

The companies and individuals named in the Suffolk County suit, including Purdue, Janssen and Johnson & Johnson, will ask a judge to dismiss it, according to court documents. A hearing on the joint motion to dismiss is scheduled for April 5.