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Request denied: Purdue Pharma to appear in court as scheduled

Photo: Liz O. Baylen/Getty Images

Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman decided on Friday that Purdue Pharma — the infamous manufacturer of OxyContin — along with Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., are due in court May 28 in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit, despite efforts to postpone the trial, reports Reuters.

Details: Oklahoma's Attorney General Mike Hunter has accused the companies of feeding the state's opioid epidemic. Reuters also reported that Purdue was considering filing for bankruptcy, alleging such action could give the company time to review legal liabilities and delay the court case. Purdue's attorney argued moving the trial to Sept. 16 was necessary because the state "belatedly turned over 1.6 million pages of records critical to Purdue's defense ... But the judge said the drugmakers had not established the state's actions had prejudiced them."

Go deeper: Purdue Pharma let doctors underestimate OxyContin's strength

Go deeper

Alexi McCammond
1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

AOC and Ilhan Omar want to block Biden’s former chief of staff

Reps. Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar are boosting a petition against Joe Biden nominating his former chief of staff to a new role in his administration, calling Bruce Reed a "deficit hawk” and criticizing his past support for Social Security and Medicare cuts.

Why it matters: Progressives are mounting their pressure campaign after the president-elect did not include any of their favored candidates in his first slate of Cabinet nominees, and they are serious about installing some of their allies, blocking anyone who doesn't pass their smell test — and making noise if they are not heard.

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Butterball CEO Jay Jandrain talks turkey

Butterball estimates that it sells one out of every three Thanksgiving turkeys, but knows that this year's celebrations will be different than years past.

Axios Re:Cap talks with the turkey giant's CEO Jay Jandrain about what people are buying, what they're asking the "Turkey Talkline" and what the pandemic has meant for his business.

Zachary Basu
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Biden introduces top national security team

President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Tuesday at an event introducing the incoming administration's top national security officials, where he told the story of his stepfather being the only one of 900 children at his school in Poland to survive the Holocaust.

What they're saying: "At the end of the war, he made a break from a death march into the woods in Bavaria. From his hiding place, he heard a deep rumbling sound. It was a tank. But instead of the iron cross, he saw painted on its side a five pointed white star," Blinken said.

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