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Bloomberg Philanthropies will donate $50 million to states fighting the opioid epidemic, an effort to support current programs and encourage new approaches. Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is scheduled to announce the three-year program Friday morning during the second day of a health conference in Washington hosted by another of his ventures, the Bloomberg American Health Initiative. (Bernstein, 11/30)

Companies making and distributing opioid painkillers opposed a proposal to separate lawsuits filed on behalf of addicted babies from local governments’ cases aimed at recouping costs of battling the public-health crisis spawned by the drugs. Attorneys for thousands of babies born to opioid addicts asked a panel of federal judges Thursday to carve their cases out of more than 1,400 suits consolidated before an Ohio judge. The suits, filed by U.S. cities and counties, seek billions of dollars in reimbursement for treatment and policing costs. Drugmakers, such as Purdue Pharma LP and Johnson & Johnson, along with distributors such as McKesson Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc., say the move is unnecessary. (Feeley, 11/29)

Clearwater is the latest Tampa Bay municipality to sue some of the country’s largest drug companies, alleging manufacturers lied about the risks of addiction to opioids through deceptive marketing while distributors flooded pharmacies and communities with the pills. (McManus, 11/29)

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has named the nation's two largest pharmacy chains in its massive opioid lawsuit, accusing Walgreens and CVS of racketeering in their "relentless campaign" to supply Floridians with opioids. The two pharmacy giants, which have more than 1,500 locations between them in Florida, broke Florida law by ignoring suspicious orders, "all while claiming misleadingly to the public that they were fulfilling their duties as pharmacists," Bondi's lawyers say. (Mower, 11/29)

US Attorney Andrew E. Lelling has sent letters to “a number of medical professionals” alerting them that their opioid prescribing practices “have been identified as a source of concern.” In a statement released Thursday, Lelling said that the professionals who received the warning had prescribed opioids to a patient within 60 days of that patient’s death or to a patient who subsequently died from an opioid overdose. (Freyer, 11/29)

Summit County Health and its partners have so far this year collected 8,000 pounds of unwanted pills for disposal in their efforts to combat opiate overdose deaths in Summit County, officials announced at a Thursday briefing. A similar effort last year collected 9,000 pounds of pills, not counting the weight of the containers, said Dr. Doug Smith, chief clinical officer of Summit County's Alcohol, Drug Addiction & mental Health Service Board. (Conn, 11/29)