Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: JANUARY 2017 29 State Highway Patrol troopers in Ohio arrested more than 300 drivers for driving under the influence during the latest multi-state enforcement effort involving Ohio troopers and their counterparts in five other states. The enforcement by the 6-State Trooper Project fo- cused on removing impaired drivers from the roads. The project’s latest effort began Dec. 2 and ended Dec. 4. It included targeted enforcement by Ohio’s pa- trol and state police agencies from Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The 6-State Trooper Project is a multi-state law en- forcement partnership aimed at providing combined and coordinated law enforcement and security services in the areas of highway safety, criminal patrol and intelligence sharing. Troopers snag drunk drivers I n the latest clamp- down on pharmaceuti- cal price hikes, a po- lice sergeant’s union collared the makers of the eczema ointment Clobeta- sol to bring the companies downtown to federal court. On Sept. 8, filings released by the Securities and Ex- change Commission revealed that Taro Pharmaceuticals and two of their senior of- ficers received grand jury subpoenas from the Depart- ment of Justice’s antitrust division. The New York-based Ser- geants Benevolent Asso- ciation Health & Well Being Fund — representing 4,700 ac- tive and 7,600 retired NYPD sergeants — filed a class-ac- tion lawsuit against Taro and five other corporations. Clobetasol, a drug pre- scribed for eczema, derma- titis, psoriasis and vitiligo, is among the four generic drugs that experienced the largest price increases across the U.S. pharmaceutical industry in the past two years, accord- ing to the sergeants’ 33-page complaint. Between June and Sep- tember 2014, Clobetasol’s prices shot up roughly 1,140 percent, and the price tag went up again by 950 percent during the yearlong win- dow between August 2014 and 2015, the sergeants say. “Whereas, in 2013, a 60-gram tube of Clobetasol cream cost $15.60, as of 2015, the cost was nearly $250,” the complaint states. Ed Mullins, president of the NYPD Sergeant’s union says that these dramatic hikes fol- lowed a meeting between the top manufacturers of the drug: Hi-Tech Permacal Co., Perrigo Company, Sandoz, Taro USA, and Wockhardt USA. Another company, Foug- era, which acquired Sandoz in 2013, is the lead defendant in the complaint. The lawsuit notes that these hikes happened “at a time during which Congress and regulators are focusing intense scrutiny on generic manufacturers’ anticompeti- tive pricing practices,” scru- tiny that continues to grow in public backlash against so-called “Pharma Bro” Mar- tin Shkreli and the makers of EpiPen, the life-saving allergy injections. Shkreli currently faces possible prison time, not for jacking up the price of AIDS drug Daraprim, but for charges that he rolled investors into an $11 million securities fraud. Those allega- tions continue to await trial in Brooklyn. Mullins went on to note that the Clobetasol hikes mirror a rash of similar be- havior by pharmaceutical companies. The Office of the Inspector General, the internal watch- dog for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Servic- es, found that price increases in 22 percent of the top 200 generic drugs exceeded the cost of inflation. Represented by attorney Peter Safirstein, the sergeants union wants damages against Clobetasol’s makers to be tripled under the Sherman Act, the law that governs anti-competitive business practices. Taro Pharmaceuticals did not immediately respond to an emailed request for com- ment. Shkreli currently faces possible prison time, but not for jacking up the price of AIDS drug Daraprim. Big Pharma is out of control Strion® DS Strion® DS HPL high lumen long range Strion® DS HL high lumen wide beam The new DS line of our rechargeable Strion family adds new flexibility to the power and performance you’ve come to expect from Streamlight. The standard Strion DS is the best of both worlds, giving you a balance of brightness, reach, and runtime. If you need more distance, the Strion DS HPL gives you 700 lumens on high, with a beam that reaches all the way out to 420 meters. If you need to fill the scene with light, the Strion DS HL gives you 700 lumens of wide side-to-side beam that illuminates an entire area. All models feature Streamlight’s TEN-TAP® programmable switches. The Strion DS® Family: Three flexible options for every need. Streamlight.com © 2017 Streamlight, Inc. The New Strion® DS Series features head and tail switches for maximum mission flexibility. VISIT US AT SHOT SHOW BOOTH 12562