As the nation’s opioid crisis claims more than 40,000 lives each year, lawsuits against opioid producers are piling up and getting complicated.
The biggest player in these lawsuits is Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma, which has no affiliation with Purdue University. As of August 2018, 27 states filed lawsuits against Purdue Pharma, creator of OxyContin, alleging the privately held opioid manufacturer has done misleading marketing campaigns since the 1990s to push doctors to prescribe stronger opioids that the company said were less addictive. The company already pleaded guilty in 2007 to federal charges related to the misbranding of OxyContin and paid $634.5 million in penalties.
Lawsuits from state and local governments allege Purdue Pharma knowingly downplayed the risk of addiction to OxyContin, which came out in 1996 and is about 50 percent stronger than morphine. Along with other states that have sued the company, Massachusetts has sued individual members of the Sackler family, who own and controls Purdue Pharma.
Purdue Pharma settled with the state of Oklahoma on March 26 for $270 million, which will fund addiction research and treatment in the state and pay for legal fees. Around 1,600 lawsuits have been consolidated in a federal court in Ohio. The judge in that case has pushed for a settlement before the first trial scheduled for October. Purdue Pharma is reportedly considering filing for bankruptcy, a common move by companies facing mounting litigation to stop lawsuits and negotiate with plaintiffs in one federal court proceeding.
In February, an unredacted lawsuit accused the company of considering selling an anti-addiction drug to “an attractive market.” That would mean Purdue Pharma, which profited from an opioid crisis it helped create, would then circle back through the wreckage and profit again by selling a cure.
That’s the general allegation against other opioid producers and distributors — that they downplayed the risk of addiction and pushed doctors to overprescribe. Other opioid producers coming under fire include Johnson & Johnson, which Kentucky sued in April 2018. The state accused Johnson & Johnson, along with two subsidiaries, of using a “deceptive marketing scheme” to push opioids.
The Cherokee Nation in April 2017 sued drug distributors and pharmacies — including Wal-Mart, Walgreens and CVS Health — alleging that the companies profited by “flooding” its communities in Oklahoma with opioids that led to the deaths of hundreds of trial members.
Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick.
