Lawsuit aims to hold pharmaceutical executives accountable in opioid crisis

OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma and its executives are being targeted in a new lawsuit filed by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. Healey said the executives and the company lied about the addictive nature of the drugs. She said her action is the first lawsuit in the country to name the executives in an effort to detail their contributions to the opioid epidemic.Filed Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court, the 80-page complaint alleges that Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma "created the epidemic and profited from it through a web of illegal deceit."“We found that Purdue misled doctors, patients and the public about the real risks of their dangerous opioids, including OxyContin,” Healey said. “Their strategy was simple: The more drugs they sold, the more money they made.”Healey said the company encouraged prescribers to give higher dosages to patients and to keep patients on the medication for longer periods of time. She said Purdue also overstated the benefits and downplayed the risks of the drugs.“Purdue even pushed their drugs to prescribers they knew were writing illegal prescriptions,” Healey said. Gov. Charlie Baker was outspoken in his support for Healey’s lawsuit, saying he hopes it will “force them to own up to the decisions they made and the wreckage they left behind.”“Through the leadership of AG Healey, there’s a new battlefield and that’s in the board room of corporations that have profited on the backs of people with substance abuse disorder,” said Arlington police Chief Fred Ryan. In response to the lawsuit, Purdue Pharma issued this statement:“We share the Attorney General’s concern about the opioid crisis. We are disappointed, however, that in the midst of good faith negotiations with many states, the Commonwealth has decided to pursue a costly and protracted litigation process. We will continue to work collaboratively with the states toward bringing meaningful solutions."We vigorously deny the Commonwealth’s allegations. The Attorney General claims Purdue acted improperly by communicating with prescribers about scientific and medical information that FDA has expressly considered and continues to approve. We believe it is inappropriate for the Commonwealth to substitute its judgment for the judgment of the regulatory, scientific and medical experts at FDA.”