Fives US states have filed lawsuits in opposition to OxyContin producer Purdue Pharma for the corporate’s position in driving the opioid epidemic. They be part of some 1,600 different lawsuits introduced in opposition to Purdue in current years.
The fits had been filed Thursday by the state governments of Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Maryland, who declare the corporate pushed the extremely addictive drug utilizing misleading advertising and marketing. With the exception of Kansas, the states additionally sued former Purdue president Richard Sackler.
“This lawsuit reveals many years of painstaking investigation,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey stated in a press release, including “the senseless death and ruined lives of untold thousands must stop,” and that Purdue “must be held accountable.”
Purdue, in March, reached a $270 million settlement to finish a earlier go well with filed by the state of Oklahoma, which additionally accused the corporate of deceptive advertising and marketing, yet one more in a flurry of fits filed in opposition to the firm.
Nearly 218,000 Americans have died from prescription opioid overdose between 1999 and 2017, in line with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Oxycodone, recognized by Purdue’s model title ‘OxyContin’, was concerned in a big variety of the deaths.