Photo Courtesy of the Office of the State Attorney General
State Attorney General Barbara Underwood said Purdue “lined its own pockets by deliberately exploiting our communities and fueling an opioid epidemic that’s destroyed families across our state.”
By Michael V. Cusenza
In a move that in just 48 hours has already garnered plenty of ink, clicks, and social-media shares, the State on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against one of the largest pharmaceutical companies on the planet, Purdue, alleging a decades-long and continuing pattern of persistent deceptive and illegal conduct, whereby Purdue misled prescribers and patients about the risks of its opioids, including the potent painkiller OxyContin, intentionally understating the risks and overstating the benefits of the powerful and dangerous drugs.
State Attorney General Barbara Underwood filed the 47-page complaint in Suffolk County Supreme Court. It alleges that Purdue persistently made – directly and through third party groups – numerous misrepresentations about its products, including concealing the link between long-term use of opioids and abuse and addiction, masking the signs of addiction by referring to them as “pseudoaddiction,” falsely claiming that withdrawal from its products can be easily managed, overstating the risks of alternative pain relief therapies as compared to opioids, and misrepresenting the extent to which opioids improve body function. These representations, according to Underwood, were part of Purdue’s concerted effort to increase sales of its opioid products and directly affected prescribing, public opinion, and consumption of those products.
“The opioid epidemic was manufactured by unscrupulous distributors who developed a $400 billion industry pumping human misery into our communities,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “This lawsuit sends a clear message all these who mislead the public to increase their profit margins that we will hold you accountable for your actions.”
According to the complaint, Purdue’s conduct contributed to the over-prescription and overuse of Purdue’s opioid products, including the opioid epidemic impacting communities across New York. In the Empire State alone, there were 3,086 deaths from overdoses involving opioids in 2016; 2,399 of those deaths were the result of opioid painkillers, including those sold by Purdue.
According to the AG, the lawsuit seeks an order requiring Purdue to “abate the public nuisance and pay all costs of abatement,” and an order prohibiting the company from engaging in deceptive, fraudulent, and unlawful practices; requiring Purdue to disgorge money obtained as a result of the violations of the law alleged in the complaint; and directing the company to pay civil penalties and damages to the Empire State.
“Purdue lined its own pockets by deliberately exploiting our communities and fueling an opioid epidemic that’s destroyed families across the state,” Underwood added. “We’re now holding Purdue to account for this reprehensible and illegal conduct.
The State’s action follows the City’s headline-grabbing move against Big Pharma earlier this year. In January, the Big Apple filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in State Supreme Court against the country’s top manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioid painkillers—including Purdue—in an attempt to hold the companies responsible for the costs the City will incur to combat the epidemic of addiction.
According to the suit, the opioid crisis caused by manufacturers’ deceptive marketing and distributors’ flooding of prescription painkillers into the five boroughs has placed a substantial burden on the City through increased substance-use treatment services, ambulatory services, emergency department services, inpatient hospital services, medical examiner costs, criminal justice costs, and law enforcement costs.
