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 Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall alleged in a lawsuit filed
in a federal court that Purdue misrepresented the risks and benefits
of opioids, enabling the widespread prescribing of the drugs for
chronic pain conditions.
The lawsuit said that as Purdue reaped significant profits, Alabama
suffered significant costs as a result of a public health crisis
that had led to hundreds of deaths in the state each year due to
opioid overdoses.
"It will take years to undo the damage but an important first step
we must take is to hold the parties responsible for this epidemic
legally liable for the destruction they have unleashed upon our
citizens," Marshall said in a statement.
Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue in a statement said it denied the
allegations. It noted its drugs are approved by the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration and account for only 2 percent of all opioid
prescriptions.
"As a company grounded in science, we must balance patient access to
FDA-approved medicines, while working collaboratively to solve this
public health challenge," Purdue said.
Opioids were involved in more than 42,000 overdose deaths in 2016,
according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A wave of lawsuits by states, counties and cities have accused
drugmakers of pushing addictive painkillers through deceptive
marketing and wholesale distributors of failing to report suspicious
drug orders.
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A group of state attorneys general have been conducting a multistate
investigation into whether companies that manufacture and distribute
prescription opioids engaged in unlawful practices.
Increasingly, some attorneys general have decided to file lawsuits
outside of the probe against the companies under scrutiny. Purdue
alone faces 14 lawsuits by states including Alabama.
A federal judge in Ohio overseeing more than 200 lawsuits by cities,
counties and others over the opioid epidemic recently reached out to
some state attorneys general about meeting as he pushes for a quick
settlement of the litigation.
Marshall was among the attorneys general who last Wednesday attended
the first court-ordered settlement conference overseen U.S. District
Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland.
Marshall said he now expects his lawsuit, filed in a federal court
in Alabama, will be transferred to Ohio to be overseen by Polster.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and
David Gregorio)
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