Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley is suing major pharmaceutical companies for alleged complicity in spreading opioid addiction through a “campaign of fraud and deception.”
Hawley launched the lawsuit Wednesday, taking aim at Purdue Pharma, Endo Pharmaceuticals and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, three of the largest drug makers in the country. The lawsuit seeks to collect “hundreds of millions of dollars” for the public cost of addiction on communities in Missouri, reports CBS News.
Hawley, a Republican, alleges the three companies deliberately misrepresented the addiction risks of their popular painkiller brands like Purdue Pharma’s OxyContin in the name of profit. If the suit is successful, Hawley says the funds will go towards addiction treatment programs to aid the community and families.
“For years now, the citizens of Missouri have been the victims of a coordinated campaign of fraud and deception about the nature of drugs known as opioids,” Hawley said Wednesday in a statement. “These companies have profited from the suffering of Missourians.”
A bipartisan group of attorneys general from Nevada, Massachusetts, Texas, Illinois and Pennsylvania announced June 15 they will probe marketing and sales practices used by pharmaceutical companies to distribute their painkillers. It is not yet clear how many states are involved in the investigation, but an official from Nevada said a majority of state attorneys general are participating.
Officials said they want to know “what role, if any,” drug makers played in causing the opioid epidemic, which claimed 33,000 lives in 2015. The New York Times recently culled through data from state health departments and county medical examiners and coroners, predicting there were between 59,000 and 65,000 drug deaths in 2016.
Lawsuits are mounting against the largest drug makers for their alleged complicity in sparking the opioid crisis through dishonest advertising. The law firm Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC is spearheading cases in New York, as well as two lawsuits in California, two in West Virginia, one in Chicago and one in Washington state.
Purdue Pharma, which often comes under the harshest scrutiny, says they are committed to solving the opioid addiction crisis. A representative of the drug maker previously noted their medication OxyContin accounts for less than 2 percent of the prescription opioid market in the country.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.