New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced that he is filing a lawsuit against eight members of a family that ran Purdue Pharma, accusing them of intentionally hiding the addictive nature of opioids from consumers. Accusing them of being largely to blame for the national opioid crisis which has claimed the lives of thousands of Americans, Grewal says the defendants helped direct and took part in a widespread campaign to deceive doctors and other caregivers about the risks and benefits of the company’s opioid pain relief drug, OxyContin, as well as other painkillers sold by Purdue Pharma.
“The Sackler family built a multi-billion-dollar drug empire based on addiction,” said Grewal. “Despite knowing the harms that would result, the Sacklers drove Purdue to pursue deceitful sales campaigns for OxyContin and other highly addictive opioid painkillers, campaigns that were dutifully carried out by a small army of the company’s employees. Our communities are still reeling from the epidemic of addiction and overdose deaths caused by their misconduct.”
Purdue Pharma makes several different opioid medications, including Butrans and Hysingla ER. But OxyContin, the drug that many think of first when speaking of the ongoing addiction and overdose epidemic, has been by far their most popular pain relief medication. Since its debut in 1996, Purdue Pharma has sold over $35 billion worth of the medication, and the sales of OxyContin comprise much of Purdue Pharma’s annual $3 billion in sales.
The lawsuit filed by Grewal alleges that the Sacklers deployed salesmen to deceive doctors regarding OxyContin’s benefits and risks, and directed doctors to visit websites designed to seem like they were from advocacy groups, but were actually created by Purdue Pharma, to convince them to buy the drug. The suit says that from 2007 to 2017, Purdue representatives visited New Jersey doctors nearly 240,000 times.
The lawsuit also says the company promoted the unsubstantiated concept of “pseudo-addiction”, to assure doctors that patients exhibiting signs of addiction were actually suffering from undertreated pain and needed more medication. Additionally, the suit alleges that Purdue ignored a growing body of research evidence that linked the long-term use of opioids to addiction, as well as a variety of other health problems.
Opioid addiction has been in the national limelight for several years now as patient and consumer advocates call for urgent action to combat the crisis of addiction and overdose deaths plaguing the country. With this lawsuit, New Jersey is making it clear that they will not stand aside as opioids continue to take the lives of its residents.
It has come to light that the W.H.O. (World Health Organization) is promoting Oxycontin in other parts of the world. See article “U.N. Agency is accused of helping Purdue pharma spread opioid epidemic around the world.”
The W.H.O. has stated, “Opoiod analgesics, if prescribed in accordance with established dosage requirements, are known to be safe and there is no need to fear accidental death or dependence.” They also said that there is no maximum dosage of opioids for children despite the fact that US public health officials have found that fatal overdoses skyrocket in adult patients who are prescribed above 90 morphine milligram equivalents.
This is the same Agency that assures us that vaccines are safe, rigorously tested, and constantly monitored by scientists for any sign that they may cause harm.