New York Sues Makers Of OxyContin After Company Agrees To $270M Settlement

The New York attorney general announced Thursday the state is suing the Sackler family, the billionaire owners of Purdue Pharma which produces the highly addictive opioid painkiller OxyContin, for their involvement in the nationwide opioid crisis just two days after the company agreed to pay $270 million to settle similar claims in Oklahoma.

In an amended complaint, New York added the Sackler family to its lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, Cardinal Health and other drug manufacturers and distributors. New York alleges the defendants pushed doctors to prescribe its products, lied about how addictive their products were, and turned a blind eye on red flags at pharmacies, reported Bloomberg.

“Simply put, they put profit over patients,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said Thursday at a press conference in Manhattan, adding the Sacklers “profited off the suffering, the death of New Yorkers.”

State and local governments filed more than 1,600 lawsuits across the country, most of which have been consolidated in a Cleveland, Ohio, court, that aim to hold drug companies responsible for misleading marketing campaigns that allegedly prompted the outbreak of the U.S. opioid crisis. On Tuesday, Purdue Pharma agreed to pay $270 million to the state of Oklahoma to settle similar claims.

James, a Democrat who took office in January, accused the Sackler family of hiding its vast fortunes in an effort to protect their billions should legal actions result from Purdue Pharma’s aggressive opioid marketing scheme.

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