OxyContin maker starts ad blitz for filing claims

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma launched an ad campaign Monday to tell people harmed by their powerful prescription opioid where they can file claims against the company.

The $23.8 million campaign is part of Purdue’s bankruptcy proceedings as it tries to resolve close to 3,000 lawsuits over its role in the opioid crisis.

Notifying people who may have claims against a company is a standard part of a bankruptcy case. But Purdue’s efforts — worked out with input from a committee of creditors and other interested parties and approved by a bankruptcy judge in White Plains, New York — are unusually expansive.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based company has proposed a settlement that could be worth more than $10 billion over time, including the value of drugs it is producing and a contribution of at least $3 billion in cash from members of the Sackler family, which owns the company.

About half the states oppose that deal, saying it doesn’t do enough to hold the company or family responsible in an opioid crisis that has been linked to more than 430,000 deaths in the U.S. over the last two decades.

Online ads starting Monday direct people to a website where claims can be made. Other versions are to appear later in magazines, newspapers, TV and radio, billboards, movie theaters and other places to let people know they have until the end of June to file claims.

Ads are intended to reach 95% of U.S. adults, with those people seeing or hearing the ads an average of six times.

Lawsuits against the company have been filed mostly by governmental entities. But individuals harmed by the company can also make claims through the bankruptcy process.