The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Purdue Pharma faces protests
Controversy surrounding Purdue Pharma’s role in the opioid crisis has spilled from the courtrooms into the streets.
An Aug. 17 protest attended by about 500 people outside the company’s downtown Stamford headquarters revealed how the hundreds of lawsuits filed in recent years that accuse the company of deceiving medical professionals and patients about its opioids, including OxyContin, are fueling grassroots campaigns. While the company points to a number of initiatives to tackle the opioid crisis, the protesters’ activism is unlikely to dissipate until the lawsuits are resolved.
“This has turned into a moment of national reckoning for Purdue,” Ryan Hampton, an organizer of last week’s protest, said in an interview. “We should be camped out at the headquarters every single day with a bull horn until we bleed them dry of every single dollar they can pay.”
Purdue issued a statement in response to the latest demonstration that said the company shared the protesters’ concerns and was “committed to working collaboratively with those affected by this public health crisis on meaningful solutions to help stem the tide of opioidrelated overdose deaths.”
The company has not made any executives available for an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media to discuss the protests.
A lawsuit filed in June against Purdue by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey did not go unnoticed by Cheryl Juaire, 59, of Marlborough, Mass., who came up with the idea for last week’s protest. Her 23-year-old son, Corey, died of a heroin overdose in 2011.
“I downloaded the 77page document of the (Massachusetts) lawsuit, and I read the whole thing,” Juaire said in an interview. “I wanted to see what they were doing. It was definitely a source of motivation for creating this event.”
Most of the protesters at last week’s demonstration had lost at least one family member or friend to a fatal opioid overdose or knew someone in recovery from opioid addiction.
Friday’s gathering marked the third protest in the past three months outside Purdue’s building at 201 Tresser Blvd.
Other recent demonstrations included the installation June 22, in the headquarters’ front driveway, of an 800-pound spoon sculpture, which was stained to represent burnt heroin.
Purdue officials have touted initiatives intended to combat the opioid crisis.
Last week, the company announced that more than 6,000 high school students across Connecticut, California, Ohio, Tennessee, and West Virginia were able to use a digital prevention curriculum through the company’s participation in the Prescription Drug Safety Network.
Purdue has allocated $2 million in past years to support the curriculum, including $500,000 to fund the program’s expansion in Connecticut.
The protests are unlikely to soon fizzle out given the prevailing sentiment among the demonstrators that the company has not been held fully accountable for the toll of OxyContin abuse.
“We need Big Pharma — they do important things for this country,” said Doug Filler, 51, of Wayne, N.J., whose 22-year-old son died of a heroin overdose in 2016. “But they have to have a sense of responsibility that what they make can create a monster. They’re necessary, but they did something evil.”