Details released in suit against OxyContin maker
An updated complaint in Massachusetts’ lawsuit against Purdue Pharma claims members of the family that owns the OxyContin maker are personally responsible for fueling abuse of the deadly painkiller.
The filing late Friday in Suffolk Superior Court expands on the lawsuit the state filed in June against the drugmaker, 16 current and former executives and members of the Sackler family, which owns the company.
The suit asserts that over the past decade the Sacklers controlled a deceptive sales campaign by Purdue aimed at getting more people on higher doses of opioids to boost profits.
Much of the specifics on the allegations against Purdue Pharma executives and Sackler family members are blacked out while the state works to release a less-redacted complaint.
The state claims that the Sacklers directed the company to hire hundreds more sales representatives to visit doctors “thousands more times,” in a bid to get more doctors to prescribe its painkiller.
The Sacklers also directed sales representatives to encourage doctors to prescribe more of the opioids at the highest doses, according to the complaint.
In addition, the suit contends, the Sacklers “studied unlawful tactics to keep patients on opioids longer and then ordered staff to use them.”
Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma has denied the allegations.
In a statement Saturday, the company called Massachusetts’ updated complaint “irresponsible and inaccurate,” adding that “Purdue and the individual defendants will aggressively defend against these misleading allegations.”
OxyContin has been the world’s top-selling opioid painkiller, generating billions of dollars for Purdue Pharma.