Purdue Pharma facing bigger lawsuit
Tong to expand OxyContin case
STAMFORD — Connecticut Attorney General William Tong plans to file later this month an expanded lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and its owners, whom the state accuses of fueling the opioid crisis with deceptive and aggressive marketing of pain drugs such as OxyContin. The complaint was filed last December by Tong’s predecessor and fellow Democrat, George Jepsen, but Tong has made the litigation a top priority since being sworn in last January. Connecticut comprises one of more than 30 states to sue Purdue and stands with Massachusetts and New York as the states that have also named, as defendants, eight members of the Sackler family who own the company and, until recently, served on the company’s board.
“It’s going bigger and wider and deeper, and we’re going to be focusing on more specific acts of misconduct by the company and its officers, directors and shareholders, who are named as defendants,” Tong said in an interview Thursday, after announcing his plan earlier in the day in an open letter, which recapped his first 100 days in office. “There will be more specifics, more details and also a deeper dive on not just the depth of the misconduct with respect to opioid sales and pushing addiction, but also the depth of the financial misconduct.”
Purdue and the Sacklers have denied the lawsuit’s allegations.
“The complaint is part of a continuing effort to try these cases in the court of public opinion rather than the justice system,” Purdue said, in a statement Thursday. “Such allegations demand clear evidence linking the conduct alleged to the harm described, but we believe the state fails to show such causation and offers little evidence to support its sweeping legal claims.”
Connecticut’s amended litigation —which would remain in the state’s superior court, but could include additional defendants — would follow recently updated versions of Massachusetts’ and New York’s complaints.
Since an un-redacted version was filed in January, Massachusetts’ complaint has garnered particular attention, largely due to the unprecedented amount of detail it gives about the Sacklers’ control of Purdue. Much of the information draws from internal company documents.
Tong said Massachusetts’ and New York’s moves did not influence his decisionmaking.
“The process of amending the complaint and expanding it is a normal process of litigation,” he said. “Purdue is part of our role as a national leader in taking on the addiction industry.”
More than 1,000 municipal, county and state lawsuits have been filed against Purdue in the past few years. Most of the local governments’ complaints have been consolidated in a “multidistrict litigation” process in a federal court in Cleveland. The first MDL trial is scheduled to start in October.
Trial, settlement on the table
In its largest payout of the past 10 years, Purdue agreed last month to a $270 million settlement of Oklahoma’s lawsuit. About $200 million — including $75 million donated by the Sacklers — will help establish the National Center for Addiction Studies and Treatment at Oklahoma State University’s campus in Tulsa.
Tong did not rule out a settlement of Connecticut’s complaint, but he said the case was more likely to go trial.
“We’re full-steam ahead; no one is playing for a settlement,” Tong said. “We are pushing as hard as we can to hold wrongdoers accountable, to the fullest extent of the law.”
At the same time, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York are members of a joint investigation by more than 40 states that focuses on Purdue and several other pharmaceutical firms. Like the litigation, the multistate inquiry could end with a settlement.
As it grapples with the legal pressure, Purdue has undergone sweeping changes in the past year and a half. At the beginning of this year, the last of the Sacklers named in the lawsuits left the company’s board. Seven of the eight — Mortimer D.A. Sackler, Kathe Sackler, Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, Theresa Sackler, Richard Sackler, Jonathan Sackler and Beverly Sackler — took seats on the board in the early 1990s, according to the litigation. The eighth — David Sackler — joined in 2012.
Last year, the company laid off several hundred employees after it stopped the controversial opioid marketing to medical professionals and then disbanded its sales force.
More recently, the company has explored bankruptcy. Connecticut would still be in a “very strong position to take on” Purdue, if the firm pursued Chapter 11 proceedings, Tong said.
Meanwhile, a growing number of museums are distancing themselves from the family, which is also known for its prolific philanthropy.
In the past few weeks, New York’s Guggenheim museum and Britain’s Tate galleries and National Portrait Gallery have said that they would turn down new donations from the Sacklers.
Connecticut-based beneficiaries of the Sacklers include the University of Connecticut, Yale University, Greenwich Hospital and the Palace theater in Stamford. So far, those institutions have not cut ties with the family.