Maker of Prescription Opioid OxyContin is Being Sued

Montana Attorney General Tim Fox is upset and has announced he will file a consumer protection lawsuit against Purdue Pharma LLC.

The reason, he says is because Purdue Pharma LLC, uses deceptive marketing practices involving its prescription opioids, including OxyContin.

“Pharmaceutical companies that knowingly and deceptively harm consumers must be held accountable,” said Attorney General Fox. “As our investigation revealed and our complaint alleges, for years, Purdue knew the damage caused by OxyContin, and rather than scale back or eliminate distribution of the drug, it ramped-up deceptive marketing tactics to present the drug as ‘safe.’ Purdue manipulates doctors, lies to consumers, and its actions contributed to thousands of deaths across the country.”

The violations which Attorney General Fox claims in the suit include:

·         Misrepresenting the likelihood that long-term use of its drug would lead to addiction;

·         Falsely claiming that use of OxyContin would improve overall health quality, and failing to disclose the harmful side effects caused by long-term opioid use;

·         Falsely claiming long-term opioid use is safe and effective pain treatment, even though Purdue had no evidence to prove it;

·         Telling prescribers that OxyContin works for 12 hours, even though Purdue knew that it did not for many patients, requiring frequent increases in dosage, thus increasing the likelihood of addiction;

·         Claiming that its new generation of abuse-deterrence opioids were safer and would prevent abuse and diversion, when Purdue knew that the drugs were still readily abused;

·         And falsely claiming that opioids are safer than alternative, non-narcotic treatment.

In year 2000, more than 700 people in Montana died from opioid overdose. Between 2011 and 2013, more than 7,000 Montanans went to the Hospital because of a prescription drug overdose.

Dominick