Another fighter just joined the legal war over the opioid epidemic.New Hampshire on Tuesday became the latest state to sue a pharmaceutical company over its alleged role in the opioid crisis. In a nearly 100-page complaint, the state’s attorneys accuse OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma of spending the last two decades and millions of dollars either denying or downplaying the risk of addiction.“Purdue knew that its long-standing and ongoing misrepresentation of the risks and benefits of opioids were not supported by or were contrary to the scientific evidence,” New Hampshire’s lawyers argue in the complaint, filed in Merrimack County Superior Court.The opioid crisis has hit New Hampshire, which President Donald Trump recently dubbed a “drug-infested den,” particularly hard. In 2015, the state had the second-highest rate of opioid-related overdoses in the nation, just behind West Virginia.“To defeat the epidemic, we must stop creating new users, and part of that is making sure these highly addictive and dangerous drugs are marketed truthfully and without deception and in such a way as not to minimize addiction risks or overstate benefits to patients,” New Hampshire Deputy Attorney General Ann Rice said in a statement.
This isn’t the first time that Purdue has been slapped with a lawsuit over its opioid marketing practices. In 2007, the company had to pay $600 million in settlements to 26 states and the District of Columbia over its “misbranding” of OxyContin. State attorneys for New Hampshire, which wasn’t among the states that settled, say that the company has yet to adequately change its marketing.Purdue said in a statement provided to VICE News:
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Several places have already sued major drugmakers and distributors for their roles in the opioid crisis. Cities and counties in California, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Illinois, and Oregon have all filed lawsuits, as have the states of Mississippi, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Missouri. In April, the Cherokee Nation also sued opioid distributors over its drug crisis, the first such case brought in tribal court.Of those lawsuits, at least Oklahoma, Ohio, an Illinois county, a New York county, and the Washington state city of Everett have specifically sued Purdue. The drugmaker also settled a similar lawsuit against Kentucky in 2016 for $24 million, without admission of any wrongdoing.Still more lawsuits may be on the way. In June, at least 20 state attorneys general, not including Ohio, announced that they were investigating pharmaceutical companies over the opioid crisis.While we vigorously deny the allegations, we share New Hampshire officials’ concerns about the opioid crisis, and we are committed to working collaboratively to find solutions. OxyContin accounts for less than 2 percent of the opioid analgesic prescription market nationally, but we are an industry leader in the development of abuse-deterrent technology, advocating for the use of prescription drug monitoring programs and supporting access to Naloxone — all important components for combating the opioid crisis.