Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday his office is suing Purdue Pharma, maker of the opioid OxyContin, for violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
The civil action, filed in Travis County, alleged that the Connecticut-based pharmaceutical giant sold the “highly addictive” opioids through “aggressive and deceptive marketing efforts” by misleading doctors and consumers into believing these narcotics had a low risk of addiction and that they successfully treated long term pain.
“Purdue used false and deceptive practices to promote these products through a sophisticated marketing scheme aimed at consumers and healthcare providers alike,” stated Paxton during Tuesday’s press conference. “In the face of abundant evidence showing that the drug was dangerous and that long-term use could lead to addiction, Purdue saw fit to exchange destroyed lives for financial gain.”
According to the lawsuit, Purdue “realized over $35 billion in sales from OxyContin since it began marketing the drug in 1996.” It pointed out that, in 2015, Purdue’s owners, the Sackler family, landed on Forbes’ “Richest U.S. Families” list. Meanwhile, the petition alleged that from 1999 to 2015, Texas experienced a 3.5-fold increase in the state’s number of opioid related deaths.
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Sounds really similar to cigarettes. Agressively market something you know is addictive then act like you didn't know.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they just need a surgeon generals warning and then tax the sh!t out of them.
I bet tobacco kills more people than OxyContin. Just sayin'.
I bet so too 9:10
ReplyDeleteMost intelligent people know/knew that
Oxy. can be addictive when taken over
a long period of time.
So, now with all this "uproar" about
addiction from the drug, are Doctors
not going to prescribe the more potent
pain killers after a person has surgery?
Damn, I sure hope not! There's no need
for needless suffering and that's what i
think will be happening.
When a person cannot get surgery for relief
from pain, what are they to do ? I realize
that some people have should not be taking
the narcotics, but think Doctors would be
wise enough to know who they are after looking
at their MRI and other text results.