Three more states filed lawsuits Monday against the Purdue Pharma, maker of the opioid drug often blamed for igniting the drug crisis.
California, Hawaii, Maine, and the District of Columbia all filed lawsuits against the increasingly beleaguered pharmaceutical firm, the Associated Press reports. They join myriad municipalities suing for alleged harms brought about Purdue's willful negligence and malfeasance in the name of profit.
The new states add to pre-existing suits from states including New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland, Kansas, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Purdue settled a suit brought by the state of Oklahoma in March to the tune of $270 million; these suits have driven the firm to the point of considering bankruptcy, reporting indicates.
Individual states have also targeted the Sackler family, which owns Purdue, with lawsuits alleging personal liability for the drug crisis. Maine's lawsuit names four members of the family individually, all of whom have previously served on the company's board.
The states alleged in their lawsuits that Purdue was aware that OxyContin was widely abused as far back as 1997, but downplayed the risk of addictiveness. The pill contains a high-dose of oxycodone, meant to be released slowly, but which was for many years crushed up by users as a means to a fast, incredibly potent opioid high.
Widespread prescribing of OxyContin has been plausibly linked to steadily rising prescription opioid deaths, and its tamper-proof reformulation in 2010 has been tied to an explosion in heroin overdose deaths caused by users presumably switching to the illicit market.
In the latest wave of lawsuits, states focus on the claim that Purdue routinely lobbied doctors, pushing for higher levels of prescribing to more patients. (The company stopped marketing OxyContin to doctors last year.)
"Our complaint alleges that their unrelenting sales visits to doctors and deceptive practices led to a marked increase in opioid prescriptions, and a corresponding increase in the number of Mainers suffering from opioid use disorder," Maine Attorney General Aaron M. Frey said.
For its part, the embattled firm denied the allegations in a Monday statement.
"Such allegations demand clear evidence linking the conduct alleged to the harm described," a Purdue spokesman said. "But we believe the state fails to show such causation and offers little evidence to support its sweeping legal claims."