More than 500 cities, counties and Native American tribes sued eight members of the billionaire Sacker family, who own Purdue Pharma, in the Southern District of New York, accusing them of the opioid epidemic worrying the nation.
The federal lawsuit accused them of purposely misleading the public about the dependency factor of their prescription opioids, and paying no heed to doctors who were accused of wrongfully prescribing high doses of opioids or diverting the supply to the black market. For a long time, Purdue Pharma had faced charges for negligently handling and fraudulent marketing of OxyContin; it pleaded guilty for misbranding the blockbuster painkiller and paid $600 million in 2007, as fine for criminal charges of misbranding OxyContin. However, lawsuits continue to be filed alleging that the company took little or no effort to change anything since then.
The lawsuit includes Richard Sackler, Jonathan Sackler- sons of late Purdue owner, Raymond Sackler; Beverly Sackler- Raymond's widow; David Sackler- Raymond's grandson; Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, Kathe Sackler, and Mortimer David Alfons Sackler - children of another founding member, Mortimer Sackler; Theresa Sackler- widow of Mortimer Sr., as defendants. These same people were also named as co-defendants in a lawsuit brought by the Massachusetts Attorney General. Responding to the lawsuit, Purdue gave out its usual defense statement that this complaint was part of the deliberate effort to single out Purdue and blame it for the entire opioid crisis in the U.S. The opioid addiction has led to 60,000 overdose deaths in 2017 alone, with more than 17,000 linked to prescription opioids.
