BOSTON (AP) – Massachusetts’ top prosecutor has sued a global marketing company for its role in fueling the opioid epidemic.
State Attorney General Maura Healey in the suit filed Thursday said Publicis Health designed and deployed unfair and deceptive marketing schemes to help Purdue Pharma sell OxyContin, a powerful and addictive prescription painkiller.
She alleges the New York-based firm was paid more than $50 million to develop marketing strategies to get doctors to prescribe Purdue Pharma’s opioids to more patients, in higher doses and for longer periods of time while the drug epidemic was raging.
An email request for comment was left with Publicis on Thursday.
From The Associated Press