Oxycontin maker Purdue have reached a US $270 m settlement to resolve a lawsuit accusing the drug company of fuelling an opioid abuse epidemic.
Oklahoma Attorney-General, Mike Hunter, alleged Purdue, Johnson & Johnson, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, engaged in deceptive marketing, playing down the risks of addiction associated with opioids.
Opioids, including prescription painkillers, heroin, and fentanyl, were involved in a record 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017 in the US, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The addiction crisis facing our state and nation is a clear and present danger,” Mr Hunter says, “Of the more than 3,000 Oklahomans admitted to hospitals last year for drug overdoses that they survived, 80 percent involved prescription opioids."