Purdue Pharma has agreed to a $270 million settlement with Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter that will conclude legislation brought by the state against the Stamford-based pharmaceutical company over the opioid crisis.
The settlement comes one day after the Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Purdue Pharma to delay the state”™s May trial against the company. The state accused of exacerbating the opioid epidemic by intentionally downplaying the addiction risk of their products while exaggerating the benefits.
Hunter filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and a dozen other drug manufacturers in June 2017, charging them with executing “massive and unprecedented marketing campaigns through which they misrepresented the risks of addiction from their opioids and touted unsubstantiated benefits.” Hunter said that more Oklahoma residents died from opioid-related deaths over the past decade than from vehicle crashes in the state. The May trial against the other drug companies is scheduled to proceed.
“We believe these companies are culpable for the tragic, heartbreaking number of Oklahomans who have become addicted or who have died as a result of the opioid epidemic in our state,” Hunter said after filing the 2017 lawsuit.
