New York
CNN
—
For the primary time, an promoting firm that labored on Purdue Pharma’s OxyContin account has settled a lawsuit that accused it of falsely advertising and marketing opioids as protected.
Publicis, a French advertising and marketing firm, agreed to pay $350 million inside the subsequent two months and won’t tackle any extra opioid purchasers, in accordance with New York Lawyer Common Letitia James. She and Colorado Lawyer Common Phil Weiser led the settlement negotiations, which included a consortium of eight different states.
“For a decade, Publicis helped opioid producers like Purdue Pharma persuade docs to overprescribe opioids, immediately fueling the opioid disaster and inflicting the devastation of communities nationwide,” mentioned James in a statement. “No sum of money can compensate for lives misplaced and habit suffered, however with this settlement, Publicis will stop their unlawful conduct.”
Publicis from 2010 via 2019 labored with consultancy McKinsey to develop Purdue’s “Evolve to Excellence” marketing campaign, which marketed OxyContin to docs who had been most ceaselessly prescribing the opioid. For its alleged function within the opioid disaster, McKinsey in 2021 agreed to pay $573 million to states as a part of a number of settlements.
The “Evolve to Excellence” advertising and marketing scheme barraged docs with messages that falsely claimed OxyContin deterred habit and abuse and pushed physicians to extend sufferers’ doses – even when not medically applicable, James mentioned. Publicis created the ads, pamphlets and brochures for the marketing campaign.
The corporate, in a press release, mentioned it didn’t admit wrongdoing and defended its actions as lawful, a rivalry James disputes. However the firm mentioned it hopes the cost will assist the trouble to fight opioid habit.
“We acknowledge the broader context through which that lawful work passed off,” Publicis mentioned in a statement. “The battle towards the opioid disaster in the US requires collaboration throughout industries, lawmakers, and communities, and we’re dedicated to taking part in our half. That’s the reason we labored to achieve this settlement, and why we’re additionally reaffirming our long-standing resolution to show down any future opioid-related tasks.”
The corporate mentioned the division that did the work for Purdue, known as Rosetta, has been shut down for a decade.
Purdue Pharma first launched the opioid drug OxyContin within the Nineties and promoted it as non-addictive. The corporate has been accused of serving to to gas the opioid epidemic in the US, which is seen as a large public well being disaster. Between 1999 and 2020, greater than 564,000 individuals died from an opioid overdose, according to the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
The Sackler household, which managed Purdue, agreed to a bankruptcy deal in March 2023 that may have the household pay out between $5.5 billion to $6 billion over 18 years to assist battle the continuing opioid epidemic. Many of the cash would go to states, native governments and Native American tribes.
However the Biden administration sued to dam the deal, calling it an “unprecedented” association that may finally offer the Sackler family broad protection from opioid-related civil claims. In August 2023, the Supreme Courtroom blocked Purdue Pharma from going ahead with chapter proceedings, and it heard the case in December in contentious oral arguments.