BOSTON (Legal Newsline) — Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced June 12 that she is filing a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma LP and Purdue Pharma Inc. (Purdue) over allegations of misleading consumers and prescribers about opioid addiction and health risks.
“The opioid epidemic is killing five people every day in Massachusetts,” Healey said in a statement. “Purdue Pharma and its executives built a multibillion dollar business based on deception and addiction. The more drugs they sold, the more money they made, and the more people in Massachusetts suffered and died. These defendants must be held accountable for their role in the opioid epidemic that has ravaged our state and claimed so many lives.”
The defendants in the case are Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma Inc. and Purdue Pharma LP, current and former Purdue CEOs Craig Landau, John Stewart and Mark Timney and current and former members of Purdue Pharma board of directors Richard Sackler, Theresa Sackler, Kathe Sackler, Jonathan Sackler, Mortimer D.A. Sackler, Beverly Sackler, David Sackler, Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, Peter Boer, Paulo Costa, Cecil Pickett, Ralph Synderman and Judy Lewent.
Handling the case for Massachusetts are Health Care Division chief Eric Gold and False Claims Division chief Gillian Feiner, assistant attorneys general Sandy Alexander, Stephen Vogel, Jeffrey Walker, Jenny Wojewoda and Michael Wong, legal analyst Julia Walsh and attorney Matthew Lashof-Sullivan.