In one of his last actions as Connecticut attorney general, George Jepsen announced Thursday afternoon that his office would be filing another lawsuit against Big Pharma. This one, though, targets only Stamford-based Purdue Pharma and names 16 current and past top officials, including board members and former CEOs, as defendants.

The lawsuit, to be filed in Hartford Superior Court, claims the company designed, financed and wages an aggressive campaign to mislead doctors and patients of the addictions associated with opioids. The 30-page lawsuit says Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, “misinformed patients and doctors into prescribing, and patients into taking, higher and more dangerous doses” and that the company “convinced doctors to prescribe longer-duration opioid prescriptions and [for] patients to stay on Purdue's drugs for longer and more harmful periods of time.”

The lawsuit lays out an alleged elaborate scheme whereby Purdue Pharma sales representatives would mislead health providers about the company's products.

Those sales representatives, the lawsuit alleges, would, among other things, falsely tell prescribers that OxyContin was more difficult to abuse intravenously than generic oxycodine.

The lawsuit said money was the underlying factor for why Purdue Pharma allegedly falsely marketed its products.

“The defendants trained Purdue's sales representatives that increasing a patient's dose was a key move when making sales. For patients, taking higher doses of opioids increases the risk of addiction and death, but for the defendants, higher doses means higher profits,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit continues: “From the top, Purdue's leaders pushed employees to get more patients on opioids, at higher doses, for longer periods of time. The defendants awarded bonuses and prizes to sales representatives who generated the most opioid prescriptions.” In addition to OxyContin, Purdue also manufactures two other opioid medications: Hysingla and Butrans.

In a statement, Jepsen, who will leave office in three weeks, wrote that the drug company “has not demonstrated to me that it is serious about addressing the states' very real allegations of misconduct and coming to a meaningful settlement. It is my hope that, in filing this lawsuit at this time, Connecticut can assist in the collective effort to hold this company and responsible individuals accountable.”

In a statement emailed to the Connecticut Law Tribune from Purdue Pharma's media department Thursday, the company said: “We share the state's concern about the opioid crisis. While Purdue Pharma's opioid medicines account for less than 2 [percent] of total prescriptions, we will continue to work collaboratively with the state toward bringing meaningful solutions to address this public health challenge.”

The company's statement continues: “We vigorously deny the state's allegations. The state claims Purdue acted improperly by communicating with prescribers about scientific and medical information that the FDA [Federal Drug Administration] has expressly considered and continues to approve. We believe it is inappropriate for the state to substitute its judgment for the judgment of the regulatory, scientific and medical experts at FDA. We look forward to the opportunity to present our substantial defenses.”

The lawsuit alleges four counts of violations of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act. It seeks damages, civil penalties and restitution as well as permanent injunctive relief.

According to the Attorney General's Office, 1,038 people died of accidental drug overdoses in 2017 with the vast majority being from opioid-related overdoses. The Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has projected that 1,030 people will die of overdoses in 2018. The estimated economic cost of the opioid epidemic in Connecticut, according to the Attorney General's Office, was $10.27 billion.

As of Thursday afternoon, Purdue Pharma had not assigned attorneys to represent it in the latest lawsuit.

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