A Big Pharma marketing company that also funds media and health service ranking groups NewsGuard and HealthGuard has been sued for helping to push opioids through doctors.
In a Superior Court filing, the state of Massachusetts v. Publicis Health LLC alleges that the marketing schemes Publicis created “made the opioid crisis more devastating.”
“From 2010 until 2019, Publicis worked with opioid companies, particularly Purdue Pharma, to increase sales of dangerous opioids like OxyContin, including in Massachusetts, in ways that increased the risk to patients and the public of opioid use disorder, overdose and death,” the suit says.
Publicis did this through “unfair and deceptive marketing campaigns designed to push doctors to prescribe opioids to more patients in higher doses and for longer periods of time,” the suit adds, and by doing this, Publicis created a dangerous and expensive public nuisance in the state. In all, the 68-page document outlines the state’s allegations, claiming Publicis caused the state and its citizens to suffer billions of dollars in injuries, deaths and financial losses.
The state is asking for relief in the form of monetary compensation and other penalties, including paying “full and complete restitution to every person who has suffered any ascertainable loss by reason of its unlawful conduct.”
SOURCES:
Reuters May 6, 2021
Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Publicis Health LLC