The Opioid Crisis: Publicis Health Reaches Historic Agreement with Courts

2024-02-01 20:39:10

Published on: 02/01/2024 – 9:39 p.m. Modified on: 02/01/2024 – 10:57 p.m.

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It is the first advertising agency to reach an agreement with the courts for its role in the opioid crisis, Letitia James’ office said in a press release.

California is to receive the largest amount ($34 million), ahead of Florida ($24.10 million) and Texas ($21.59 million). New York State is to get nearly 19 million.

“For a decade, Publicis helped opioid manufacturers like Purdue Pharma convince doctors to overprescribe opioids, directly fueling the opioid crisis and causing the disappearance of populations across the country,” noted Letitia James, quoted in the press release.

She believes that Publicis “developed predatory and deceptive marketing strategies for Purdue Pharma in order to increase prescriptions and sales of opiates.”

The opioid crisis in the United States © John SAEKI / AFP/Archives

According to her, the advertising agency created flyers describing OxyContin as a treatment “safe and incapable of causing abuse.”

More than 700,000 dead

The Purdue laboratory produces the pain medication OxyContin, the overprescription of which is generally considered to be the trigger of the opioid crisis in the United States.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), more than 700,000 people died between 1999 and 2022 from an overdose linked to taking opiates, obtained on prescription or illegally.

Undated photo released on July 8, 2021 by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of 40 mg OxyCotin tablets © Handout / US Drug Enforcement Administration/AFP/Archives

Publicis Health subsequently indicated, in a press release, that the activities concerned had been carried out by the Rosetta agency, purchased in 2011 and closed ten years ago.

“This settlement agreement allows us to close three years of discussion, and concludes with a net payment of 148 million euros,” she added, affirming that it did not represent an acknowledgment of fault or responsibility .

“We will defend ourselves, if necessary, once morest any dispute that this agreement fails to resolve,” assured Publicis Health.

The agency also asserted that the work performed by Rosetta “on behalf of pharmaceutical companies and covered by this settlement has always been fully compliant with the law.”

Targeted by an avalanche of lawsuits, the Purdue laboratory declared bankruptcy in 2019 and has since negotiated a plan, the latest version of which provides for its closure by 2024 in the United States for the benefit of a new entity and the payment of at least $5.5 billion over 18 years.

Targeted by an avalanche of lawsuits, the Purdue laboratory declared bankruptcy in 2019 and has since been negotiating a plan, the latest version of which provides for its closure by 2024 in the United States for the benefit of a new entity © Drew Angerer / Getty /AFP/Archives

But the US Supreme Court was asked to approve or cancel the compensation agreement. A hearing was held in December 2023.

The consulting firm McKinsey agreed in 2021 to pay $573 million to settle legal proceedings launched once morest it for contributing to the opioid crisis.

Large drug distributors like CVS, Walgreens and Walmart have also been sued.

The prosecutor’s office says it has recovered more than $2.7 billion from prosecutions since 2019.

He also announced a second agreement on Thursday: the Hikma Pharmaceuticals laboratory, headquartered in the United Kingdom, will pay $150 million to several American states for its role in the opioid crisis.

“Between 2006 and 2021, Hikma failed to monitor or report suspicious orders for opiates from potentially illegal distributors,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The group specified in its own press release that this agreement in principle resolved “the vast majority of the proceedings” launched once morest it in the United States, and that it did not represent an admission of guilt or responsibility.

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