CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - The Latest on states filing claims against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma (all times local):
4:05 p.m.
The flurry of legal actions against the company that makes OxyContin is intensifying.
The Idaho Attorney General’s Office sent notices last week to Purdue Pharma and lawyers for the Sackler family, which owns the Connecticut-based drugmaker, that it intends to take legal action against them.
The letters were disclosed Thursday in response to a public records request made to the state by The Associated Press. They say Purdue had “ample opportunity” to reach a settlement.
The disclosure comes the same day that five other states announced lawsuits or administrative actions against the company, seeking to hold it accountable for an opioid crisis.
Now, all but three states have taken legal action against Purdue or indicated they plan to.
The company says states are using “stunningly overbroad legal theories” as they pursue the cases.
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1 p.m.
The company that makes OxyContin says it will defend itself against lawsuits trying to hold it responsible for a national opioid crisis, as five states announced new legal actions against the company.
Purdue Pharma said in a statement that the states cannot link the harm of opioids to the company and says the states have “invented stunningly overbroad legal theories” to try to do so.
With filings on Thursday from Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, West Virginia and Wisconsin, 45 states and about 2,000 local and tribal governments now have recent legal action against the Connecticut-based company.
Despite promises of a defense, a Purdue lawyer also said Thursday that the company is working “to try to reach some resolution that is in the best interests of the parties and the public health.”
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11 a.m.
Five state attorneys general have announced new lawsuits against the maker of OxyContin as they seek to hold the drug industry responsible for an opioid crisis.
Filings were announced Thursday by officials in Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, West Virginia and Wisconsin. With the suits, 45 states are now taking legal action against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, asserting that the company downplayed the addiction risks of its powerful prescription drug.
Several states are also other drugmakers or distributors.
Pennsylvania’s attorney general also announced a suit this week against Purdue, saying the company was not working in good faith on a settlement agreement. Purdue disputes that.
The company had a legal win this month when a North Dakota judge dismissed that state’s claim against the company.
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