By Nate Raymond
BOSTON (Reuters) – A unit of French advertising company Publicis Groupe SA on Friday lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit by Massachusetts’ attorney general claiming it helped OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic.
Publicis Health had called Attorney General Maura Healey’s lawsuit an unprecedented attempt to sue an advertising agency over a manufacturer’s marketing of its products. It called her allegations conclusory and said she mischaracterized documents.
But Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Brian Davis in Boston concluded Healey’s claims against Publicis under the state’s public nuisance law and consumer protection statute were “non-speculative” and could move forward.
He pointed to allegations in Healey’s complaint, which was filed in May, that he said showed Publicis was not a bystander in developing opioid marketing from 2010 to 2019 but “played an integral part in developing marketing strategies.”
Davis said those marketing campaigns were designed to get doctors “to use more OxyContin, prescribe higher doses and prescribe it for longer periods of time for patients.”
Publicis did not respond to a request for comment. Its lawyer, David Anders of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, argued in court it was Purdue, not his client, that dictated the content of its painkiller marketing.
“No advertiser has ever been held responsible in these circumstances,” he said.
More than 3,300 lawsuits have been filed by state and local governments seeking to hold drug companies responsible for an epidemic the U.S. government says has led to 500,000 overdose deaths since 1999.
A bankruptcy judge in August approved a settlement by Purdue and its wealthy Sackler family owners of the claims against them that the company values at more than $10 billion.
Consulting company McKinsey & Co earlier this year agreed to pay $641 million to resolve claims by various state attorneys general that it helped Purdue and other drugmakers design marketing plans and boost sales of painkillers.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Richard Chang)
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