The Massachusetts Attorney General is targeting the Sackler family, owner of Purdue Pharma, and alleging they’re responsible for America’s opioid crisis which killed about 400,000 people.
Attorney General Maura Healey spoke with CBS This Morning and alleged the Sackler family hired “hundreds of workers to carry out their wishes,” motivating doctors to persuade patients to get “on opioids, at higher doses, for longer than ever before” as the Sackler family reaped the benefits of millions of dollars.
In Healey’s lawsuit, she names eight members of the Sackler family and holds them accountable for the thousands of deaths reported by the CDC between 1999-2017. The Democratic attorney general says the family also “micromanaged” a “deceptive sales campaign”
Healey also said the Purdue Pharma lawsuit paints the most accurate picture of how the opioid crisis began and the lack of accountability taken by the Sackler family.
“They don’t want to accept blame for this. They blame doctors, they blame prescribers and worst of all, they blame patients,” Healey said.
Lawyers for Purdue Pharma called the lawsuit a “rush to vilify.” There are many parts within the lawsuit that are redacted and attorneys for the pharmaceutical company said they would argue to keep it that way.
