The district attorneys general of Tennessee’s Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and 10th Judicial Districts have jointly filed a lawsuit against prescription opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma L.P. and its related companies, along with Mallinckrodt LLC, Endo Health Solutions Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.
The district attorneys general of Tennessee’s Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and 10th Judicial Districts have jointly filed a lawsuit against prescription opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma L.P. and its related companies, along with Mallinckrodt LLC, Endo Health Solutions Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.
Filed in Campbell County Circuit Court in Jacksboro on Friday, additional defendants named in the filing include the now-dissolved Tennessee Pain Institute (TPI), two former TPI employees and a convicted drug dealer, according to a news release from the district attorneys general.
The district attorneys general are Charme Allen, Dave Clark, Jared Effler, Russell Johnson and Stephen Crump, respectively.
“The Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), which includes the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and 10th Judicial Districts of Tennessee, is one of the hardest-hit areas in the opioid epidemic that is plaguing the nation,” stated Effler, district attorney general for the Eighth Judicial District. “The 15 counties within these five judicial districts border the Interstate 75 corridor, which has long been known as a major path of transportation for the illegal opioid market. Two of these counties — Campbell County and Claiborne County — have the third- and sixth-highest per capita opioid prescription rates for a U.S. county, respectively.
“In addition to having a terrible effect on the lives of a disproportionate number of East Tennesseans, opioid addiction places an overwhelming strain on our region’s finances,” Effler stated in the release. “This has led to increased costs for each of our counties’ policing, health care, rehabilitation, housing and criminal justice systems. We believe there is a direct correlation between East Tennessee’s opioid epidemic and the actions of these opioid manufacturers, and it is our intent to hold them accountable for the damage they have inflicted upon our region.”
The lawsuit alleges that:
• The manufacturer defendants directed their opioids to the 15 East Tennessee counties of the judicial districts listed, while the criminal defendants participated in the illegal opioid drug marketalong the I-75 corridor;
• Purdue Pharma embarked on a fraudulent campaign to convince physicians that OxyContin created minimal risk of addiction among users;
• “As Purdue’s marketing efforts demonstrated success in the form of rapid increases in opioid prescriptions, Mallinckrodt, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and other opioid manufacturers joined Purdue in its fraudulent scheme;
“Purdue’s efforts and those of the other defendants to mislead doctors and the public about the need for, and addictive nature of, opioid drugs led to an opioid epidemic; and
• “The manufacturer defendants knew their products were being diverted to the illegal drug market, but did nothing to stop it — choosing profit over people,” the release stated.
“The opioid epidemic that is currently ravaging Tennessee, Appalachia and the entire nation did not appear overnight,” stated J. Gerard Stranch, IV of Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings, PLLC, the Nashville, Tenn.-based law firm that filed the lawsuit. “Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers have purposely misled the medical community and the general public about the need for opioids and their addictive nature, and spent years engaged in an aggressive and fraudulent scheme to push their products into a market of unsuspecting patients and physicians. The resulting opioid epidemic has caused incredible suffering for those who become or are born addicted to opioids, and it is costing millions of dollars to local governments forced to deal with the aftermath.”
More information is available at the website, www.tnbabydoe.com.