Missouri attorney general sues opioid manufacturers

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley field suit yesterday against three opioid manufacturers.

The suit alleges Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma LP, Malvern, Pennsylvania-based Endo Health Solutions and Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals fraudulently misrepresented the risks associated with the drugs they manufacture and sell, according to a news release.

Specifically, the pharmaceutical firms deliberately misrepresented the addictive side effects of opioids, resulting in thousands of Missourians being prescribed the drugs unnecessarily, according to Hawley’s office.

“Our state faces an urgent public health crisis brought on by fraud. These companies have profited from the suffering of Missourians,” Hawley said in the release. “Today, we begin to fight to put an end to this crisis as we fight for the thousands of lives endangered and lost to the opioid epidemic.”

More than 33,000 people died of opioid overdose in the United States in 2015, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s more than any other year on record.