Opioid marketing firm settles suit with states for $350 million

(CN) —  A nationwide group of state attorneys general announced on Thursday a settlement with the global healthcare marketing firm Publicis Health, which will now pay $350 million to resolve a civil lawsuit brought against the firm for its promotion of opioid drugs for pharmaceutical companies.

The action against Publicis Health was led by a group of 10 states’ attorneys general including Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell whose office filed the original complaint in Massachusetts state court in 2021. Those states were joined in the multistate settlement by the attorneys general from all states, territories, and the District of Columbia.

“For years, Publicis Health’s marketing schemes helped fuel the nationwide opioid crisis, which has shattered some of our most vulnerable communities, while creating significant financial strain on our state systems,” Campbell said in a statement released Thursday. “I am proud of my team’s national leadership in securing this settlement, which will not only bolster accountability and transparency for this ongoing crisis but will also provide millions of dollars for much needed treatment and services to support individuals and families across Massachusetts.”

Publicis Health is a global marketing company headquartered in New York and is owned by parent company Publicis Groupe S.A., a French marketing and public relations conglomerate. Publicis Groupe had revenues of more than $11 billion in 2020, according to Massachusetts in its 2021 complaint.

From 2010 until 2019, the commonwealth said, “Publicis worked with opioid companies, particularly Purdue Pharma, to increase sales of dangerous opioids like OxyContin, including in Massachusetts, in ways that increased the risk to patients and the public of opioid use disorder, overdose, and death. Publicis devised and deployed unfair and deceptive marketing campaigns designed to push doctors to prescribe opioids to more patients, in higher doses, and for longer periods of time.”

Publicis Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Courthouse News Service Thursday.

Under the settlement agreement submitted as a final judgment that must be approved by the court, the states agreed to drop their suit and Publicis Health agreed to end any current opioid marketing and will not accept future engagements relating to the marketing, promotion, advertising, sale, prescribing or use of any opioid or opioid-based controlled substances.

The opioid crisis nationwide has affected nearly every community in every state, resulting in untold numbers of overdose deaths, disrupting families and communities. In Massachusetts, for example, Campbell said in Thursday’s statement, more than 20,000 residents in the state have died from opioid-related overdoses over the past two decades.

“These deaths — and the impacts on thousands who have struggled with opioid addiction — have created considerable costs for our health care, child welfare and criminal justice systems,” Campbell said. “More significant than the dollars and cents in damage to our state, the opioid crisis has harmed communities, damaged relationships and torn families apart.”

Under the settlement released Thursday, Publicis Health’s payment will be divided among the states, territories and the District of Columbia, ranging from $572,000 for North Dakota to $34 million in California.

According to the attorneys general in their settlement agreement, the payment will be used by the states “to remediate the harms caused to the Settling States and their residents by the opioid epidemic.” In Massachusetts, for example, the money will be used for state’s Opioid Recovery and Remediation Fund to provide support for opioid use disorder prevention, treatment, recovery and harm reduction efforts throughout the state.

In addition to the cash payment to the states, the agreement calls for the company to disclose to participating states thousands of internal documents relating to its work for opioid companies that participating states can use — at Publicis Health’s expense — to create a searchable public website.

Follow @@roxalaird16

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit