The B.C. government launched a class action against the estate of Purdue Pharma founder Raymond Sackler, claiming the company’s deceptive marketing and promotion of opioid-based painkillers have “caused a crisis of Opioid abuse, addiction, and death in Canada.”
Her Majesty the Queen in right of British Columbia filed a notice of civil claim in BC Supreme Court under the Class Proceedings Act on July 16. The proposed class includes all federal, provincial and territorial governments and agencies that have paid health-care, pharmaceutical and treatment costs related to opioids marketed by the Purdue group of companies since 1996.
“Purdue marketed and promoted Opioids in Canada as less addictive than was actually known to them and for conditions they knew the drugs were not effective in treating,” the claim states. “Raymond R. Sackler personally participated in the development, approval and implementation of Purdue Pharma USA’s aggressive and deceptive marketing campaigns.”
According to the claim, Sackler served as Purdue’s CEO and later on the company’s board until his death in 2017. Ten years earlier, Purdue Pharma USA pleaded guilty to charges of deceptive marketing of OxyContin, for which the company was fined $700 million. But the B.C. government claims that a “Corporate Integrity Agreement” after the guilty plea was tossed aside while “Sackler and others caused the Purdue Group of Companies to embark on an aggressive and deceptive campaign to increase the sales of Opioids in the United States and Canada.”
Purdue, which is not named as a defendant in the action, “developed and promoted a narrative” that addiction concerns for opioids were overblown, while spending millions on promotional budgets in both Canada and the United Sates. According to the lawsuit, Purdue gave Canadian doctors $2 million in 2016 “as part of its marketing efforts.”
Meanwhile, health officials have characterized opioid addiction as a “major public health crisis,” which the B.C. government lays at the feet of Purdue, alleging the company “created or assisted in the creation of an epidemic of addiction in British Columbia and throughout each and every province and territory.”
“As a result of Purdue’s conduct, Canadians have become addicted to Opioids,” the claim states. “More than 20,000 Canadians are estimated to have died of Opioid overdoses in the past two decades. These numbers continue to climb.”
The B.C. government seeks class certification, declarations that Purdue and Sackler violated the Competition Act and the Food and Drugs Act, and damages for health-care costs recovery, fraudulent misrepresentation, negligence and fraudulent concealment.
While Purdue has pleaded guilty to deceptive marketing charges in the U.S. in the past, the B.C. government’s latest allegations against Sackler have not been tested or proven in court, and the John Doe administrator of Sackler’s estate had not filed a response by press time.
