((Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer https://bit.ly/rtrsauto)) by Nate Raymond
A division of French advertising company Publicis Groupe SA PUBP.PA and pharmaceutical company Hikma Pharmaceuticals HIK.L have reached separate settlements collectively worth $500 million to resolve allegations they helped fuel the he deadly opioid epidemic in the United States.
The settlements announced Thursday by U.S. state attorneys general add to the more than $50 billion that drugmakers, distributors, pharmacy operators and consultants have agreed to pay to resolve lawsuits and investigations into their role in the addiction crisis.
Publicis Health, a subsidiary of Publicis Groupe, has agreed to pay $350 million to respond to allegations from all U.S. states and territories that it helped Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, develop marketing strategies for boosting sales of its prescription opioid painkiller.
Massachusetts, which sued Publicis in 2021, alleging it collected more than $50 million to help Purdue get doctors to prescribe its opioids to more patients, for longer periods and in doses higher, helped lead the multistate investigation.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a statement that the settlement would “strengthen accountability and transparency in this ongoing crisis” and provide $8 million that the state could use to fund treatments and services.
Publicis has denied wrongdoing and called the Massachusetts case an unprecedented attempt to sue an advertising agency over a manufacturer’s marketing of its products. But a state court judge refused to dismiss the case in October 2021.
London-listed Hikma separately reached a tentative agreement to resolve state and local complaints for $150 million, including $115 million in cash and $35 million worth of drug addiction treatment drugs. opioids, Mr. Campbell’s office said.
The agreement resolves complaints that the generic drugmaker, between 2006 and 2021, failed to monitor suspicious orders for opioids from potentially illegal distributors.
The company has been the subject of more than 900 lawsuits related to the outbreak, according to a complaint Hikma filed in September against an insurer.
States that do not accept addiction treatment drugs as part of the settlement will receive money instead, according to Mr. Campbell’s office.
In December, the U.S. Supreme Court considered an appeal filed by President Joe Biden’s administration against Purdue Pharma’s multibillion-dollar bankruptcy settlement, which ends claims filed in the against the drug manufacturer. A decision is expected in June.