In rare public comments on behalf of the family that controls Purdue Pharma, lawyer Mary Jo White said why the family believed the litigation against them and their company is legally dubious, factually misleading and politically motivated.
Mary Jo White of Debevoise & Plimpton represents four members of the family that controls Purdue Pharma, the company that developed and marketed the painkiller OxyContin. Purdue, along with other opioid makers, wholesalers and distributors, is facing more than 2,000 suits by state, city and county officials who blame prescription opiates for sparking an unprecedented epidemic of drug abuse.
The Sackler family has not previously said it wants to settle the litigation globally, said Joe Rice of Motley Rice, co-lead counsel in multidistrict litigation consolidating about 1,500 opioid suits in federal court in Cleveland."It appears Ms. White has now made public the willingness to settle," he said in an email."The issue is who are 'they,' what are they willing to settle, how, when, and for what consideration.
White contends that state politicians and plaintiffs' lawyers working for contingency fees have contorted the law on public nuisance, negligence and fraud in an attempt to hang liability on companies that sold government-approved products under tight federal regulation. Plaintiffs' demands for billions of dollars to abate the opioid crisis, for example, are based on a theory that prescription opioids constitute a public nuisance.
Polster is one of several judges to have denied preliminary defense motions to toss plaintiffs' cases. One state court judge in Connecticut has sided with defendants, holding that local government officials could not specifically tie their costs to the actions of prescription drug defendants. No judges have yet ruled on individual defendants' motions to dismiss.
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