Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine (R) filed a lawsuit Wednesday against five pharmaceutical companies, saying that by making users believe their opioid products were not addictive, they helped start the state's opioid epidemic.
The suit targets Purdue Pharma, Endo Health Solutions, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and its subsidiary Cephalon, Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and Allergan. The lawsuit alleges that the companies violated Ohio's Consumer Sales Practices Act and created a "public nuisance by disseminating false and misleading statements about the risks and benefits of opioids." In a statement, DeWine said the state believes evidence will show that "these companies got thousands and thousands of Ohioans — our friends, our family members, our coworkers, our kids — addicted to opioid pain medications, which has all too often led to use of the cheaper alternatives of heroin and synthetic opioids. These drug manufacturers led prescribers to believe that opioids were not addictive, that addiction was an easy thing to overcome, or that addiction could actually be treated by taking even more opioids."
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