Publicis Health will pay $350 million to settle charges by US states that its “predatory and deceptive marketing strategies” exacerbated the opioid epidemic, New York’s attorney general said Thursday.
Publicis Health, part of French advertising giant Publicis, worked with Purdue Pharma between 2010 and 2019 on marketing materials to promote OxyContin and other drugs, New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a news release.
He said the settlement was the first with an advertising agency for its role in the opioid epidemic.
“For a decade, Publicis has helped opioid manufacturers like Purdue Pharma convince doctors to overprescribe opioids, directly fueling the opioid crisis and wreaking havoc on communities nationwide,” James said.
Publicis said in a statement that the settlement “in no way constitutes an admission of wrongdoing or liability.”
Publicis Health produced pamphlets and brochures promoting OxyContin as “safe and not subject to abuse,” the New York news release said.
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Other “aggressive” marketing efforts included working with McKinsey consultants on a program to target doctors who prescribed the most OxyContin with calls promoting the drug, according to James.
The settlement distributes funds nationwide, with New York collecting $19.2 million of the total, James said.
Publicis described the opioid project as originating from Rosetta, a digital marketing company that the French company acquired in 2011 and closed 10 years ago.
Rosetta’s work on opioids used tools and language “expressly” approved by US health officials, Publicis said.
It involved communicating with healthcare providers, not patients, the company said.
“Rosetta’s role was limited to providing many of the standard advertising services that companies provide to their clients, for products that until now are prescribed to patients, covered by large private insurance companies, Medicare, and licensed by state-owned pharmaceutical companies,” the company said. Publicis.
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“We recognize the larger context in which this legitimate work took place. Fighting the opioid crisis in the United States requires collaboration,” the company said.
“We are committed to playing our part. That’s why we worked to reach this agreement, and why we’re also reaffirming our longstanding decision to reject any future opioid-related projects.”
Of the $350 million settlement, $343 million will go toward payments to U.S. states and territories and $7 million toward legal fees, Publicis said.
Since 1999, more than 800,000 people have died from opioid overdoses, including prescription and illegal opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Source: AFP