NEW YORK, Aug. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time ever, victims of the addictive painkiller OxyContin will get their day in court against the New York-based Purdue Pharma, L.P., which manufactures the drug.
Today, one thousand of these victims -- "accidental addicts" -- filed suit in the Richmond County Courthouse in Staten Island, New York. These are 1,000 separate lawsuits, not a class action.
OxyContin is an opium-based prescription drug that kills pain by producing morphine-like effects. Despite clear evidence that OxyContin is as addictive as any other opiate, the drug has continued to be widely marketed and sold by Purdue Pharma as safer and more effective than alternative pain medications. As a result, thousands of people throughout the United States have become addicted and many have died.
This is not the first time Purdue has faced legal problems concerning OxyContin. In June of this year, an appellate court upheld a federal court decision that Purdue had lied to the US Patent Office to secure its patent for OxyContin. It is, however, the first time that Purdue Pharma will face any real legal consequences for the hundreds of legitimate pain patients who unknowingly became addicted to OxyContin.
Many of the accidental addicts were forced to enter rehabilitation clinics where methadone is the only reliable course of treatment for their addiction. Until now, the company has succeeded in eluding these personal injury lawsuits through technical challenges.
"Past efforts to bring Purdue to justice have failed because the extremely diverse effects of the drug made it legally difficult to obtain class action certification," said Tor Hoerman, a lawyer at the firm SimmonsCooper LLC, which represents the 1,000 accidental addicts.
"We took a different route and prevailed," said Mr. Hoerman. "The court decided that, in lieu of class action, a statewide consolidation of the cases was in order. That means 1,000 separate claims by 1,000 people, and each one tried separately in the same court.
"For two years Purdue has avoided responsibility for this horrible situation. Now the numbers have finally caught up to them," added Mr. Hoerman.
A panel of New York judges made the watershed decision to consolidate the OxyContin cases. The plaintiffs are located throughout the United States and include many victims in the New York area, including 10 in Staten Island.
Along with SimmonsCooper, the 1,000 victims are represented by the Manhattan law firm Hanly Conroy Bierstein & Sheridan LLP and Russo, Scamadella & D'Amato in Staten Island.
The cases were filed in New York because that is where Purdue Pharma, L.P. is based.
"They can't pretend we've chosen an unfair jurisdiction," said Mr. Hoerman. "We've brought this battle to their home turf, and that is where we're going to win it."
SimmonsCooper LLC is one of the nation's leading law firms. It represents clients in cases involving asbestos, pharmaceuticals, tobacco, securities fraud, business-to-business disputes, and a variety of other areas. SimmonsCooper has offices in East Alton, Illinois, Chicago, and New York.
SimmonsCooper LLCCONTACT: Cindy Flack of SimmonsCooper LLC, +1-618-259-2222,CFlack@simmonscooper.com; or Larry Smith of Levick Strategic CommunicationsLLC, +1-201-854-3288, LSmith@Levick.com, for SimmonsCooper LLC
