The family of a Philadelphia man who died of an overdose two years ago filed suit against Cephalon Inc. on Monday, arguing that the drugmaker’s aggressive marketing of a powerful painkiller – the fentanyl lollipop Actiq — for conditions it was not approved to treat led to his addiction.
The suit against Cephalon and Teva Pharmaceuticals, which acquired it in 2011, is intended to target manufacturers for their role in an epidemic that has resulted in more than 165,000 deaths since 1999. Government regulators have acted against drugmakers’ marketing tactics, but legal experts said the strategy was uncommon for a civil case brought by an estate, and could not think of any similar action that had succeeded.
