Delaware News

AG Jennings announces $350 million multistate settlement with marketing firm Publicis over role in opioid epidemic

Consumer Protection | Department of Justice Press Releases | Fraud | Date Posted: Thursday, February 1, 2024


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Attorney General Kathy Jennings today announced a $350 million national settlement with Publicis Health to resolve investigations into the global marketing and communications firm’s role in the prescription opioid crisis. Delaware will receive over $1.5 million from the settlement to help address the opioid crisis. 

In agreeing to the terms of the settlement, Publicis recognized the harm its conduct caused, and the agreement will give Delaware’s communities hit hardest by the opioid crisis more financial support for treatment and recovery, building lasting infrastructure, and saving lives. The company will also disclose on a public website thousands of internal documents detailing its work for opioid companies like Purdue Pharma and will stop accepting client work related to opioid-based Schedule II or other Schedule II narcotics. 

“Publicis helped Big Pharma aggressively promote and sell opioids and profited off of thousands of Delawareans’ pain and suffering,” said Attorney General Kathy Jennings. “We can never bring back the lives that were lost in Big Pharma’s pursuit of profit, but settlements like this give us the resources to get help to those who are still grappling with the devastation that this epidemic has caused across our state.” 

Today’s filings describe how Publicis’ work contributed to the crisis by helping Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers market and sell opioids. Court documents detail how Publicis acted as Purdue’s agency of record for all its branded opioid drugs, including OxyContin, even developing sales tactics that relied on farming data from recordings of personal conversations between patients and providers. Publicis was also instrumental in Purdue’s decision to market OxyContin to providers on patient’s electronic health records.  

Thousands of Delawareans have died of overdose fatalities since 2000. These deaths—and the impacts on thousands who have struggled with opioid addiction—have created considerable costs for Delaware’s health care, child welfare, and criminal justice systems. More significant than the dollars and cents, the impact on opioid addition, substance use, and overdose deaths have torn families apart, damaged relationships, and devastated communities. 

Today’s filing is the latest action Attorney General Jennings has taken to combat the opioid crisis and to hold accountable those responsible for creating and fueling the crisis. 

To date, Attorney General Jennings has obtained settlements and other resolutions of the State’s opioid related-claims that are expected to result in nearly a quarter billion dollars being paid to address the opioid crisis in Delaware.  As with previous opioids-related settlements, Delaware’s share of the Publicis settlement will go to the State’s Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Fund and be distributed on the recommendations of an independent commission pursuant to bipartisan legislation supported by AG Jennings. Spending from the Fund is largely restricted to services that reduce or remediate the harms caused by opioids. 

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AG Jennings announces $350 million multistate settlement with marketing firm Publicis over role in opioid epidemic

Consumer Protection | Department of Justice Press Releases | Fraud | Date Posted: Thursday, February 1, 2024


Navy blue background featuring the Delaware state seal in the center

Attorney General Kathy Jennings today announced a $350 million national settlement with Publicis Health to resolve investigations into the global marketing and communications firm’s role in the prescription opioid crisis. Delaware will receive over $1.5 million from the settlement to help address the opioid crisis. 

In agreeing to the terms of the settlement, Publicis recognized the harm its conduct caused, and the agreement will give Delaware’s communities hit hardest by the opioid crisis more financial support for treatment and recovery, building lasting infrastructure, and saving lives. The company will also disclose on a public website thousands of internal documents detailing its work for opioid companies like Purdue Pharma and will stop accepting client work related to opioid-based Schedule II or other Schedule II narcotics. 

“Publicis helped Big Pharma aggressively promote and sell opioids and profited off of thousands of Delawareans’ pain and suffering,” said Attorney General Kathy Jennings. “We can never bring back the lives that were lost in Big Pharma’s pursuit of profit, but settlements like this give us the resources to get help to those who are still grappling with the devastation that this epidemic has caused across our state.” 

Today’s filings describe how Publicis’ work contributed to the crisis by helping Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers market and sell opioids. Court documents detail how Publicis acted as Purdue’s agency of record for all its branded opioid drugs, including OxyContin, even developing sales tactics that relied on farming data from recordings of personal conversations between patients and providers. Publicis was also instrumental in Purdue’s decision to market OxyContin to providers on patient’s electronic health records.  

Thousands of Delawareans have died of overdose fatalities since 2000. These deaths—and the impacts on thousands who have struggled with opioid addiction—have created considerable costs for Delaware’s health care, child welfare, and criminal justice systems. More significant than the dollars and cents, the impact on opioid addition, substance use, and overdose deaths have torn families apart, damaged relationships, and devastated communities. 

Today’s filing is the latest action Attorney General Jennings has taken to combat the opioid crisis and to hold accountable those responsible for creating and fueling the crisis. 

To date, Attorney General Jennings has obtained settlements and other resolutions of the State’s opioid related-claims that are expected to result in nearly a quarter billion dollars being paid to address the opioid crisis in Delaware.  As with previous opioids-related settlements, Delaware’s share of the Publicis settlement will go to the State’s Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Fund and be distributed on the recommendations of an independent commission pursuant to bipartisan legislation supported by AG Jennings. Spending from the Fund is largely restricted to services that reduce or remediate the harms caused by opioids. 

image_printPrint


Graphic that represents delaware news on a mobile phone

Keep up to date by receiving a daily digest email, around noon, of current news release posts from state agencies on news.delaware.gov.

Here you can subscribe to future news updates.