The Fort Lauderdale suburb of Pembroke Pines has filed a class-action lawsuit against a global consulting firm that allegedly developed a marketing strategy with Purdue Pharma that tripled opioid sales and caused a cascade of health problems, social pathologies and deaths.
The federal lawsuit, which was filed last month in the Southern District of Florida, contends McKinsey & Co. worked with Purdue beginning in 2009 to develop a plan to boost the sales of the company’s opioids in the wake of Purdue being found guilty of misbranding OxyContin. Despite the company entering an integrity agreement, OxyContin sales would triple, according to the complaint.
The city declined to comment on the litigation, which was filed just after the announcement of a $573 million national settlement between McKinsey and 47 state attorneys. An attorney with one of the firms representing the city, Scott Weiselberg, said the national settlement does not reflect Pembroke Pines’ concerns as spelled out in its lawsuit.
Attorney Scott Weiselberg
| Kopelowitz Ostrow Firm P.A.
“The city has sustained damages as a result of the actions and/or inactions of McKinsey as laid out in their complaint,” Weiselberg told the Florida Record. “... All of it is obviously in an effort to abate the opioid epidemic.”
The size of the potential class in Pembroke Pines’ lawsuit extends to local governments throughout the state of Florida, according to the complaint.
“While the precise number of class members has not been determined at this time, the plaintiff (believes) there are 67 counties in Florida and 411 incorporated municipalities,” the lawsuit states.
McKinsey’s conduct and work with Purdue fueled the opioid crisis within the boundaries of the city and other class members and thus created a public nuisance, according to the complaint.
“McKinsey, through its work with Purdue and other opioid industry participants, (has) created and continue(s) to perpetuate and maintain a public nuisance to the citizens of the city of Pembroke Pines through the massive distribution of millions of doses of highly addictive, commonly abused prescription pain killers known as opioids,” the lawsuit says.
In filing the litigation, the city is attempting to recover the damages allegedly owed to the city and its citizens as a result of the opioid crisis. The costs the city hopes to recover include what was paid out for medical care and treatments for addicted patients; care of children of incapacitated parents; public safety services required in response to the crisis; and counseling and rehabilitation services.