Attorneys General across the country have lined up to sue Purdue Pharma, and the members of the Sackler family that own it, for the manner in which it distributed opioids. In an interesting new development, the state of Massachusetts has now filed suit against the public relations and advertising firm Publicis Health (a division of Publicis Groupe) for helping Purdue Pharma market opioids in what the state says is an irresponsible manner.
Lecia Bushak at Medical Marketing & Media reports:
“Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has filed a lawsuit against Publicis Health over its work for Purdue Pharma during the opioid epidemic. The complaint filed Thursday alleges that Publicis Health worked with Purdue between 2010 and 2019 – the years encompassing the height of the opioid crisis – on a variety of marketing campaigns aiming to make doctors prescribe more opioids to patients, and at higher doses.”
“This decade-long marketing scheme had clear goals: to sell more OxyContin, make a profit and manage Purdue’s reputation as the opioid epidemic was raging,” Healey said during a press conference. Healey argues that Publicis Health created marketing strategies that aimed to reduce hesitancy among prescribers to give patients OxyContin. The agency planned campaigns to “humanize” the OxyContin brand to doctors, with the goal of getting more patients on higher doses, she alleges.
Denver Public Relations Blog 
The line between educating doctors about new drugs and marketing to them has been blurred for a long time, although this is probably a worst case scenario.