Firm: Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer
Issue Area: Pharma and Tobacco
Arnold Porter defended Purdue Pharma in lawsuits alleging deceptive marketing and sale of opioids, including OxyContin. The marketing and over-prescription of opioids has killed hundreds of thousands of people across the United States. In a brief signed by Arnold Porter, Purdue blamed the crisis on doctors and traffickers.
"The State’s theory of liability also disregards both the myriad socioeconomic reasons for opioid abuse and the many intervening links separating each company’s marketing from the State’s expenditures on public services, including: extensive federal regulations; individual doctor prescribing decisions; misuse and abuse of opioid medications by people who were never prescribed them; and criminal conduct, including drug trafficking and diversion."