Purdue Pharma is leaning into the legal argument that its marketing of opioids can’t be directly linked to the billions of public dollars governments are spending to fight addiction and overdose.
The company’s latest motion to dismiss in its fight against a Massachusetts lawsuit attacks the government’s ability to show that Purdue business practices were a driving cause of the complicated, multi-factor and messy problem of addiction—an argument that paid off for the company in another recent state court decision.
In the motion, Purdue argues that governments can’t show the company is the cause of the addiction and overdose crisis ...