In new lawsuit, Morrisey alleges Purdue caused switch to heroin [View all]

Fifteen years after West Virginia reached a settlement with the manufacturer of the opioid OxyContin, the state is once again suing the manufacturer of the powerful prescription painkiller.

The 2004 settlement, for $10 million, was meant to protect Purdue Pharma from another lawsuit by West Virginia. But West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's office is alleging in his lawsuit, filed Thursday in Boone County Circuit Court, that because Purdue reformulated OxyContin in 2010, the state can sue again.

Citing several studies, Morrisey's office is alleging that when Purdue re-formulated OxyContin to be less easily crushed, they spurred a switch to the street drug heroin in West Virginia.

"There were provisions in that settlement that we had to look at very closely and some may argue that we’re precluded from bringing a lawsuit," Morrisey said Thursday, during a news conference at Brian's Safehouse in Beckley.

Read more: https://www.register-herald.com/news/state_region/in-new-lawsuit-morrisey-alleges-purdue-caused-switch-to-heroin/article_fb11abaf-2b44-52f0-b5e6-a4438eff5261.html
(Beckley Register-Herald)