The opioid epidemic has destroyed the lives of too many families in our community. It is time for us to hold these companies accountable.
DANBURY, Conn. (PRWEB) April 17, 2018
Last week, the Ansonia and Derby Board of Alderman voted to hire Ventura Law. Across the country, more than 200 local governments have joined the opioid litigation, and the number continues to increase.
The potential claims that the cities anticipate on raising in their lawsuits are that the drug companies engaged in fraudulent and deceptive marketing regarding the risks and benefits of prescription opioids which contributed to and fueled Connecticut’s opioid epidemic. For decades, pharmaceutical companies aggressively marketed to health care providers and reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioids like oxycodone, despite knowing the drugs were not safe or effective for long-term use.
Attorney Kelly Fitzpatrick commented, “The opioid epidemic has destroyed the lives of too many families in our community. It is time for us to hold these companies accountable. We look forward to doing our part as we work towards combatting this opioid crisis”.
The cities anticipate alleging that the drug companies violated Connecticut’s consumer protection statutes and created a public nuisance by disseminating false and misleading statements about the risks and benefits of opioids. This false marketing included medical journal advertising, sales representative statements, and the use of medical front groups to deliver information which downplayed the risks and inflated the benefits of opioids. This conduct proliferated the prescription of opioids and drove the opioid epidemic that the City of Ansonia, the City of Derby and the State of Connecticut are currently facing.
About Ventura Law -Since 1957, Ventura Law has been advocating on behalf of consumers. The Firm is currently involved in numerous mass tort and complex litigation legal proceedings: against British Petroleum, perpetrator of the world’s worst environmental oil disaster; against General Motors, the automaker that manufactured — then covered up — a defective ignition switch that caused the death of drivers and injured many more; and against pharmaceutical companies in various product liability actions, including Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline.