Harrisburg — Attorney General Josh Shapiro filed a lawsuit against the founders and owners of Purdue Pharma, the creator of the prescription painkiller OxyContin. Attorney General Shapiro filed a separate lawsuit against Purdue Pharma in May 2019, accusing the company of a multi-faceted, illegal effort to market OxyContin in Pennsylvania.

The new lawsuit alleges that certain members of the Sackler family are personally liable for the devastation of the opioid crisis because they directed, controlled, and participated in this deadly campaign of deception. The lawsuit was filed under seal as legally required.

Attorney General Shapiro issued the following statement:

“The Sackler family seems to be concerned with only one thing – keeping their hands on the ill-gotten gains they made while pumping our Commonwealth full of OxyContin. Through our negotiations with Purdue Pharma, it became crystal clear the Sacklers have no intention of taking any ownership for engineering an epidemic that claims the lives of 12 Pennsylvanians each day. They shamelessly came into our Commonwealth and preyed on senior citizens, veterans, and those suffering from substance use disorder."

"The Sacklers' mission to avoid accountability and transparency stops here. The lawsuit I filed on behalf of all Pennsylvanians seeks to require this family of billionaires, who orchestrated opioids into as many doctor’s offices, pharmacies and medicine cabinets as possible, takes responsibility for the pain they caused.”