Wayne and Oakland counties filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against 12 drug manufacturers, claiming the companies use "deceptive marketing" of opioids that has contributed to widespread addiction.

Wayne County Executive Warren Evans and Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson announced the lawsuit in a Thursday press conference, accusing the drug companies of shifting the way doctors and patients view pain treatment in order to encourage widespread opioid prescription, leading to the rise in opioid-related deaths in Michigan.

"This is a full-blown health crisis from which the drug companies made billions," Evans said. "People are dying and lives are being ruined by addiction as this horrible tragedy unfolds.

"We see the devastation every day in our hospitals, in our jails and at the morgue, and it's getting worse. There has to be a price to be paid when corporations show such disregard for human life."

The complaint alleges the drug companies "intentionally misled" medical professionals and patients about the uses and safety of prescription opioids while "downplaying" addiction risks.

Defendants include:

Purdue Pharma L.P

Cephalon, Inc.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries LTD.

Teva Pharmaceuticals U.S.A, Inc.

Endo International PLC

Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Insys Mallinckrodt PLC.

Mallinckrodt PLC

Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals

Amerisourcebergen Corporation

Cardinal Health, Inc.

McKesson Corporation

The drug companies will have 21 days to respond in court upon being served with the lawsuit.

"The opioid industry has taken a page out of big tobacco's playbook," Patterson said. "They utilized misleading information, marketing campaigns, and studies to convince the public that their product was safe. They put profits over people and now people are paying the price, some with their lives."

Between 1999 and 2015, more than 183,000 people died in the U.S. from prescription opioid overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Wayne County 817 people died in opioid-related deaths in 2016, up from 506 in 2015, according to Evans.

Opioid-related deaths in Oakland County rose from 9 deaths in 2009 to 33 deaths in 2015, and 165 deaths in 2016 involved victims who had taken opioids within a matter of hours of their deaths, according to the Oakland County Health Department.

Patterson noted pharmaceutical companies generated $11 billion of revenue in 2011 from sales alone.

The two counties have also faced financial burdens due to excessive opioid prescription and addiction, including: increased costs for law enforcement, courts, jails, emergency medical care services, public works and substance abuse treatment plans, according to a news release.