Conway says ruling in his Oxycontin lawsuit means he will seek settlement of $100 million or more

Attorney General Jack Conway says he wants Purdue Pharma to settle for $100 million or more after it missed a deadline to respond to his arguments in his lawsuit over the marketing of Oxycontin, Nick Strom reports for cn|2, a news service of Time Warner Cable. After Purdue Pharma failed to respond to a court motion, “all the admissions the commonwealth sought in the case were deemed admitted” by the circuit judge hearing the case in Pike County.

“Judge Steven Combs ruled Monday that Purdue could not withdraw those admissions which include that the drug maker: misrepresented and/or concealed the addictive nature of OxyContin, knew OxyContin was being abused and wasn’t being used for its stated purpose, continued to market and promote OxyContin despite knowing that, and encouraged physicians to overprescribe the drug,” Storm reports. Conway told him, “I expect that a jury would be very very harsh on
Purdue Pharma. I’m not going to be really
negotiating much less or below nine figures. I want to see something
well into nine figures.” (Read more)

Purdue Pharma has been blamed for starting, in Central Appalachia, the national epidemic of prescription-painkiller abuse and deaths. More than 1,000 Kentuckians die each year from prescription overdoses, the sixth highest rate in the country. Forbes ranked the Kentucky as the fourth most medicated state, according to Conway’s office. More Kentuckians die from overdoses than in traffic accidents. (Read more) Map by Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet: