You can add Suffolk County, N.Y., to the list of local and state governments that are filing lawsuits against the drug makers that market opioid painkillers.
The Long Island county on Wednesday accused several companies — Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, and Endo International, among others — of using deceptive marketing to downplay the risks of their painkillers, and of improperly encouraging physicians to prescribe the medicines in a way that caused some patients to become addicts. In the process, the county alleged it paid for prescriptions for its employee health plan inappropriately.
