Framingham Sues Opioid Manufacturers and Affiliates

FRAMINGHAM, MA- Framingham filed a civil complaint in Middlesex Superior Court on Dec. 5 to sue the pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, board members and executives who "caused the nation’s devastating opioid epidemic."

The complaint alleges deceptive marketing and reckless distribution on the part of opioid manufacturers. In specific it claims pharmaceutical manufacturers misled the medical community and the public about the risks and benefits of prescription opioids, that pharmaceutical distributors failed to monitor and control the drugs’ supposedly closed distribution network, and that various board members and executives personally sanctioned the corporate defendants’ actions.

Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP, along with local counsel Anderson & Kreiger LLP, are representing Framingham in the litigation as special counsel. Framingham’s complaint follows a complaint filed by the City of Worcester- also represented by Scott+Scott- in July 2018.

A statement released by the city details the toll the opioid epidemic has taken on Framingham. "That epidemic has strained Framingham’s social and human services budgets and diverted substantial resources from the police, fire and other departments whose first responders protect public safety," it says. The city is trying to gain back those funds lost to the epidemic through this lawsuit.

“This lawsuit is about justice, pure and simple. Through its first responders, social services, and other departments, Framingham has been forced to the front lines of the terrible opioid crisis that we believe the pharmaceutical industry unleashed on the people of Massachusetts”, said City of Framingham Mayor Yvonne M. Spicer. “The cost to our city—in terms of lives, resources, and quality of life—is almost unfathomable. Now, through this civil action, Framingham places itself at the forefront of the effort to make sure that the parties who we allege are responsible for this tragedy—rather than the communities afflicted by it—pay at least part of the price for their wrongdoing.”

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