NEW YORK — New York on Thursday sued the billionaire family behind OxyContin, joining a growing list of state and local governments alleging the drug maker sparked the nation’s opioid crisis by putting hunger for profits over patient safety.
The state, which averages nine opioid-related deaths per day, amended an existing lawsuit against pill maker Purdue Pharma to add members of its controlling Sackler family as defendants. The state also added as defendants five other companies that produce opioid painkillers and, in what New York Attorney General Letitia James called a novelty, four drug distributors.
