New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin late last week announced a $350 million national settlement with Publicis Health LLC to resolve investigations into the global marketing and communications firm’s role in the prescription opioid crisis.

The agreement resolves a complaint alleging Publicis engaged in unconscionable commercial practices as the opioid crisis raged. In a Feb. 2 press release, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office wrote:

“The filings in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Chancery Division, Mercer County, describe how Publicis’s work contributed to the crisis by helping Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers market and sell opioids. Court documents detail how Publicis acted as Purdue’s agency of record for all its branded opioid drugs, including OxyContin, even developing sales tactics that relied on farming data from recordings of personal health-related in-office conversations between patients and providers.

“Publicis also encouraged and facilities Purdue’s partnership with another company, Practice Fusion, to market OxyContin to providers through alerts displayed directly on patient electronic health records at the exact same time treatment decisions were being made.”

Under the terms of settlement, New Jersey will receive nearly $9.5 million to help address the opioid crisis. Additionally, Publicis agreed to a number of conditions, including:

• Releasing thousands of internal documents detailing its work for opioid companies on a public website, which must be produced no later than 12 months after execution of the Consent Judgments to be filed by all participating states; and
• To stop accepting client work for opioid-based Schedule II and Schedule III controlled substances.

The terms apply to Publicis’s related entities, including Razorfish Health LLC, Verilogue Inc., Publicis Health Media LLC, Rosetta Marketing Services LLC and Saatchi & Saatchi Healthcare Communications Inc.

While Publicis Health and those related entities are part of the French multinational firm Publicis Groupe, the settlement applies only to Publicis Health and the other U.S.-based firms.

‘Committed to playing our part’

“When you visit a physician, you do not expect that the details of your most intimate and personal struggles with illness and pain will be converted into pharmaceutical product marketing materials to be used to increase opioid sales,” said Platkin. “I can’t think of a better example of an ‘unconscionable’ commercial practices than exploiting the suffering of patients in order to grow profits.”

“After three years of discussions, this settlement brings the matter to a close with a net payment of $350 million. The full settlement amount should quickly and directly contribute to the states’ opioid relief effort. This settlement, in which the Attorneys General recognized Publicis Health’s ‘good faith and responsible corporate citizenship,’ is in no way an admission of wrongdoing or liability,” Publicis Health said in a statement. “We will, if need be, defend ourselves against any litigation that this agreement does not resolve.”

“The work for pharmaceutical companies addressed by this settlement was at all times fully compliant with the law. It was undertaken by Rosetta, a small agency shuttered 10 years ago, that was already working with pharmaceutical clients that manufactured opioid medication when it was acquired 13 years ago in 2011,” the statement continued.

Publicis Health says it recognizes the context in which “that lawful work took place.”

“The fight against the opioid crisis in the United States requires collaboration between industries, lawmakers, and communities, and we are committed to playing our part,” Publicis said. “That is why we worked to reach this agreement, and why we are also reaffirming our long-standing decision to turn down any future opioid-related projects.”

See also:

• June 2023: Teva concludes opioid settlement agreement with all 50 states
• May 2023: New Jersey announces next steps in $508M opioid settlement process