ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh says he doesn't support a tentative multistate settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and the family that owns the company.
Frosh said Wednesday in a telephone interview that Maryland has not joined states that have reached a tentative deal.
He says what's on the table doesn't begin "to compensate for the damage that was done by the Purdue company and the Sackler family."
About half the states reached a tentative deal with Purdue Pharma over its role in the nation's deadly opioid epidemic.
In May, Frosh announced that Maryland filed charges against the owners and former directors of Purdue. The attorney general alleges they engaged in a pattern of deceptive conduct that encouraged inappropriate use of opioids and fueled the nation's opioid crisis.
Delaware
Delaware State Attorney General Kathy Jennings who is heading up two separate lawsuits against Big Pharma also rejected the settlement.
She told the Wilmington News Journal that the state remained committed to holding Purdue and the Sackler family acountable for their role in the opioid epidemic.
She noted that drug addiction had taken more than 14-hundred lives in Delaware since 2014.
The paper says it is unclear how the state's rejection of the settlement will affect lawsuits Delaware is not engaged in.
Virginia
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia has joined a growing number of states suing members of the family that owns Purdue Pharma for their alleged role in the nation's opioid crisis.
Attorney General Mark Herring announced Wednesday that the state has amended a lawsuit it filed against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma in 2018 to add allegations that the Sackler family promoted the company's drugs despite knowing they were "dangerous, deadly and addictive."
At least 20 other states have filed lawsuits naming the Sacklers as defendants.
The lawsuit also alleges that members of the Sackler family unlawfully transferred at least $4 billion from the company to themselves to shield assets from investigators and plaintiffs in dozens of lawsuits.
Sackler family representatives did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
