Science-focused media and reporters continue efforts to shake up secrecy agreements between private litigants. The latest example arises around Oxycontin and Purdue Pharma. The movant is STAT, a very good science-focused media group. And of course the story is on STAT, at this page, including the full text of the motion. The opening two paragraphs are set out below:
“STAT is asking a Kentucky court to make public sealed documents that could provide new information on how Purdue Pharmamarketed its potent pain pill OxyContin — including what top executives knew about how addictive it was, and whether they downplayed the risks.
Purdue has faced hundreds of lawsuits and numerous government investigations over its aggressive promotion of OxyContin, which some blame for helping spawn the national opioid abuse crisis. In 2007, three corporate executives and an affiliated company pleaded guilty to fraudulently marketing the drug as less addictive than other pain medications and paid $634 million in fines.”