Concord, NH - Attorney General John M. Formella today announced a $350 million national settlement with Publicis Health to resolve investigations into the global marketing and communications firm’s role in the prescription opioid crisis. New Hampshire will receive $1,984,198.33 from the settlement to help address the opioid crisis.

In agreeing to the terms of the settlement, Publicis recognized the harm its conduct caused, and the agreement will give the state more financial support for treatment and recovery, building lasting infrastructure, and saving lives. The company will also disclose on a public website thousands of internal documents detailing its work for opioid companies like Purdue Pharma and will stop accepting client work related to opioid-based Schedule II or other Schedule III controlled substances.

Today’s filing in Merrimack County Superior Court resolves allegations that Publicis contributed to the opioid crisis by helping Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers market and sell opioids and 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. The company was also instrumental in Purdue’s decision to market OxyContin to providers on patient’s electronic health records.

New Hampshire has experienced high rates of fatal prescription opioid overdoses over the last 20 years. These deaths—and the impacts on thousands who have struggled with opioid addiction—have created considerable costs for our health care, child welfare, and criminal justice systems. More significant than those costs is the damage to our state, the impact on opioid addiction, substance use, and overdose deaths have torn families apart, damaged relationships, and devastated communities.

Today’s filing is the latest action by the Department of Justice to combat the opioid crisis and to hold accountable those responsible for creating and fueling the crisis. To date, New Hampshire has received approximately $51 million from legal settlements with drug manufacturers, distributors and others for their roles in the crisis. New Hampshire expects to receive approximately $250 million in additional funds from these settlements over the next 18 years. Those funds are either deposited into a state-run opioid abatement trust fund or distributed to those qualifying cities, towns or counties that brought their own opioid cases. Approximately $24 million has already been awarded in opioid abatement grants or distributed to the qualifying subdivisions for opioid abatement projects.

For more information about the work of the Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission, go to: https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/about-dhhs/advisory-organizations/nh-opioid-abatement-trust-fund-advisory-commission.