French ad agency accused of fueling U.S. opioid epidemic to pay $350 million settlement

The Street

TheStreet’s J.D. Durkin brings you the biggest news of the day, including what the markets are reacting to and why a French ad agency is accused of helping to fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic.

Transcript

00:00 I'm JD Durkin reporting from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and here's a look at what we are watching on the street

00:05 today. Investors are reacting to a blowout January jobs report. The US economy added

00:11 353,000 jobs last month up from December's

00:14 216,000 and well above expectations of analysts.

00:19 It's yet another sign of how resilient the US labor market has been despite soaring interest rates.

00:25 Markets also digesting big tech earnings this morning. Both Meta and Amazon reported better than expected results

00:31 while Apple fell short due to a decline in sales in China. So far roughly 30% of companies in the S&P 500

00:38 have released quarterly earnings. And other news, an advertising firm tied to helping create the opioid epidemic has agreed to pay a

00:45 350 million dollar settlement. French marketing firm Publicis worked on Purdue Pharma's

00:52 Oxycontin account and is now the first ad agency to have to pay for misleading the public about the drugs effects.

00:58 Purdue released Oxycontin in the 1990s and has been accused of powering the US opioid crisis.

01:04 From 2010 to 2019 Publicis's

01:07 Evolve to Excellence campaign falsely claimed that Oxycontin was not addictive and did not have the potential to be abused.

01:15 The campaign also pushed doctors to continually increase the amount of Oxycontin given to patients

01:21 even when it was not medically necessary. In a statement New York State Attorney General

01:25 Letitia James scolded the company for directly fueling the opioid crisis and also applauded the settlement.

01:32 She said quote no amount of money can compensate for lives lost and addiction suffered.

01:36 But with this agreement Publicis will cease their illegal behavior.

01:40 According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention more than

01:44 560,000 people died from an opioid overdose between the years of 1999 and 2020.

01:51 That'll do it for your daily briefing from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. I'm JD Durkin with the street.

01:55 [Street noise]

01:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Recommended