Knoxville — Purdue Pharma wants to blot out dozens of paragraphs in a drug lawsuit that's been filed against it in Knox County by the state attorney general before the document becomes public.
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, however, says he wants the 272-page complaint to be open for public viewing.
Slatery's office filed the suit last month in Knox County Circuit Court. It was sealed out of deference to Purdue, with the caveat that Slatery would seek to make it public.
Documents show the office has been carefully scrutinizing Purdue, maker of the highly profitable and highly popular OxyContin, since at least September 2014. Purdue is a privately held company.
Tennessee is among a half-dozen states that sued pharmaceutical companies. Separate litigation also is being considering in Ohio federal court.
The attorney general alleges Purdue is among drug makers to blame for aggravating the opioid epidemic in Tennessee. Nearly 300 people died in Knox County last year of suspected drug overdoses, according to the Knox County District Attorney General's Office.
Similar lawsuits have been filed in North Carolina, Florida, Texas, Nevada, and North Dakota.
Slatery's lawsuit is now shielded from public view in Circuit Court. Purdue argues the document contains confidential and proprietary information that must remain out of the public eye.
On June 6, Purdue lawyers Aubrey Harwell Jr., James G. Thomas and William J. Harbison Jr. filed a motion seeking a protective order for that information.
The company, according to the motion, "only seeks to keep certain sensitive information redacted from any publicly-filed version."
Slatery, however, argues the company is being disingenuous.
"Purdue has now asked the court to redact most of the state's complaint," Slatery's office stated Friday in a news release reacting to the company's motion for a protective order.
Purdue identifies dozens of paragraphs it thinks should be redacted. The lawsuit has been assigned to Judge Kristi M. Davis's court.
Among the information that Purdue argues is privileged are details about sales calls to customers, Purdue staffing in Tennessee and pill sales in the state.
"Taken together, this information provides minute details of Purdue's sales and marketing efforts, including how frequently its sales representatives visited individual healthcare providers, statewide sales and revenue information and proprietary marketplace research on which sales tactics proved most effective," the company says in its bid to keep certain information sealed.
The company's filings reveal that the Attorney General's Office, nearly four years ago, sought what's called a civil investigative demand of Purdue in relation to a review of opioid distribution in the state.
The parties signed a confidentiality agreement Jan.30, 2015, that described how sensitive company information would be handled once Purdue released it to the attorney general, according to a copy of that agreement.
Purdue, it said in a statement last month to 10News, acted in "good faith."
According to Slatery: "The allegations in the complaint are based on Purdue's responses to civil investigative demands made by our office; they were not voluntary disclosures. We will continue to work to make the state's complaint available to the public and hold Purdue accountable."
Once a hearing date has been set, according to Slatery's release, he will answer Purdue's protective motion, seek to unseal the lawsuit and ask that the document remain free of redactions.