Feb. 5—New Mexico will receive about $2.7 million from a multistate settlement of litigation alleging the marketing company Publicis Health and its affiliates helped Purdue Pharma aggressively market and sell addictive opioids like OxyContin to more people for longer periods of time.

The state’s share comes out of the $350 million settlement the company reached in the lawsuit, which was led by state attorneys general in New York and Colorado.

State Department of Justice spokeswoman Lauren Rodriguez provided the settlement amount for New Mexico — $2,740,357.27 — but said the court settlement documents had not yet been signed by a judge.

The money will be allocated and spent according to opioid remediation guidelines for other opioid settlements.

Publicis and its subsidiaries did not respond to messages seeking comment Monday, but the company has denied any wrongdoing or liability in past statements about the case.

The state Justice Department filed a complaint Feb. 1 against several U.S. affiliates of the the France-based marketing company Publicis Groupe. The complaint alleges the affiliated companies violated the state’s Unfair Practices Act.

The state’s complaint alleges Publicis and its affiliates worked with Purdue Pharma to develop strategies and tactics for sales to prescribers and designed marketing content to maximize the reach of OxyContin sales teams.

The lawsuit alleged between 2010 and 2021, Purdue Pharma paid more than $70 million to Publicis for “dozens of unfair and deceptive marketing schemes.”

Publicis also facilitated Purdue Pharma’s partnerships with consulting firm McKinsey and Co. — which settled a multistate opioid lawsuit in 2021 for nearly $600 million — and Publicis subsidiary Verilogue, as well as healthcare company Practice Fusion, the complaint states.

Verilogue provided prescribers with small recording devices to “record intimate conversations with patients,” the lawsuit states, and used the recordings “to figure out how to best overcome patients’ concerns about taking opioids,” with Purdue Pharma implementing Verilogue’s recommendations in its marketing materials.

The state’s lawsuit accuses Publicis of encouraging Purdue Pharma to partner with electronic health record company Practice Fusion — which paid a $145 million fine and admitted to an illegal kickback scheme — in creating and deploying a system of alerts for prescribers to increase prescriptions of Purdue’s opioids, the complaint states.