WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Purdue University wants the public to know that it has no connection to a company blamed for helping drive the nation's opioid crisis.
The university has spent years repeating that it has no affiliation to Purdue Pharma, the Stamford, Connecticut-based pharmaceutical company that's the maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin.
But university spokesman Tim Doty says the news that Purdue Pharma is negotiating a multibillion-dollar settlement to resolve lawsuits over the opioid crisis is a good time for the school to repeat that "That's not us."
The Journal & Courier reports that Purdue University was founded in 1869 as Indiana's land-grant institution, and is named for benefactor John Purdue.
Purdue Pharma was founded in Manhattan in 1892 by John Purdue Gray and George Frederick Bingham as the Purdue Frederick Company.