“How can you make that claim, that they hid its addictive potency? All opioids are addictive.”
The manufacturers of Oxy famously were going around making claims to doctors and hospitals that Oxy was much less addictive than other opioid painkillers in order to boost sales. They have already lost lawsuits and been forced to make settlements because of that, like this one for $634 million:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/oxycontins-deception-costs-firm-634m/
From the article:
OxyContin, a trade name for oxycodone, is designed to have a time-released effect on a patient's pain, but people who abuse the medication will crush the pills and then swallow, snort or inject the drug so that its pain-killing properties — meant to be spread out over 12 hours — are absorbed all at once.
Again, opioids are addictive, their claims were they were less addictive, which they would have been had they taken them as they were designed to be taken.
Automobiles are killing machines if they are not used as developed and operated in unsafe manners. Now they have lots of safety features built in, but if drivers disable those features then the features are worthless.
I liken this to holding gun manufactures liable for how people misuse and abuse their weapons.