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Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cinde Warmington is facing fresh scrutiny this week for her work two decades ago as a lobbyist in Concord for a major pharmaceutical manufacturer whose aggressive marketing tactics have been widely blamed for fueling the deadly opioid crisis.
Warmington’s campaign acknowledged that she lobbied in late 2001 and in 2002 on behalf of Purdue Pharma, the company behind OxyContin and other opioid drugs. Her deputy campaign manager, Donnie Spencer, said Tuesday that the candidate now regrets performing that work.
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“Twenty years ago we were all unaware of Purdue Pharma’s fraud and the harm they would cause to so many New Hampshire families,” Spencer told the Globe.
In recent years, Purdue Pharma has pleaded guilty to federal felonies and settled civil litigation with dozens of states, including New Hampshire, for downplaying their products’ risk of abuse, addiction, and death.
While testifying before a New Hampshire Senate committee in April 2002, Warmington echoed some claims about the efficacy and relative safety of one opioid in particular, according to publicly available records of the hearing.
“Oxycontin is a miracle drug for many patients, and that’s why it has been so popular,” she said, “that’s why it is used so much because it has very few side effects and it is able to address (a) patient’s pain.”
Warmington’s comments were resurfaced Monday in a story by the Union Leader.
While acknowledging OxyContin’s real potential for misuse, Warmington testified that the drug “has been abused … in the press.” She argued unsuccessfully against a requirement for patients to have tried three other medications before they could be given an OxyContin prescription.
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Spencer said Warmington’s work for Purdue Pharma focused on that point: whether doctors would be forced to prescribe three other narcotics before they could prescribe what they felt would be best for their patients.
In the years since, Warmington has served on the boards of substance abuse treatment programs, fought to expand treatment options, pushed for a crackdown on fentanyl, and more, Spencer said.
“It’s unfortunate our opponents have started this campaign with attacks pulled from more than two decades ago rather than focusing on how we must solve this crisis today,” he added.
Warmington, the lone Democrat on the state’s five-member Executive Council, is the only declared candidate in the 2024 gubernatorial race so far. But she could face a Democratic primary challenge from outgoing Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig.
Craig didn’t answer questions about her views on Warmington’s lobbying work, but she released a statement affirming Manchester’s ongoing commitment to address widespread hardships wrought by the opioid crisis. “The opioid epidemic has destroyed countless lives throughout our state and across the country for decades, and we are still facing this crisis every day,” she said.
New Hampshire GOP Chairman Chris Ager said opioids are a leading cause of death, so leaders should work to curb misuse and over-prescription. “Lobbyists like Warmington push their influence for money and power, while Granite Staters suffer the consequences,” Ager said.
Republican incumbent Governor Chris Sununu hasn’t decided whether he’ll run for re-election. Other potential GOP candidates, including former Senate President Chuck Morse, are taking steps toward running if Sununu doesn’t.
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Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @reporterporter.