NEW YORK – Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of the OxyContin drug that has been blamed for the United States opioid crisis, will be dissolved under a plan approved by a federal judge yesterday.
However, the Sackler families that founded and profited from the company will largely be shielded from further penalties, though they will pay US$4.5 billion (RM18.69 billion) to settle the many suits over the sale of opioids.
“Purdue will cease to exist, and substantially, all of its operating assets will be transferred to a newly formed company with a public-minded mission of addressing the opioid crisis,” said the firm in a statement.
Facing an avalanche of litigation, Purdue in October last year pleaded guilty to three criminal charges over its aggressive drive to push sales of the highly addictive prescription painkiller, which stoked a nationwide addiction crisis and caused more than 500,000 overdose deaths in the US over the past 20 years.
The company will be sold by 2024 to be replaced by a new entity managed by a trust, which will be required to “restrict the promotion of opioid products, and... ensure that all of its products, including all opioid products, are provided in a safe manner that reduces the risk of diversion”.
Purdue will also be required to create a repository for tens of millions of documents detailing its sales and marketing practices.
CEO Steve Miller hailed the agreement that brought the saga to an end, and will provide billions of dollars to the National Opioid Abatement Trust and other organisations to deal with the consequences of the addiction crisis.
Instead of years of destructive litigation, the deal “ensures that billions of dollars will be devoted to helping people and communities who have been hurt by the opioid crisis”, he said in a statement.
But, the order states that the Sacklers “shall have no liability” for costs or fines, “except to the extent resulting from fraud or wilful misconduct”.
‘Off the hook’
New York Attorney-General Letitia James hailed the agreement, highlighting the documents that will reveal the company’s role “in igniting the opioid epidemic”.
“No deal is perfect, and no amount of money will ever make up for the hundreds of thousands who lost their lives, the millions who became addicted, or the countless families torn apart by this crisis, but these funds will be used to prevent future death and destruction as a result of the opioid epidemic.”
However, Washington Attorney-General Bob Ferguson announced that he will appeal the plan, calling it “flawed” and “inadequate”.
“This order lets the Sacklers off the hook by granting them permanent immunity from suits in exchange for a fraction of the profits they made from the opioid epidemic – and sends a message that billionaires operate by a different set of rules than everybody else.”
The Sacklers, like many American billionaires, have made donations to prestigious institutions such as the Met Museum here. Many of the institutions now ban their donations.
The family’s fortune diminished amid the crisis, but was still estimated at around US$10.8 billion late last year, according to Forbes, which said much of that wealth came from Purdue. – AFP, September 2, 2021
