The Sackler family, OxyContin maker, accused of fueling the nation’s opioid crisis, has agreed to an $8 billion settlement, the US Department of Justice announced yesterday. Purdue Pharmacy, the company that the Sackler family founded has been blamed for more than 400,000 deaths in the last twenty years.
The settlement resolves criminal civil investigations into how Purdue Pharma aggressively marketed its powerful painkillers, but the staggering amount is largely symbolic. The company is tied up on bankruptcy proceedings and lacks the assets to pay the full amount according to the Justice Department. The company has pled guilty to felony charges on three counts.
In response to this news, Maine’s Attorney General Aaron Frey issued the following statement yesterday:
“The State of Maine is continuing to pursue legal action against Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. Currently, we are litigating in bankruptcy court to ensure that Purdue and the Sacklers pay adequately for the damage caused by the opioid crisis, to ensure the orderly liquidation of the company and to ensure that they may no longer sell OxyContin. Our efforts to provide justice and relief for Mainers harmed by the opioid crisis will not be impacted by today’s announcement from the US Department of Justice. The announced settlement is insufficient for the damage done by Purdue and the Sackler family and I will continue to work with attorneys general across the country to achieve the accountability that the people demand,” said AG Frey in the press release.
The Sacklers have agreed to pay $225 million in civil penalties according to a front page article in “The New York Times”, October 22, 2020. “Prosecutors said the agreement did not preclude the filing of criminal charges against Purdue executives or individual Sacklers. The federal settlement does not end all of the extensive litigation against Purdue, but it does represent a significant advance in the long legal march by states, tribes, cities and counties to hold the most prominent opioid maker accountable.”
The “New York Times” article continues: “OxyContin, which came on the market in the mid-90s, is seen as an early, ferocious driver of the opioid epidemic and Purdue is regarded as the architect of muscular, misleading drug marketing. But it is unlikely the company will pay anything close to the $8.3 billion negotiated in the settlement deal. That is because Perdue sought bankruptcy court protection amid the onslaught of lawsuits and so the federal government will have to take its place in a long line of creditors…”