Purdue Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of OxyContin, will pay at least $8 million and end operations after agreeing to plead guilty to three federal criminal charges filed against it for its role in the opioid crisis that rocked the United States. Purdue will pay a fine of $3.5 billion, forfeit $2 billion in past profits, and pay a civil liability fine of $2.8 billion – all of which will be spent on abatement programs and treatment for affected Americans.
“Purdue Pharma actively thwarted the United States’ efforts to ensure compliance and prevent diversion,” Tim McDermott, Assistant Administrator of the DEA stated, “The devastating ripple effect of Purdue’s actions left lives lost and others addicted.”
U.S Department of Justice announced that Purdue does not have $8 billion to pay the fines levied against it. As a result, the assets of Purdue Pharma will be liquidated and the proceeds will be used to create a new corporation in the interest of the public. The new firm, the department stated, will not be established to maximize profit but to pay Purdue’s penalties and fines which will then be used in the fight against the opioid crisis.
The new pharmaceutical will keep manufacturing OxyContin and other painkillers. Also, it will manufacture drugs that can be used to fight opioid overdose. U.S Deputy Attorney General, Jeffrey Rosen, clarified that the new company will keep producing painkillers because they are important in the health sector. He also stated that the new company will be tasked with making subsidized opioid overdose treatment drugs for areas most affected by the opioid crisis.
Another settlement between the DOJ and the Sackler family, the previous owner of Purdue Pharma, will also produce $225 million and the department has announced that former and current workers at Purdue and the previous owners might still face criminal charges for their roles in the crisis.
Purdue Pharma was charged with paying physicians to prescribe more opioids for people, leading to an opioid crisis that rocked the country. The CDC reports that 450,000 Americans died between 1999 and 2009 from opioid overdose and in 2018 over 60,000 opioid overdose deaths were recorded. The crisis has cost federal, state, and local governments trillions of dollars in the last four years alone; as a result, some state governments have rejected the settlement of $8 billion.
Attorney General of the United States, William Barr, received a letter from 25 state attorneys last week. The attorneys pointed out that creating a new company operated by the government is condemnable since the government should not be involved in the sales of OxyContin. They also suggested selling it, stating that they can recommend a buyer whose identification was not revealed.
“The public should be confident that public officials are seeking to avoid having specialties to an opioid company, conflicts of interest, or mixed motives in an industry that caused a national crisis,” the letter read. “Selling the business to a private owner may also deliver more upfront money that cities and states can use to abate the opioid epidemic.”
The states will most likely demand more money from Purdue. The Sackler family members made withdrawals of over $10 million from the company’s accounts and created trusts from the company’s money during the legal battle over Purdue’s role in the opioid crisis. The spokesperson of the family defended the steps, stating that the members of the family were quite ethical in all dealings associated with Purdue.
Source: vox.com
