Purdue Pharma agrees to settlement over opioid deaths

Purdue Pharma, the company that makes OxyContin, the powerful prescription painkiller that experts say helped touch off an opioid epidemic, will plead guilty to three federal criminal charges as part of a settlement of more than $8 billion, Justice Department officials announced Wednesday.

The company will plead guilty to three counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating federal anti-kickback laws, the officials said. The resolution will be detailed in a bankruptcy court filing in federal court.

The deal does not release any of the company’s executives or owners — members of the wealthy Sackler family — from criminal liability, and a criminal investigation is ongoing. But one state attorney general said the agreement fails to hold the Sacklers accountable.

The settlement is the highest-profile display yet of the federal government seeking to hold a major drugmaker responsible for an opioid addiction and overdose crisis linked to more than 470,000 deaths in the country since 2000.

“Purdue deeply regrets and accepts responsibility for the misconduct detailed by the Department of Justice in the agreed statement of facts,” Steve Miller, who became chairman of the company’s board in 2018, said in a statement. No members of the Sackler family remain on that board, though they still own the company.

The deal comes less than two weeks before a presidential election where the opioid epidemic has taken a political back seat to the coronavirus pandemic and other issues. But it does give President Donald Trump’s administration an example of action on the addiction crisis, which he promised early in his term.

To Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, the Justice Department “failed” and she said in a statement that she was not done with either Purdue or the Sacklers. “Justice in this case requires exposing the truth and holding the perpetrators accountable, not rushing a settlement to beat an election,” she said.

As part of the resolution, Purdue is admitting that it impeded the Drug Enforcement Administration by falsely representing that it had maintained an effective program to avoid drug diversion and by reporting misleading information to the agency to boost the company’s manufacturing quotas, the officials said.

A Justice Department official said Purdue had been representing to the DEA that it had “robust controls” to avoid opioid diversion but instead had been “disregarding red flags their own systems were sending up.”

Purdue is also admitting to violating federal anti-kickback laws by paying doctors, through a speaking program, to induce them to write more prescriptions for the company’s opioids and for using electronic health records software to influence the prescription of pain medication, according to the officials.

Purdue will make a direct payment to the government of $225 million, which is part of a larger $2 billion criminal forfeiture. In addition to that forfeiture, Purdue also faces a $3.54 billion criminal fine, though that money probably will not be fully collected because it will be taken through a bankruptcy, which includes a large number of other creditors. Purdue will also agree to $2.8 billion in damages to resolve its civil liability.

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[wealthychef]

Well let’s do the math. They pay a fine that is less than their profits, so why should they ever stop being evil?

[Ghostdawg]

HOW DO YOU GET AWAY WITH KILLING FOLKS BY SIMPLY

[DriveI]

How many board members, executives and managers have gone to jail?

[bhagmeister]

Purdue should have become a Bank; No one has yet to be held accountable for the last Financial Crisis.

[JoeLewis-ylss]

It's funny how the real drug dealers always get off.

[MudFlap]

They’ve made far more than they’ll pay.

[Keebrev]

great. so a billion for everyone I've lost. too bad that isn't bringing anyone back. when will someone actually be held accountable?

[KevinSun]

The company didn't cause the crisis; the people running it did. Fine the company, seize its assets, but throw the executives in prison.

[joehill]

imagine paying 8 billion dollars to get away with thousands of deaths?

[franku]

So you can be a drug dealer if you can pay the government billions of dollars? But a lot of us can go to jail for having weed. Makes sense.

[daviddavidson]

Yay maybe my mother can get her pain meds back hahaha yeah right that would put the community at risk for their own troubles idc what you people say you took those meds from people who really needed them now I watch my mom struggle everyday just to walk

[wanderingquestions]

They can hide beside bankruptcy. I wonder if they’ll actually pay a dime on the dollar fine or less.

[mistermister]

I lost my only brother to And I'll never see him again.
Thanks, in part, to those in White Coats who push these addictive drugs.
$$$$

[shiblamo]

It’s disgusting that our government let these murderers pay them off. These execs deserve to rot in prison for years. They are scum, money should not keep them from suffering. They are not above us.

[deedubs]

When are ppl going to take responsibility for their own actions?

[subarusti]

$600 million is a days pay for Purdue. It should be 1.3 billion per state, for all 50 states, 60 billion+ total

[idontcare]

How were these deaths Purdue’s fault? Did Purdue force those drug addicts to chop those pills up and snort them?

[lalakuma]

Settlement? What happened to imprisonment?

[davidbonnett]

Has anybody heard of that thing called your own fault.

[Striker_]

JAIL TIME. Stop with the damn settlements.