The role of Purdue Pharma and its blockbuster drug oxycontin in causing the opioid epidemic which has killed over 450,000 people in the past two decades has been well described in books like “The Empire of Pain” by author Patrick Keefe and in reports of investigative journalists that have appeared in leading U.S. newspapers.
From these and other sources it is estimated that in nearly one half of the cases drug addiction began with a doctor’s prescription. Although other drug companies and drug distributors were involved, Purdue with its blockbuster drug oxycontin was the leading supplier of prescription opioids to patients.
Purdue used “thought leaders” in medicine like Russell Portenoy, MD, Chairman of the Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Hospital in New York, to promote the safety of opioids. Purdue and other pharmaceutical companies paid large sums of money to Portenoy and his department. Purdue also paid many other physicians to tout the benefits of oxycontin.
Purdue also instructed its pharmaceutical representatives all over the country to tell physicians that oxycontin was not addictive primarily because of its slow-release properties. Purdue told its representatives to tell doctors that only persons with an “addictive personality” became addicts.
Contrary to the statements of Purdue recent evidence has shown that oxycontin is addictive and has played a significant role in the devastating epidemic of opioid addiction that has gripped the U.S. in recent years.
Private parties and states attorneys general have sued Purdue. Purdue’s response was to opt for a settlement and declare bankruptcy.
In the original bankruptcy proposal Purdue agreed to pay four billion dollars to plaintiffs. However, the Sackler family which privately owned Purdue, would be allowed to keep billions of dollars that it had withdrawn from the company before the bankruptcy was finalized. In December 2021 a different judge, Coleen McMahon of the District Court for the Southern District Court of New York, ruled that the previous judge’s ruling on the settlement should not go forward because it released the Sackler family, the private owners of Purdue from liability. The Sackler family, she noted, had withdrawn more than 10 billion dollars from Purdue between 2008 and 2018 as the opioid epidemic was worsening. This money was mainly deposited in off-shore accounts and trusts that were not accessible to Americans. This is where the litigation stands today.
All three of the original Sackler brothers who bought Purdue and ultimately developed oxycontin were physicians. At the peak of their sales and marketing, Purdue hired 3,000 doctors to serve on their speakers bureau—a fact which certainly does not reflect well on the medical profession. Richard Sackler, the current chairman of the board of Purdue and who closely directed the firm in recent years, went to Harvard Business School—a fact which also does not reflect well on America’s premier business school. At Purdue, profits trumped ethics.
The Sacklers were generous donors to universities, academic medical centers, museums, and other charitable institutions in the U.S. and all over the world. Their names adorned these venerable institutions. In almost every case their names have been removed. And with the new bankruptcy ruling the Sacklers will lose most of their vast fortune. Far more important is their tragic legacy of being a major cause of the devastating opioid epidemic which has afflicted so many American families.