Purdue Pharma headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut in September 2019.TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP
The prescription of a powerful opioid as an analgesic, OxyContin (trade name in the US, Oxycodone in Spain), contributed to aggravating the worst public health crisis in the US until the outbreak of Covid-19: a devastating addiction epidemic with 64,000 deaths from overdoses in 2016 alone. This Wednesday the pharmaceutical company that manufactured it, Purdue Pharma, has pleaded guilty to having produced and distributed opiates in said health crisis through a civil agreement with the Department of Justice that theoretically ends more than Two years of litigation, since in 2018 the Sackler family, owner of the firm, was indicted after filing more than 400 lawsuits for manifest deception about the dependence that the drug created, and in its administration.
Purdue Pharma, which last year declared bankruptcy after receiving a total of 2,600 lawsuits, mostly from local governments, is now assuming its responsibility and accepting payment of a total of 8.3 billion dollars (about 7 billion euros ) in terms of fines, civil damages and compensation, the highest penalty imposed on a pharmaceutical company, the Department of Justice stressed in a statement.
However, the bankruptcy filing of the company last year complicates the final resolution of the case and the payment of compensation to the victims, which could alternatively fall on the federal government.
"Opioid prescription abuse and neglect has contributed to a national tragedy of addiction and death, adding to those caused by opiates illicitly circulating on the streets," said Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen, announcing the decision.
Federal prosecutors consider it proven that the pharmaceutical company offered incentives to doctors who prescribed OxyContin to their patients as a pain reliever, hence one of the crimes that the firm assumes to have committed is the violation of the federal anti-bribery statute, in addition to another for deception of the US drug agency between 2007 and 2017.
In a separate settlement, the Sackler family, which turned Purdue into a pharmaceutical industry giant thanks to the lucrative OxyContin market, agreed to pay $ 225 million in liability to the Justice Department.
However, this civil agreement does not exempt any executive or employee of the company from future criminal responsibility, since an investigation continues into those involved in the gigantic fraud.
Purdue will therefore end up paying only the 225 million against an initial compensation of 2 billion, since the Department of Justice waived the rest if the company completes a reorganization, dissolving and transferring its assets to a “public benefit company” or allocating the resources to demanding communities.
According to judicial sources cited by Reuters, the criminal fine of 3.54 billion and a civil fine of 2.8 billion will not be satisfied, as they compete with the billions of dollars of other claims of local communities and creditors in the bankruptcy file. from Purdue.
The civil agreement announced on Wednesday does not therefore conclude the macro-process against Purdue Pharma, but it does represent a significant advance in the legal battle raised by counties, cities and states to hold the manufacturer accountable for its responsibility in promoting this serious public health crisis.
The number of overdose deaths due to opiate use has quadrupled in the country in the past two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Since the turn of the century, opiate derivatives have killed more than 450,000 people, at a rate of 142 a day, according to the most recent count.
In 2015, two out of every three overdoses were due to these substances, making this cause of death the most common, above homicides by firearms and traffic accidents.