US justice ends litigation against Purdue Pharma over opioid crisis

Tribute to the victims before the White Plains (New York) court in charge of the case, on August 9, Seth Wenig / AP

With the approval of the bankruptcy file and the dissolution of the company, the US courts this Wednesday ended the long dispute against Purdue Pharma, the pharmaceutical company largely responsible for the serious epidemic of addictions in the US due to the consumption of its flagship product, the opioid pain reliever OxyContin.

The ruling guarantees immunity from future lawsuits to the Sackler family, which owns the company, which in return agrees to pay 4,500 million dollars to the more than 3,000 plaintiffs for the damage caused by the drug, which contributed to aggravate the worst crisis health policy in the US between the AIDS epidemic and the coronavirus pandemic.

More information

• Big Pharma Announces $ 26 Billion Settlement to Settle U.S. Opioid Lawsuits

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The ruling approves the company's restructuring plan, which implies the transfer of its assets to a fund destined to combat the health crisis, a scourge that is still very palpable in the country, as evidenced by the periodic information and prevention campaigns of municipalities and states. .

During a hearing that lasted more than six hours, Federal Judge Robert Drain set the stage for the dissolution of Purdue Pharma, as well as for the Sacklers' exemption from criminal liability in the future. "I wish the [restructuring] plan had provided more [money], but I am not going to jeopardize what it offers," Drain said after reading the ruling. The money from the restructuring will go directly, through the management fund, to government entities, which will use it in detoxification and prevention programs, together with the surviving victims and their families. The death toll caused in the US by the opioid crisis (synthetic derivatives of opium) is estimated at more than 500,000 in the last two decades. The OxyContin was launched in 1995.

Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy in 2019, in an attempt to resolve the more than 3,000 criminal complaints filed by states, counties, tribes, and other local entities over the company's aggressive marketing campaign, including payments to doctors to prescribe. the highly addictive OxyContin, a fact that the manufacturers withheld. The court resolution not only exempts the Sacklers from future responsibilities, but also hundreds of partners. All of them will keep a large part of the fortune they made with the firm, in exchange for the payment of the 4.500 million dollars in cash and donations.

Critics of the agreement, including the attorneys general of nine states and the Justice Department, argue that violates the constitutional rights of potential complainants, because they wrongly denied the opportunity to directly sue the owner family, highlights the information portal

to the comment sentence. Supporters of the settlement agreement, including dozens of state and local governments, believe that the important thing is to have reached a quick financial agreement.

The OxyContin soap opera and the rise and fall of the Sackler family have been the subject of a chilling documentary on the HBO platform, detailing their savage

campaigns

, as well as a book by journalist Patrick Radden Keefe, forthcoming in Spanish.

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