Date: 2025-04-07 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028187
HEALTH
THE US OPIOID CRISIS
NPR: Purdue Pharma and Sackler family members
to pay $7.4B in national opioid settlement
THE US OPIOID CRISIS
NPR: Purdue Pharma and Sackler family members
to pay $7.4B in national opioid settlement
The opiod crisis is huge ... and remains uncontained!
Original article: https://www.congress.gov/116/chrg/CHRG-116hhrg43010/CHRG-116hhrg43010.pdf
Original article: Health/Opiod-Epidemic/CHRG-116hhrg43010.pdf Original article: https://www.congress.gov/event/116th-congress/house-event/LC65831/text
Original article: https://www.npr.org/2025/01/24/nx-s1-5272769/purdue-pharma-and-sackler-family-members-to-pay-7-4b-in-national-opioid-settlement
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
The story of Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family makes me sick! It is a blatant example of the American legal system simply not being fit for purpose!
This is not a new problem ... the problem has been around all my adult life ... more than 60 years.
British law is better ... but it also has embraced the idea that there is one set of rules for the rich, and another for every one else. Compared the US legal system, the British legal system is 'squeaky' clean ... but that is an excuse and not a reason!
I am disgusted that the Sackler family has essentially gotten away with their disastrous economic behavior ... but the underlying American philosophy that profit is always good needs to be addressed. The profit that accrued to the Sackler family was pure evil.
But when you look closely at a lot of American profit ... and the benefits accruing to investors ... there is almost always a rather depressing donwside to the activities of the company that simply do not get accounted for in the normal prevailing routine of reporting profit.
This is the underlying reason why the US stock market can report record corporate profits when everyone is aware that ordinary people have been facing more and more economic headwinds for over 40 years!. In that same time from the 1990s to now, the big 'owners' and 'investors' have gone from being millionaires to being billionaires. There is something wrong with this system, but rather little ... in fact nothing ... has been done to address the problem in a meaningful way in all my adult lifetime. I am now 85 years old!
Something has gone badly wrong! It is not easy to address because almost everyone has been 'drinking the coolaid!'
Peter Burgess
Purdue Pharma and Sackler family members to pay $7.4B in national opioid settlement
January 24, 2025
Written by Brian Mann
Transcript
State AGs have reached a new opioid settlement worth $7.4 billion with Purdue Pharma and its owners. The settlement does not give Sackler family members immunity from future opioid lawsuits.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
State attorneys general have reached a new opioid settlement with Purdue Pharma. That's the company that makes OxyContin. The tentative deal is worth more than $7 billion. It includes the company's owners, members of the Sackler family. However, it does not give them immunity from future opioid lawsuits as the family had hoped. NPR addiction correspondent Brian Mann joins us. So Brian, an earlier deal approved by a federal bankruptcy court did grant the Sacklers immunity from opioid lawsuits. What happened here?
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Yeah, A, that agreement was really controversial, and it was eventually shot down last year by the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices ruled U.S. law just doesn't give bankruptcy courts the power to block lawsuits in the way the Sacklers wanted. That forced everyone back to the negotiating table. Under this new deal, the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma actually agreed to pay more - about $500 million more - than under the previous deal without getting that big firewall against future lawsuits.
MARTÍNEZ: So why would they sign off, then?
MANN: Yeah. NPR asked the Sacklers for a statement about that. We haven't heard back. What we know is this agreement would settle all lawsuits against Purdue Pharma, and it would prevent most future lawsuits against the Sacklers. Here's what's interesting. The deal also sets aside up to $800 million for a legal fund that the Sacklers could use in the future if they're sued. And what that means, A, is the cost of any future opioid litigation against the Sacklers would be paid for not by the family but out of this opioid settlement fund. So they're not getting immunity from future lawsuits, but the Sacklers are still going to walk away with a lot of financial protection.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. This story, it goes way back. So remind us why there's been so much of a focus on this company and this family.
MANN: Yeah, the opioid crisis, we all know it's been raging for a long time - started in the '90s, killed millions of Americans, really ravaged communities. And public health experts and government officials say it all began with this company, Purdue Pharma. The company falsely marketed this pain medication, OxyContin, as less addictive, less dangerous. In a statement yesterday, Connecticut's attorney general, Scott Tong (ph), accused the Sacklers of igniting one of the most devastating public health crises in American history. The Sacklers themselves have never been charged with any crime, but their company did eventually plead guilty to federal charges twice for deceptive marketing, while federal prescribing rules for pain pills have now been tightened. We're still caught up in this wider opioid crisis where drugs like OxyContin have given way to heroin and fentanyl.
MARTÍNEZ: Is this settlement money, though, expected to help ease the crisis?
MANN: You know, state attorneys general who negotiated this deal say, yes, if the courts sign off, it will help. New York's state attorney general, Letitia James, said in a statement that this massive influx of funds will bring resources to communities so they can heal. Once finalized, this $7.4 billion would come on top of roughly $50 billion in opioid settlement cash already agreed to by other big companies that also got involved in the opioid pain pill business.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. That's a lot of corporate settlement money you talked about there. I mean, is it being well spent?
MANN: Yeah, there's a debate underway about that. Critics say a lot of that money is being diverted, spent by local and state governments on things like law enforcement. But supporters of these deals say a lot of the money is starting to flow to pay for addiction treatment, counseling and housing. Public health experts say those resources might be one of the reasons drug overdose deaths from fentanyl are finally dropping.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR addiction correspondent Brian Mann. Brian, thanks.
MANN: Thank you.
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