More than 600,000 Americans Killed over Opioids, as Sackler Family Gets a Sweet Deal
Posted on 09/05/2021
The two branches of the Sackler family, who is has investments in a wide range of assets, own opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma L.P., the maker of the powerful painkiller Oxycontin. The opioid crisis in the United States has claimed more than 600,000 Americans and the running total keeps growing higher. Furthermore, the United States has seen record high rates of neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome. The Sackler family has never been charged criminally, unlike the average drug dealer on the streets of the United States. Several family members of the Sackler family served on Purdue Pharma’s board of directors and as senior executives, pushing Oxycontin on the U.S. population. The family has profited from Oxycontin sales to U.S. people and have been estimated to have made more than US$ 10 billion from the drug as America suffers from mass opioid addiction.
The Sackler family was lucky when a New York bankruptcy court approved a deal for the dissolution of Purdue Pharma. From a public relations perspective Purdue Pharma’s reputation of addicting Americans to painkillers is a little better than of a Mexican drug cartel. Not surprisingly, the Sacklers were able to buy themselves immunity from accountability in the civil courts. In return, the family will have to hand over a small fraction of the money they made from OxyContin. The family will pay some US$ 4.3 billion for individual payments to victims of opioids and addiction programs. Purdue Pharma twice pleaded guilty to felonies, once in 2007 and the other time in 2020, in which the company was caught lying about the risk of addiction from OxyContin, bribing doctors to prescribe it and defrauding the federal government.
On September 15, 2019 and the 16th, Purdue Pharma and 23 affiliated debtors each filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. In late July 2021, Purdue Pharma creditors voted in favor of the reorganization plan that would provide billions of dollars to the governments that sued the company for its role in the American opioid crisis.
AlixPartners, LLP acted as the financial advisor to Purdue Pharma, raking in fees, with some managing directors charging US$ 1,295 per hour, according to court documents.
Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Purdue Pharma L.P., and its affiliated debtors-in-possession:
1. West Boca Medical Center
2. CVS Caremark Part D Services L.L.C. and CaremarkPCS Health, L.L.C
3. LTS Lohmann Therapy Systems Corporation
4. Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association
5. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
6. Kara Trainor
7. Cheryl Juaire
8. Walter Lee Salmons
Source: Court Document
F.D.A. and Pharma’s Close Ties
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2002 saw trends in overdose deaths mounting and excessive opioid prescribing had risen beyond levels that could be clinically warranted. In response, the FDA held an advisory committee meeting of 10 outside experts. These “experts”, included eight people who had financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry including Purdue Pharma. The debate was whether a broad indication on opioid labels should be narrowed to prohibit marketing for common chronic pain conditions. The expert advisory committee advised the FDA against narrowing the indication. Has the FDA been acting more like a partner of an industry versus an overseer?
In 2018, Thomas Marciniak, a former FDA employee, told ProPublica, “You don’t survive as a senior official at the F.D.A. unless you’re pro-industry.”