Purdue payments to Sackler family surged after OxyContin fine
Family started taking far more money out of firm after it was fined for misleading marketing of drug
Family started taking far more money out of firm after it was fined for misleading marketing of drug
The wealthy owners of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma started taking far more money out of the company after it was fined for misleading marketing of the powerful prescription painkiller.
Purdue made payments for the benefit of some members of the Sackler family totaling $10.7bn from 2008 through to 2017, a court filing made by the company on Monday evening shows.
That includes taxes and other payments. Family members received $4.1bn in cash over that period. By contrast, distributions for the benefit of family members from 1995 to 2007 totalled $1.3bn.
The total amount family members received from the company was made public in a filing in October, but the new report offers fresh details on when the money was distributed.
“Today’s report confirms what we revealed in our lawsuit: The Sacklers pocketed billions of dollars from Purdue while thousands of people died from their addictive drugs. This is the very definition of ill-gotten gains,” the Massachusetts attorney general,
Maura Healey, the first attorney general to sue Sackler family members, said in a statement.
The Sacklers’ wealth has received intense scrutiny from Healey and 23 other state’s attorneys general who are objecting to a plan to settle 2,700 lawsuits against Purdue
The Sacklers’ wealth has received intense scrutiny from Healey and 23 other state’s attorneys general who are objecting to a plan to settle 2,700 lawsuits against Purdue
over the toll of opioids, including those filed by nearly every state.
The objecting attorneys general say the settlement does not do enough to hold the family accountable for the opioid crisis, which has been linked to more than 400,000 deaths in the US since 2000.
The objecting attorneys general say the settlement does not do enough to hold the family accountable for the opioid crisis, which has been linked to more than 400,000 deaths in the US since 2000.
The settlement calls for the family to contribute at least $3bn in cash over time and give up control of the company. In all, the plan could be worth up to $12bn over time.
But the offer comes with a major catch: the company says the family may back out if lawsuits against family members are allowed to move ahead. They’re all on hold for now as the company’s settlement efforts play out in bankruptcy court.
