OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma Expected To Finally Be Sentenced In Opioid Crisis Case

Years after pleading guilty for conduct that helped create the opioid crisis, Purdue Pharma’s settlement with the federal government appears to be moving forward.

The Associated Press reported that a judge is expected to sentence the company and accept a deal struck with federal prosecutors. That sentence will trigger a $225 million payment as well as settlements involving thousands of lawsuits that could potentially reach as high $7 billion over the next 15 years. The money would primarily go to government organizations fighting the opioid crisis.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, between 1999 and 2023 over 800,000 people died from an opioid overdose. This includes overdose deaths involving prescription and illegal opioids. Although Purdue Parma was just one company prescribing opioids, the AP noted that the company’s aggressive tactics to market OxyContin were seen as one of the main driving forces behind the crisis.

Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty five years ago to three charges related to the opioid epidemic. Two of the charges related to misleading the government to believe the company had taken measures to ensure that their drugs were not being diverted to a black market.

The third charge relates to the company providing kickbacks to doctors to prescribe their addictive products.

In the plea agreement, Purdue admitted that from May 2007 through at least March 2017 it misled the Drug Enforcement Administration to believe the company had an effective program when to prevent its drugs from falling into the black market. In reality, the company, continued to market its opioid products to more than 100 health care providers whom it had good reason to believe were diverting opioid products, including OxyContin.

The kickback charge related to activity between June 2009 and March 2017. The company admitted that it made payments to two doctors through Purdue’s doctor speaker program to induce those doctors to write more prescriptions of the company’s opioid products.

Another scheme occurred from April 2016 through December 2016, when Purdue made payments to Practice Fusion Inc., an electronic health records company, in exchange for referring, recommending, and arranging for the ordering of Purdue’s extended release opioid products – OxyContin, Butrans, and Hysingla.

The AP noted that the broader settlement of up to $7 billion over the next 15 years falls on the Sackler family who owns the company. The wire service reported that family members would be shielded from lawsuits over opioids from anyone who agrees to the payments. Also, under the settlement Purdue would no longer exist and would be replaced by a new company, Knoa Pharma.