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OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma agrees to plead guilty in $8B opioid settlement

Deru

Deru

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OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma agrees to plead guilty in $8B opioid settlement
Deal does not release any of the company’s executives or owners — members of the wealthy Sackler family — from criminal liability
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By Evie FordhamFOXBusiness

Ohio AG on urdue Pharma bankruptcy
Ohio Attorney General David Yost on Purdue Pharma's bankruptcy and vaping-related illnesses.


OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma has agreed to plead guilty to three federal criminal charges as part of a settlement of more than $8 billion, Justice Department officials announced Wednesday.

Purdue Pharma is expected to plead guilty to one count of dual-object conspiracy for defrauding the U.S. and to violate the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and two counts of conspiracy to violate the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute. The criminal resolution includes a criminal fine of more than $3.5 billion and $2 billion in criminal forfeiture, plus a civil settlement of $2.8 billion.

The deal does not release any of the company’s executives or owners — members of the wealthy Sackler family — from criminal liability. A criminal investigation is ongoing.

The company is in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings, and a bankruptcy court would need to approve the settlement.

PHARMACIES SAY PRESCRIBERS BEAR OPIOID CRISIS RESPONSIBILITY


"The agreed resolution, if approved by the courts, will require that the company be dissolved and no longer exist in its present form," Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said at a news conference.


OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma agrees to plead guilty in $8B opioid settlement | Fox Business

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma has agreed to plead guilty to three federal criminal charges as part of a settlement of more than $8 billion, Justice Department officials announced Wednesday.
www.foxbusiness.com www.foxbusiness.com
 
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In the end these fines and legal proceedings are just a drop in the bucket for these people. While thousands lay dead in their wake.. Such is the way of white color crimes.

-GC
 
True, although their admission of guilt does slightly make me feel like a little bit of justice has been served. Without OxyContin, I honestly don't know the direction my life would have went, but that's where it all began when I was 17.
 
I think pharmaceutical companies have taken too much of the blame for the over-prescribing of OxyContin. At the end of the day, it is a physician's responsibility to prescribe drugs based on a rational assessment of the available data and of a patient's needs. If they instead prescribe drugs based on what pharma sales reps told them, there is some responsibility on the pharmaceutical companies for shady advertising practices but much more on the physicians for taking what those reps said at face value.
 
Except it goes a little further with Purdue Pharma and OxyContin because they were somehow able to convince the FDA that it wasn't addictive through shady means. It was more than just taking the reps word at face value, because initially all the doctors were very hesitant to prescribe it.
 
Deru said:
Except it goes a little further with Purdue Pharma and OxyContin because they were somehow able to convince the FDA that it wasn't addictive through shady means. It was more than just taking the reps word at face value, because initially all the doctors were very hesitant to prescribe it.
Click to expand...
Do you have a source that shows that the FDA determined that OxyContin was not addictive, or that Purdue Pharma put fraudulent information in its New Drug Application? From what I gather from the story in the OP, none of the criminal allegations are based on the NDA or pre-NDA shenanigans. They are based on post-approval marketing conduct (which was admittedly nefarious) and for not fulfilling the nebulous requirement to police drug diversion (a policy analogous to Molson-Coors being responsible for making sure alcohol isn't sold to drunk drivers or minors).

If physicians were initially hesitant to prescribe it, what changed in the scientific literature or in their practical observations that made them start prescribing it en masse?
 
S.J.B. said:
If physicians were initially hesitant to prescribe it, what changed in the scientific literature or in their practical observations that made them start prescribing it en masse?
Click to expand...
Money ... I guess. I read various news even in Spanish about this. Apparently there was some kind of bribe for doctors to prescribe it en masse
 
Nicocastillo7 said:
Money ... I guess. I read various news even in Spanish about this. Apparently there was some kind of bribe for doctors to prescribe it en masse
Click to expand...
According to the allegations, that does indeed seem to have been part of it. Which leads back to my statement about physician responsibility. A physician accepting a bribe is more responsible for the consequences of that bribe than the sales rep offering it.
 
S.J.B. said:
According to the allegations, that does indeed seem to have been part of it. Which leads back to my statement about physician responsibility. A physician accepting a bribe is more responsible for the consequences of that bribe than the sales rep offering it.
Click to expand...
I totally agree, the doctors who accepted the bribe have the power to prescribe these drugs, that is even more dangerous than a company that produces a super addictive drug (and so delicious by the way, agh) it is easier to blame the company than to all the doctors in the country.
 
I knew something was wrong with the over-prescribing problem in the USA but I didn't know that a big company was responsible for it, by manipulating the regulatory system. This is so fucking shocking and unbelievable.
 
S.J.B. said:
Do you have a source that shows that the FDA determined that OxyContin was not addictive, or that Purdue Pharma put fraudulent information in its New Drug Application?
Click to expand...

It was in the news years ago when this all started. I'll have to go do some research to find it, and I'd prefer not to try to recall this from memory, but it had something to do with money, people on the board who made the determination and money paying the research....but seriously don't quote me on the specifics, that's my general recollection. I'll find the report though, just might take a while.

My guess is it all died quietly and swept under the rug, as those things tend to be, but I believe there were even documentaries about it. I think this all came out within a couple years after Purdue Pharma switched to the OP formulation.

I'll stop trying to recall from memory and go find some sources.
 
S.J.B. said:
Do you have a source that shows that the FDA determined that OxyContin was not addictive, or that Purdue Pharma put fraudulent information in its New Drug Application? From what I gather from the story in the OP, none of the criminal allegations are based on the NDA or pre-NDA shenanigans. They are based on post-approval marketing conduct (which was admittedly nefarious) and for not fulfilling the nebulous requirement to police drug diversion (a policy analogous to Molson-Coors being responsible for making sure alcohol isn't sold to drunk drivers or minors).

If physicians were initially hesitant to prescribe it, what changed in the scientific literature or in their practical observations that made them start prescribing it en masse?
Click to expand...


yes that has been clearly established.
 
@neversickanymore

Any idea at what period of time that reporting was done? I’m having an incredibly difficult time finding the information.
 
As a matter of interest:

If Purdue is closed down (or whatever happens to the company) has their patent for Oxycontin run out already (and generics can therefore be produced by other pharmaceutical companies)? Just curious because there must be millions for whom Oxycontin is legitimately prescribed?
 
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