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Purdue Pharma will pay a quarter of a billion dollars in fines to the U.S. Justice Department after being sentenced on federal criminal charges. DOJ officials say the maker of OxyContin's illegal marketing practices fueled the deadly opioid crisis. As NPR's Brian Mann reports, the company's owners and executives avoid a trial.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Purdue Pharma reached this criminal settlement with the DOJ in 2020, but yesterday's sentencing was delayed by years of legal wrangling over the company's bankruptcy. Ahead of Tuesday's sentencing, Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva told reporters the company has now faced a reckoning.
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TYSEN DUVA: Purdue's conduct, which had devastating and far-reaching consequences for hundreds of thousands of American families affected by the opioid crisis, ends in a criminal conviction and a criminal sentence fitting Purdue's crimes.
MANN: Purdue Pharma admitted misleading the public about the safety of OxyContin and to paying doctors through a kickback scheme to over-prescribe highly addictive opioid medications. U.S. officials say the company's actions contributed to the spread of opioid addiction, leaving the U.S. vulnerable to the fentanyl crisis, which still kills tens of thousands of people every year. Critics, including Ed Bisch, who lost his son to an OxyContin overdose, say this punishment didn't go far enough.
ED BISCH: I said from Day 1, this was about protecting the Sacklers, and in the end, the Sacklers are protected.
MANN: Bisch points out, this is the second time Purdue Pharma agreed to plead guilty to corporate criminal charges, paying fines while company leaders avoided punishment. Members of the Sackler family who own the company say they did nothing wrong, and they've never been charged with any crime. Bisch and other grieving families protested yesterday outside the courthouse in Newark, New Jersey. Alexis Pleus, who lost a son to an opioid overdose, said she felt some closure but no sense of justice.
ALEXIS PLEUS: Every individual on every level of Purdue Pharma knew what they were doing. They knew what was going on, and they chose profits over people. And as individuals, they really should be held accountable.
MANN: NPR reached out to Purdue Pharma, but received no response. The $225 million that will be paid to the Justice Department will go to fund DOJ operations. The Sacklers and Purdue Pharma are now expected to quickly finalize a much larger federal bankruptcy settlement worth roughly $7.4 billion. Much of that money will go to fund drug addiction treatment programs around the U.S.
Brian Mann, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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