The rise and fall of Purdue Pharma, the family behind it all, and the decades-long fight to have justice served.
From Netflix’s Painkiller to Hulu’s Dopesick, the dramatized story of Purdue Pharma and their infamous opioid OxyContin seems to be everywhere. Simultaneous to the rise in popularity of the TV dramas, the U.S. justice system is currently embattled in its own drama surrounding the legal and financial protections for the family responsible for the pain and suffering of a nation: the Sackler family. The dynasty of the Sackler family began in 1952 when brothers Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler purchased a small pharmaceutical company and became pioneers of medical marketing. A generation later, that pharmaceutical company became known as Purdue Pharma. In 1995, under the leadership of Raymond’s son Richard, Purdue introduced the United States to its medical miracle OxyContin, the magic pill that could melt pain away and give people back their lives.
Except it did anything but that.
Opioid overdoses have killed over one million people in the U.S. since 1999, and the Sackler family, dubbed “America’s most evil family,” is directly responsible for a significant portion of those.
Moreover, the White House Council of Economic Advisers estimates that the opioid crisis costs the U.S. over $1 trillion annually. Aside from the deaths and dollars, data from a 2006 U.S. Department of Justice report indicated that nearly one million residents over the age of 12 abused OxyContin non-medically at least once over the span of the drug’s time on the market. Oxycodone, the active ingredient of OxyContin, is a close relative of heroin and twice as powerful as morphine, and 80% of current heroin users reportedly started with prescription painkillers according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
How could an entire pharmaceutical company not realize that they were selling candy coated heroin?
Or rather, how much profit made it acceptable to turn a blind eye to that fact? Between 1995 and 2001 the drug brought in nearly $3 billion in revenue for Purdue Pharma, accounting for 90% of the company’s total sales. Purdue executives and the Sackler family were rolling in cash at the expense of millions of American lives. Over the span of the company’s existence, Purdue earned $31 billion in revenue, with the majority of that wealth going right into the pockets of the Sackler family, whom Forbes magazine listed as one of the 20 most wealthy families in the United States in 2016.
The U.S. Government first began looking into the company in the early 2000s. After a series of negotiations, the first major penalty for the company came in May 2007 — a $634 million fine for the three top executives, none of whom were members of the Sackler family. But that was just the beginning; after that settlement, dozens of U.S. states and countless individuals began filing lawsuits against the pharmaceutical giant. In 2019, Purdue filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and in October 2020, the company reached an $8.3 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department. Though this settlement would provide millions of dollars of funding towards combating the epidemic, many asserted that justice has yet to be served. The Sackler family, as part of this settlement, would have to cough up $225 million of their personal wealth, which is less than 2.5% of the total amount of money they withdrew from Purdue Pharma solely during the peak of the opioid crisis from 2008-2017. They were also allowed to continue to admit no wrongdoing or face any criminal charges.
After the settlement, all that’s left of Purdue Pharma (which has now rebranded to Knoa Pharma) is its bankruptcy settlement. And in 2022, that settlement was reached: $6 billion in cash from the Sackler family to be put into the pockets of families affected and towards opioid addiction treatment. But there’s a catch: the Sackler family gets full immunity from any current or future lawsuit.
Hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of lives permanently impacted, and billions of dollars in blood money, all wrapped up in a neat bundle of cash that seemingly washes away their sins.
Recognizing that flaw of the settlement, the Biden Administration (and dozens of independent opioid crisis activist groups) asked the court to block the bankruptcy in August 2023, and just last month the United States’ highest court began hearing arguments on the case. Now, the fate of the Sackler family, millions of dollars in settlement cash, and closure for thousands of families hangs in the balance of the U.S. Supreme Court. This case is unprecedented for a couple reasons: first, given that the Sackler family is not a named debtor in Purdue’s bankruptcy filing, granting full immunity from future lawsuits is unheard of. Moreover, the legal implications of this Supreme Court decision will forever impact large bankruptcy cases by allowing the wealthy individuals behind failing companies total insulation from tort cases.
Unfortunately, in the past month the Court has given no clear indication of which way it’s leaning. By allowing this bankruptcy to pass, the Sackler family undoubtedly wins, but so do the vast majority of Americans impacted by the crisis who are in favor of this deal. If the Supreme Court blocks Purdue’s bankruptcy, a floodgate of lawsuits would open (likely destroying most of the Sacklers’ fortune) but with no guarantee of payout. Moreover, any payout would likely be delayed years as the legal process essentially starts over from square one. No matter the legal outcome, the irreparable damage that one company—one family—had on a nation, can never be erased.
