Purdue Now

An 800-pound, nearly 11-foot-long steel sculpture of a bent and burned drug spoon titled “Purdue” was placed outside of Purdue Headquarters in Connecticut. Created by Artist Domenic Esposito.

Over the past 7 years the pharmaceutical company Purdue has experience a plethora of backlash followed by a countless amount of ongoing lawsuits for their involvement in the opioid crisis. As it stands, more than 2,000 lawsuits have been filled against Purdue, ranging from their marketing and mislabeling of their product OxyContin to deaths related to their product. It is estimated that to settle these cases the company has to pay out around $10 – $12 billion, forcing the company to file for a chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of their settlement of 2000 cases. According to the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC), Purdue is at least directly responsible for 400,000 deaths, due to their deceptive business practices from 1999 to 2017. Findings suggest that the company has profited while many people were continually becoming addicted to their product OxyContin. The settlements filed by many states and cities hope to reverse some of the affects of the opioid crisis. According to some of the attorneys involved in the proceeding against Purdue, part of the settlement includes recent sales of OxyContin being fast tracked through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), being used for emergency treatment of opioid overdoses. In addition, members of the Sackler’s – the family that founded Purdue – have been asked to resign from their executive positions at the company in order to establish a board that will reverse the effects of the opioid epidemic. The opioid crisis has had a substantial impact on the economy, since it is estimated that the U.S. spent upwards of $500 billion in relation to the opioid crisis, while Purdue has made more than $35 billion in profits. Ultimately, previous settlements help to bring down the faces responsible for letting a dangerous drug be prescribed freely without consequence.

As Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, are seeking to settle thousands of lawsuits concerning their alleged role in the opioid crisis, new video has been unsealed showing former Purdue CEO Richard Sackler denying the company played any part in the epidemic.