Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer behind OxyContin that has been blamed for fueling the opioid epidemic, will plead guilty to three federal criminal charges as part of a multibillion-dollar settlement with the Department of Justice.
The company will plead guilty to three counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating federal anti-kickback laws, according to the court complaint. The resolution will be detailed in a bankruptcy court filing in federal court. The settlement will total roughly $8.3 billion.
Wednesday’s settlement is the highest-profile display of federal regulators working to hold a pharmaceutical company accountable for its role in driving the opioid epidemic, which led to more than 50,000 deaths due to overdose in 2019 and over 470,000 since 2000. .
The settlement deal would transform Purdue Pharma into a public benefit company with profits from ongoing limited sales of OxyContin and several overdose-reversing medications to go toward opioid treatment.
Members of the wealthy Sackler family in chief executive roles at Purdue are still part of an ongoing criminal investigation and are not released from facing criminal charges with Wednesday’s deal.
Purdue’s owners must pay $225 million in civil penalties, part of a larger $2 billion criminal forfeiture. Purdue also faces criminal fines totaling $3.54 billion and nearly $3 billion in damages to resolve its civil liability. The company sought protection from mounting litigation in September 2019 when the owners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Wednesday’s settlement does not resolve the roughly 2,000 lawsuits brought against Purdue Pharma by state attorneys general that claim the company’s advertising of the drug is to blame for addictions nationwide. Wednesday’s agreement still has to be approved by a federal bankruptcy court.
OxyContin was introduced in 1996 by Purdue Pharma, which reported to the Food and Drug Administration that the drug treats “moderate to severe” pain with little risk of addiction. While Purdue pleaded guilty in a 2007 case alleging that OxyContin’s labeling downplayed the drug’s addictive qualities, the company will not acknowledge a role in fueling the epidemic: “No pharmaceutical manufacturer has done more to address the opioid addiction crisis than Purdue,” the company has said.
