OxyContin Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Supreme Court Rules OxyContin Makers Eligible For Civil Charges

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a deal Thursday that would have shielded OxyContin makers from lawsuits over their role in the opioid epidemic. Critics say Purdue Pharma knew OxyContin was addictive when they aggressively pushed its sale.

The United States Supreme Court rejected a deal Thursday that would have granted OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma immunity from civil charges for its role in the opioid epidemic. Now, West Virginia’s attorney general says he will continue to fight for money from drug manufacturers.

Critics say the company knew of OxyContin’s addictive quality while aggressively pushing its sale, even as hundreds of thousands of Americans died from opioid overdose since the 1990s.

West Virginia has been one the states hardest hit by the opioid epidemic. At least 14,000 residents have died from opioid-related overdose since 2001, and between 2022 and 2023 the state’s overdose rate rose even as the national rate fell.

The nixed deal with the Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma, would have provided $6 billion to addiction prevention and recovery services nationally, with tens of millions of dollars slated for West Virginia.

But West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said that, regardless, the court’s decision marked an important step toward holding opioid manufacturers legally responsible for the fallout of opioid addiction.

“We have fought hard — and we’re still fighting — to bring a sense of healing to the state,” Morrisey said in a press release Thursday. “With this decision, we will double down on our efforts to hold those who are accountable for the damage that’s been done to our state. We’ll be examining new ways to bring this case to closure.”

Morrisey added that, while money from legal settlements with opioid manufacturers cannot “bring back the lives lost from the opioid epidemic,” he hopes it can “provide much needed help to those affected.”

Judge Gives More Time For Purdue Pharma Settlement Talks

Members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma will get protection from lawsuits for another three weeks, a judge said Wednesday, buying more time to work out a settlement of thousands of legal claims against the company over the toll of opioids.

The protections had been set to expire Thursday, but U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain said in a hearing that they’d remain in place through March 23.

Also Wednesday, the mediator trying to broker a legal settlement between Purdue and a group of attorneys general said in a court filing that she would stay on the job, a possible sign that a deal to end the highest-profile litigation in the U.S. over the opioid epidemic is getting closer.

The hearing, conducted by video from Drain’s courtroom in White Plains, New York, was light on details. No one objected to extending the deadline or gave updates on where talks stand. But Drain noted that when he appointed another federal bankruptcy judge, Shelley Chapman, as mediator on Jan. 3, she was given the power to extend her service unilaterally only for “involvement in any secondary or drafting terms.”

“The mediation appears to me, though I am reading between the lines, to be progressing as Judge Chapman had hoped,” Drain said in the hearing, which lasted eight minutes.

The lawyers in the negotiations are under an order not to talk about it publicly — creating an opaqueness that has frustrated some advocates for victims.

As the maker of the highest-profile prescription opioid, Purdue faced a barrage of thousands of lawsuits from state, local and Native American tribal governments, along with unions, hospitals and others, blaming the company for helping spark an addiction and overdose crisis linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the past two decades. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2019 with the intent of reaching a sweeping settlement.

Most of the parties suing agreed to a deal last year that would have required members of the Sackler family to contribute $4.5 billion in cash and charitable assets plus give up ownership of Purdue, which would be converted to a new entity dedicating its profits to fighting the opioid crisis. Under the terms, Sackler family members would be protected from current and future civil suits over opioids. Most of the money would be restricted to uses to combat the crisis.

The attorneys general for California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington state held out, arguing that the deal didn’t do enough to hold Sackler family members accountable.

On an appeal, a U.S. District Court judge ruled in December that bankruptcy courts don’t have the authority to accept such deals if not all the parties agreed. Purdue has appealed that ruling but also returned to mediation with the holdout attorneys general.

Last month, Chapman said that a “supermajority” of the nine were on board with a new plan that upped the Sacklers’ contribution to $5.5 billion to $6 billion and gave the holdout states control of some of the additional funds. It appeared that the $750 million to be awarded to victims of the crisis and their survivors would be unchanged.

Chapman did not specify which attorney general or group of them continued to dissent.

A group of 45 parents whose children died of opioid overdoses wrote a letter last week to the nine attorneys general who were challenging the settlement asking for them to say publicly where they stand on it now. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter.

The parents, all residents of states where the attorneys general were previously holding out, said that if the deal falls apart, it could mean there are no other funds earmarked for victims of the crisis. Other opioid settlements, including the $26 billion worth of deals finalized last week involving drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and distribution companies AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson, do not have any provision for payments to victims.

“Please don’t prolong this painful chapter for us and let’s begin the work of compensating the victims and saving lives,” the parents said in the letter.

Suzanne Domagala, of Millville, Delaware, just wants to see the Sacklers pay as much as possible, saying that giving them immunity from further lawsuits seems outrageous.

Her son, Zach, a Marine Corps reservist, became addicted after injuring his shoulder during boot camp. When he died in 2017, she said she didn’t have the money to bury him and it took a few years before she could afford a headstone.

“That’s why when you’re looking at the costs of these things, money is such a trivial thing, but it’s the only way to exact any justice,” she said.

President Joe Biden called on Republicans and Democrats during his State of the Union address Tuesday to work together on ending the epidemic, underscoring how it continues to be a nightmare for so many.

“If you’re suffering from addiction, know you are not alone,” he said.

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Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio.

OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma To Plead Guilty To 3 Criminal Charges

Purdue Pharma, the company that makes OxyContin, the powerful prescription painkiller that experts say helped touch off an opioid epidemic, will plead guilty to three federal criminal charges as part of a settlement of more than $8 billion, Justice Department officials announced Wednesday.

The company will plead guilty to three counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating federal anti-kickback laws, the officials said. The resolution will be detailed in a bankruptcy court filing in federal court.

The deal does not release any of the company’s executives or owners — members of the wealthy Sackler family — from criminal liability, and a criminal investigation is ongoing. One state attorney general said the agreement fails to hold the Sacklers accountable, while family members said they had acted “ethically and lawfully.”

The settlement is the highest-profile display yet of the federal government seeking to hold a major drug maker responsible for an opioid addiction and overdose crisis linked to more than 470,000 deaths in the country since 2000.

“Purdue deeply regrets and accepts responsibility for the misconduct detailed by the Department of Justice in the agreed statement of facts,” Steve Miller, who became chairman of the company’s board in 2018, said in a statement. No members of the Sackler family remain on that board, though they still own the company.

Family members, in a statement, expressed “deep compassion for people who suffer from opioid addiction and abuse and hope the proposal will be implemented as swiftly as possible to help address their critical needs.”

The deal comes less than two weeks before a presidential election where the opioid epidemic has taken a political back seat to the coronavirus pandemic and other issues. It does give President Donald Trump’s administration an example of action on the addiction crisis, which he promised early in his term.

But to Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, the Justice Department “failed” and she said in a statement that she was not done with either Purdue or the Sacklers.

“Justice in this case requires exposing the truth and holding the perpetrators accountable, not rushing a settlement to beat an election,” she said.

Ed Bisch, who lost his 18-year-old son to an OxyContin overdose nearly 20 years ago, said he wants to see people associated with Purdue prosecuted.

“The fact that this doesn’t grant anyone immunity, I’m heartened by that,” he said after the deal was announced.

As part of the resolution, Purdue is admitting that it impeded the Drug Enforcement Administration by falsely representing that it had maintained an effective program to avoid drug diversion and by reporting misleading information to the agency to boost the company’s manufacturing quotas, the officials said.

Purdue is also admitting to violating federal anti-kickback laws by paying doctors, through a speaking program, to induce them to write more prescriptions for the company’s opioids and for using electronic health records software to influence the prescription of pain medication, according to the officials.

Purdue will make a direct payment to the government of $225 million, which is part of a larger $2 billion criminal forfeiture. In addition to that forfeiture, Purdue also faces a $3.54 billion criminal fine, though that money probably will not be fully collected because it will be taken through a bankruptcy, which includes a large number of other creditors. Purdue will also agree to $2.8 billion in damages to resolve its civil liability.

Purdue would transform into a public benefit company, meaning it would be governed by a trust that has to balance the trust’s interests against those of the American public and public health, officials said. The Sacklers would not be involved in the new company and part of the money from the settlement would go to aid in medication-assisted treatment and other drug programs to combat the opioid epidemic, the officials said.

As part of the plea deal, the company admits it violated federal law and “knowingly and intentionally conspired and agreed with others to aid and abet” the dispensing of medication from doctors “without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice,” according to a copy of the plea agreement obtained by the AP.

First lady Melania Trump, who has focused many of her public efforts on health issues such as this epidemic, tweeted that the agreement was “another big step in defeating” the crisis.

But even before the deal was announced, it was facing resistance from state attorneys general, Democratic members of Congress and advocates who wrote Attorney General William Barr asking him not to make the bargain with the company and the family. They said it does not hold them properly accountable and they raised concerns about some of the details.

The Sackler family has already pledged to hand over the company itself plus at least $3 billion to resolve thousands of suits against the Stamford, Connecticut-based drug maker. The company declared bankruptcy as a way to work out that plan, which could be worth $10 billion to $12 billion over time. Family members said in their statement that the company’s value is more than twice as much as they profited from OxyContin.

About half the states oppose that settlement, and also wrote Barr to ask him not to make the federal deal that includes converting Purdue into a public benefit corporation. They say it would be wrong for governments to rely on earnings from the sale of more OxyContin to fund programs to mitigate the toll of an opioid crisis wrought by prescription drugs as well as heroin and illicitly produced fentanyl.

The Sackler family was once listed among the nation’s wealthiest by Forbes magazine. A 2019 court filing said they had made up to $13 billion over the years from the blockbuster drug, though a lawyer said they brought in far less after taxes and reinvestment in the company.

Until recently, the family’s name was on museum galleries and educational programs around the world because of gifts from family members. But under pressure from activists, institutions from the Louvre in Paris to Tufts University in Massachusetts have dissociated themselves from the family in the last few years.

Drug Companies Profit from Opioid Epidemic While Regulators Look the Other Way

Drug wholesalers sent 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills into West Virginia over six years, according to an investigation by the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

Meanwhile, 1,728 West Virginians died from overdoses of these two powerful painkillers.

Who let it happen? Investigative reporter Eric Eyre, of the Charleston Gazette-Mail, answered our questions about his series on The Front Porch.

(Caution: This week’s podcast contains a vulgar slang word.)

1. What was the biggest surprise for you?

Drug wholesalers shipped enough painkillers to provide 433 pills for every man, woman and child in the state, Eyre said. And in parts of the southern West Virginia coalfields, the numbers were even higher.

“I was surprised that some of the smallest pharmacies had some of the biggest numbers,” Eyre said. For example, nearly 9 million hydrocodone pills to one pharmacy in Kermit, W.Va., population 392.

“In Oceana, one pharmacy received 600,000 – 700,000 oxycodone pills a year. The Rite Aid six blocks away gets 6,000.”

2. Did the drug wholesalers do anything illegal?

“They have a legal obligation to report these suspicious orders to the (federal) Drug Enforcement Agency,” and to the state Board of Pharmacy, Eyre said.

For years, none of them did. But after a lawsuit was filed by former state Attorney General Darrell McGraw, some wholesalers began to send suspicious order reports to the Board of Pharmacy.

3. What did the Board of Pharmacy do with those reports of suspicious orders from the drug wholesalers?

They put them in a box, Eyre said. They did not tell law enforcement or even tally the information on a computer.

Eyre asked the board’s director about this: “He said the law does not prescribe what they’re supposed to do with the suspicious report, only that they’re supposed to be filed.”

Now, the board is considering sharing these with the State Police or Attorney General.

4. How do the drug wholesalers defend themselves?

“They say these are licensed pharmacies. These are licensed doctors. The responsibility should be with the boards that licensed those two groups,” Eyre said.

5. This investigation looked at the time period of 2007 – 2012. What’s happened since then?

On many levels, there’s been a crackdown on illegal use of prescription opioids, Eyre said. Hydrocodone was reclassified to make it harder to prescribe. State officials are tracking prescriptions more closely.

The number of overdoses from hydrocodone and oxycodone have leveled out and maybe declined a bit. But they’re being replaced by drugs like heroin and fentanyl.

6. What’s the relationship the flood of pain pills and today’s heroin epidemic?

“The pain pills set the stage,” Eyre said, for illegal drugs like heroin and more powerful synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

Now, those drugs are causing more and more overdoses.

7. What’s been the reaction to your story?

“Since this article came out, I have gotten emails from all over the country, saying they had an overdose in the family,” Eyre said.

“The other set is lots of emails from people who grew up in West Virginia, and worry about the state.”

8. What’s the historical context?

Front Porch co-host Rick Wilson says, “It reminds me of the Opium Wars, in which Great Britain went to war with China to have a free market in drugs.”

9. How did this even happen?

“When there’s a drug epidemic in a poor community, it’s not that big a deal. But when it crosses over to affect middle and upper class people, it’s a tragedy,” Wilson said.

10. What Bible verse best sums up the lessons from this series?

From Wilson: Matthew 18:6 – “If anyone causes one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

“The Front Porch” is a place where we tackle the tough issues facing West Virginia and Appalachia with some of the region’s most interesting thinkers.

WVPB Executive Director Scott Finn serves as host and provocateur, joined by Laurie Lin, a conservative lawyer and columnist, and Rick Wilson, a liberal columnist and avid goat herder who works for the American Friends Service Committee.

Subscribe to “The Front Porch” podcast on iTunes or however you listen to podcasts.

An edited version of “The Front Porch” airs Fridays at 4:50 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s radio network, and the full version is available above.

Share your opinions with us about these issues, and let us know what you’d like us to discuss in the future. Send a tweet to @radiofinn or @wvpublicnews, or e-mail Scott at sfinn @ wvpublic.org

The Front Porch is underwritten by The Charleston Gazette Mail, providing both sides of the story on its two editorial pages. Check it out: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/

Nearly 1 in 3 on Medicare Got Commonly Abused Opioids

A new report says nearly 12 million Medicare beneficiaries received at least one prescription for an opioid painkiller last year at a cost of $4.1 billion. Federal data show how common the addictive drugs are in many older Americans’ medicine cabinets.

With an overdose epidemic worsening, nearly one-third of Medicare beneficiaries received at least one prescription for commonly abused opioids such as OxyContin and fentanyl in 2015. Those who did received an average of five such prescriptions or refills.

The report was released Wednesday to The Associated Press by the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Medicare spokesman Aaron Albright says agency officials are reviewing the report closely.