The former president and board chair of the company that makes OxyContin told a court last week that he, his family and the company did not cause the opioid crisis in the United States and that the family expected protection from lawsuits, reports AP.
Richard Sackler, a member of the family that owns Purdue Pharma, was asked under oath during a federal bankruptcy hearing whether he, his kin or the company bear responsibility. For each, he answered “No”.
Sacklerʼs testimony came a day after his son, David Sackler, testified. The younger Sackler, who also served on Purdueʼs board, reiterated something that has long been the familyʼs position: they will agree to their part of the plan to restructure Purdue only if family members receive protection from lawsuits over opioids and other Purdue action.
In statements and court papers, the Sackler family has consistently denied wrongdoing in the opioid crisis, even as the company it owns has twice pleaded guilty to federal crimes over its opioid practices.
But itʼs rare for family members to be asked about it point-blank in open court. The hearing in federal bankruptcy court in White Plains, New York, was held via videoconference.
Richard Sackler has not appeared in public forums in recent years apart from a video deposition he gave in a lawsuit in 2015. His denial of responsibility for the opioid crisis comes a day after his son testified that the family wouldnʼt accept a settlement without guarantees of immunity from further legal action.
During last Wednesdayʼs hearing, notes AP, in response to more than three hours of questions, mostly from Assistant Attorney General Brian Edmunds, Richard Sackler repeatedly answered, “I donʼt recall”.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has tallied more than 500,000 deaths in the US to opioid overdose, including both prescription drugs and illicit ones such as heroin and illegally produced fentanyl, since 2000.
According to AP, the previous words of Richard Sackler, now 76, are at the heart of lawsuits accusing the Connecticut-based company of a major role in sparking a nationwide opioid epidemic.
In the 1996 event to launch sales of OxyContin, he told the companyʼs sales force there would be “a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition.”
Five years later, as it was apparent that the powerful prescription pain drug was being misused in some cases, he said in an email that Purdue would have to “hammer on the abusers in every way possible” describing them as “the culprits and the problem”.
For those reasons, the activists crusading against companies involved in selling opioids often see Sackler — who was president of the company from 1999 to 2003, chair of its board from 2004 through 2007, and a board member from 1990 until 2018 — as a prime villain.
Members of the wealthy family have long avoided the spotlight in the business world and welcomed it in philanthropy. But in recent years, museums, including the Louvre in Paris and universities like Tufts in Massachusetts, which they have supported, have cut ties over the opioid crisis.
Under the proposed settlement, members of the Sackler family would give up ownership of Purdue and contribute $4.5 billion over time in cash and control of charitable funds. Most of the money, along with Purdueʼs future profits, would be used to abate the opioid crisis. Some would go to individual victims and their families.
AP News article – Ex-chair of Purdue denies responsibility for opioid crisis (Open access)
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