Purdue to Plead Guilty - (Opioids)

 

PHARMA Purdue to Plead Guilty

 

Purdue Pharma’s saga reached a major milestone yesterday, when the drug company agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges for its part in the U.S.’ devastating opioid crisis. The backstory: Purdue’s role in the opioid crisis is well established—it pleaded guilty to violating kickback laws when it paid doctors to write more opioid prescriptions. According to the CDC, about a third of overdose deaths in 2018 involved prescription opioids. The details: The company will pay more than $8 billion, some of which will go to opioid treatment and abatement programs. Problem is, bankrupt Purdue doesn’t have $8 billion. So the government will reshape Purdue into a “public benefit company” that gives the government all of its profits. The new company will still produce Purdue’s tentpole product OxyContin, an outcome critics slammed. Big picture: While $8 billion is a record for a pharma company, it’s well below the cumulative $2 trillion states are claiming Purdue owes them. And this settlement doesn’t mean Purdue is off the hook for the thousands of lawsuits those states have brought, or for its bankruptcy proceedings.