Purdue Pharma (THE SACKLER FAMILY), the company that produces OxyContin, launched an extensive and coordinated campaign in the early 2000s to expand opioid sales and promoted the myth that its product was non-addictive.
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."
CDC reports a record 81,000 drug overdose deaths in the US in a 12-month period
14 hours ago
More than 81,000 people died from drug overdoses between June 2019 and May 2020 in the United States according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the highest number of overdose deaths recorded in a 12-month period.
The report noted that overdose deaths were already increasing before the pandemic, but that the data shows an acceleration in death rates following the outbreak of COVID-19 in the US.
The leading factor in this rise in deaths has been attributed to the use of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. The number of synthetic opioid deaths rose by 38.4 percent from the 12-month period ending in May 2019 compared to the 12-month period ending in May 2020.
Of the 38 jurisdictions with synthetic opioid overdose data, 37 reported an increase in deaths, 18 of which reported increases over 50 percent. Ten western states also reported an increase in synthetic-opioid–related deaths of more than 98 percent. The CDC did not specify the states.
Additionally, cocaine overdose deaths rose 26.5 percent, and deaths related to psychostimulants, such as methamphetamine, rose 34.6 percent. The CDC believes that the rise in cocaine overdose deaths was influenced by co-use or contamination with fentanyl or heroin. The report also noted that the number of deaths involving psychostimulants has surpassed cocaine-related deaths.
The acceleration in drug overdose deaths during the pandemic is a development of a broader exponential growth in such fatalities over the past four decades. The number of drug overdose deaths rose from 1.13 per 100,000 people in 1979 to 16.96 per 100,000 in 2016, according to research published in Science magazine. This growth has resulted in just under 600,000 deaths over a 38-year span, with a doubling of deaths every 9 years.
The trends for individual drugs have fluctuated over time; however, the last 20 years have seen opioids take a central position in the growth of overdose deaths. According to data from the CDC, the number of opioid prescriptions is three times higher than in 1999.
Opioid prescriptions and overdose deaths steadily rose throughout the 2000s. Prescriptions peaked in 2012 with 255 million issued at a rate of 81.3 per 100,000. The total volume of opioids dispensed peaked in 2010 at 782 morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) per capita.
Since then, the total number of prescriptions has fallen considerably to 153 million in 2019. The immediate cause of this reduction in prescriptions was the publication of several studies between 2010 and 2012 providing evidence of the addictive qualities of prescription opioids and their relation to high rates of substance abuse and overdoses.
While prescriptions have declined, the death rate has remained high and even accelerated. This was largely a result of the rapid rise in fentanyl and heroin use since 2010. People who had become addicted to opioids quickly found it more difficult to acquire a steady supply due to a crackdown on pill-mill pharmacies. Without any substantial government funding for addiction rehabilitation, thousands of addicts were left to find their way to more dangerous substances.
Illegally manufactured fentanyl and heroin quickly became cheap and powerful alternatives to prescription opioids. Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. Because of this, it is often used to cut heroin or to create counterfeit opioids, sometimes resulting in unintentional consumption.
Purdue Pharma, the company that produces OxyContin, launched an extensive and coordinated campaign in the early 2000s to expand opioid sales and promoted the myth that its product was non-addictive.
Purdue gathered data on which physicians had the largest number of patients with chronic pain. They then used that data to target where they concentrated their marketing and sales staff. By 2003, nearly half of all OxyContin-prescribing physicians were primary care physicians.
The result was that physicians often did not have the expertise or time to assess pain levels and accurate pharmaceutical needs. By 2002, Purdue had multiplied its OxyContin prescriptions to 6.7 million, 10 times the number in 1997. In 1996, OxyContin sales were $44 million. Between 2001 and 2002, Purdue sold $3 billion worth of opioids.
Over this time, and still today, Purdue and other opioid manufacturers refused to admit any connection between opioid use and addiction. Salesmen promoted the limited research showing fewer than 1 percent of people became addicted when treated for short terms.
However, further research into the long-term use of OxyContin showed considerable addictive qualities. The evidence on this was so compelling that Purdue was forced to pay $634 million in fines along with several executives pleading guilty to misbranding OxyContin as nonaddictive in 2007.
In 2019, Purdue filed for bankruptcy after more than 2,000 lawsuits were filed against them by cities and states. With the evidence stacked against them, the Sackler family and Purdue executives decided to plan for the inevitable.
While Purdue still denies wrongdoing, as of October 2020 it has agreed to pay $8 billion in settlements, $3.5 billion in criminal fines and $2.8 billion in damages. Compared to the $35 billion in profit that was made from selling OxyContin, this is a fairly light punishment for causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands.
Purdue will also restructure into a “public-benefit company.” Ostensibly, this will make Purdue committed to public health and providing funds to state and local governments for opioid relief programs. What this will actually entail is still to be seen.
Regardless, the Sackler family that founded Purdue has transferred more than $10 billion to their assorted properties in preparation for the litigation, much of which they have squirreled away into offshore back accounts. They will likely remain billionaires after the collapse of Purdue and will potentially avoid prosecution through a $3 billion personal settlement with litigators.
The rise in drug overdose deaths during the pandemic is indicative of the inability of the country’s for-profit health care system to adequately provide for the social needs of the working class. Millions are suffering from the effects of drug abuse, yet no aid has been given to help people address this issue.
“The disruption to daily life due to the COVID-19 pandemic has hit those with substance use disorder hard,” CDC Director Robert Redfield noted in announcing the annual report. He further added that “it’s important to not lose sight of different groups being affected in other ways. We need to take care of people suffering from unintended consequences.”
The pandemic has vividly exposed all of the failings of the capitalist system, from government bailouts for corporations to the drive to reopen the economy at the expense of hundreds of thousands of lives. This latest data shows in stark detail the effects of failing to fully provide health care, including substance abuse rehabilitation, and the irreparable damage that can be done when the health of the working class is traded for profit.
ANOTHER CASE OF THE RICH PLUNDERING AND MURDERING, KEEPING THEIR ILL GOT GAINS AND GIVING THE MIDDLE FINGER TO JAIL TIME!
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…
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma to plead to 3 criminal charges
MICHAEL BALSAMO and GEOFF MULVIHILL
October 21, 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 drugmaker 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 they day 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 drugmaker. 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.
Oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma will plead guilty to three criminal charges in $8billion plea deal that does NOT release the Sacklers from criminal liability BUT does mean the wealthy owners will lose any stake in the pharma giant
DOJ officials said the company will plead guilty to three counts of criminal charges filed Wednesday in federal court in New Jersey
Charges include conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating federal anti-kickback laws, officials said
The anti-kickback relates to a 2015 deal of almost $1 million that Purdue made with Practice Fusion to encourage doctors to prescribe opioids
United States Deputy Attorney General. Jeffrey A Rosen announced the deal in a press conference Wednesday as he vowed to 'turn the tide on the opioid crisis'
Rosen said the deal is still subject to bankruptcy court approval
The deal does not release any of the company's executives or owners - members of the wealthy Sackler family - from criminal liability
However, if the bankruptcy court approves the resolution, the Sackler family will lose any stake in the pharma giant and the company will be dissolved
Its assets will be re-purposed into a public company instead
OxyContin is the powerful prescription painkiller that experts have blamed for helping spark America's opioid epidemic
Around 47,000 people died of opioid overdoses in 2018
United States Deputy Attorney General. Jeffrey A. Rosen announced the deal in a press conference Wednesday morning as he vowed to 'turn the tide on the opioid crisis ravaging the country'. Rosen said the deal is still subject to bankruptcy court approval.
Under the deal the Connecticut-based company, owned by the wealthy Sackler family, will plead guilty to three criminal charges filed in federal court in New Jersey Wednesday.
The three counts include conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating federal anti-kickback laws.
The anti-kickback violation relates to a 2015 deal worth almost $1 million that the pharma giant made with electronic health record company Practice Fusion to send alerts to doctors recommending prescribing opioiods including Oxycontin to patients in order to increase prescriptions of the drugs.
The deal does not release any of the company's executives or owners - including members of the Sackler family - from criminal liability and a criminal investigation is still ongoing.
However, if the bankruptcy court approves the resolution, the Sackler family will lose any stake in the pharma giant and the company will be dissolved as it currently stands, with its assets re-purposed into a public company instead.
The settlement is the highest-profile display yet of the federal government seeking to hold a major drugmaker responsible for the opioid addiction and overdose crisis that has been linked to more than 430,000 deaths in the country since 2000.
Since OxyContin was introduced in 1996, addiction and overdoses have surged.
In 1999 there were less than 4,000 opioid overdose deaths. By 2018, this figure had risen to 47,000, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma will plead guilty to three criminal charges and agree to $8 billion plea deal that does NOT release its owners - the wealthy Sackler family - from criminal liability
The DOJ announced what it described as a 'global resolution' of both its criminal and civil investigations into Purdue and a 'civil resolution' of its civil investigation into individual shareholders from the Sackler family.
Under the plea, Purdue will admit that from May 2007 through at least March 2017 it conspired to defraud the US.
This charge relates to Purdue impeding the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) by falsely representing that it had maintained an effective program to avoid drug diversion, the officials said.
Rosen said the pharma giant had claimed to have an effective anti-diversion program when it was actually continuing to market its opioids to more than 100 healthcare providers who the company had good reason to believe were diverting the drugs.
Purdue also reported misleading information to the agency to boost the company's manufacturing quotas, said Rosen.
Purdue will also admit to violating federal anti-kickback laws by paying two doctors through a speaking program to write more prescriptions for the company's opioids between June 2009 and March 2017, the DOJ said.
The charge also relates to an illegal kickback from around April 2016 to December 2016, according to the officials.
DOJ officials said Purdue made payments to electronic health records software firm Practice Fusion to influence the prescription of pain medication.
In 2016, Purdue negotiated with Practice Fusion to create a series of alerts in the software to get doctors to increase prescriptions of opioids, they said.
The company agreed to pay nearly $1 million to Practice Fusion in exchange for embedding alerts in its software for one year.
United States Deputy Attorney General. Jeffrey A Rosen announced the deal in a press conference Wednesday morning as he vowed to 'turn the tide on the opioid crisis'
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The drug giant described the move as a 'marketing tactic that would drive ERO demand and grow ERO prescriptions.'
The civil settlement relates to both Purdue and individual shareholders - members of the Sackler family.
Purdue will make a direct payment to the government of $225 million, which is part of a larger $2 billion criminal forfeiture.
The $225 million will be paid by the Sackler family for the alleged conduct of Dr. Richard Sackler, David Sackler, Mortimer D.A. Sackler, Dr. Kathe Sackler, and Jonathan Sackler, the DOJ said.
This settlement resolves allegations that, in 2012, those Sackler family members knew the legitimate market for Purdue's opioids had contracted but requested executives recapture lost sales and increase the company's share of the opioid market.
The family members then approved a new marketing program in 2013 called 'Evolve to Excellence,' where sales reps for the company upped their marketing of OxyContin to high-volume prescribers who were already writing '25 times as many OxyContin scripts' as their peers, said the DOJ.
The Justice Department said this led to healthcare providers prescribing the highly-addictive drugs for uses that were unsafe, ineffective, and medically unnecessary, and that often led to abuse and diversion.
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.
This relates to allegations that from 2010 to 2018, Purdue caused false claims to be submitted to federal health care programs, including Medicare and Medicaid.
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, the 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 medically assisted treatment and other drug programs to combat the opioid epidemic, the officials said.
That arrangement mirrors a key element of the company's proposal to settle about 3,000 lawsuits filed by state, local and Native American tribal governments.
Opioid overdose deaths triple among US teens and young children
Kate Randall
Opioid overdose death rates among US teens and children have tripled over the past 17 years, a new study shows. The study, published online in JAMA Network Open, examined a group of almost 9,000 children and adolescents (under age 20) who died in all settings from opioid poisonings between 1999 and 2016.
Researchers found that young children have either died from accidentally ingesting narcotics or from intentional poisoning. Teens, meanwhile, have more often died from unintentional overdoses, using prescriptions painkillers found in their homes or drugs bought on the streets. These include prescription opioids, heroin, fentanyl and other legal and illicit drugs.
Julie Gaither, lead researcher of the study and an instructor at the Yale School of Medicine, told MedicalXpress, “These deaths don’t reach the magnitude of adult deaths from opioids, but they follow a similar pattern.” She added, “As we consider how to contain this epidemic, parents, clinicians and prescribers need to consider how children and adolescents are affected and how our families and communities are affected.”
The study shows the depth of the opioid crisis facing the youngest segments of the population and points to the woefully inadequate response of the government in dealing with this social catastrophe as it spirals out of control.
The study notes: “What began more than two decades ago as a public health problem primarily among young and middle-aged white males is now an epidemic of prescription and illicit opioid abuse that is taking a toll on all segments of US society, including the pediatric population.”
Drug overdose deaths in the US topped 72,000 in 2017, according to estimates released earlier this year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This staggering figure was 6,000 more deaths than 2016 estimates, a rise of 9.5 percent. Some 43,000 of drug overdose deaths in 2016, the latest year examined by the JAMA study, are attributed to opioid overdoses. Other causes include alcohol poisoning and other drug overdoses.
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The study categorized children and adolescents by the following ages: 0 to 4, 5 to 9, 10 to 14, and 15 to 19 years. Deaths in these age groups were then classified according to intent: unintentional, suicide, homicide, and undetermined intent. The study based its findings on death certificates since 1999.
A total of 8,986 children and adolescents died from prescription and opioid poisonings between 1999 and 2016: 605 (or 6.7 percent) among ages 0–4; 96 (1.1 percent) ages 5–9, 364 (4.1 percent) ages 10–14 and 7,921 (88.1 percent) ages 15–19. Among those under age 20, the annual estimated mortality rate from opioids more than tripled during this period—rising from 0.22 per 100,000 in 1999 to 0.81 per 100,000 in 2016.
The largest changes were seen among the oldest and youngest children. Teenagers ages 15–19 had by far the highest death rates from opioids, at 88.1 percent of the total. Of these teen deaths, more than 85 percent were unintentional. In other words, while some teens deliberately overdose, others, seeking escape from the stresses of unemployment, peer pressure, school demands, and college admissions and debt, are falling victim to the wide availability and lethal potency of both legal and illegal opioids.
While some deaths can be blamed on unscrupulous drug dealers, these deaths must above all be laid at the feet of the multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical companies who have flooded neighborhoods with these potent opioids. Workers and professionals who have been prescribed these drugs become the unwitting suppliers to their children, who find them in home medicine cabinets and ingest them, lacking adequate knowledge of the dangers they pose.
The 605 deaths among children ages 0 to 4 is the second highest, accounting for 6.7 percent of all pediatric deaths. Two hundred thirty of these deaths were unintentional, while the manner of death could not be determined in 227 of these cases.
However, 148 deaths in this age group, about one-quarter of the total, were due to homicide. And the percentage of deaths due to homicide was highest for those younger than 1 year, standing at 34.5 percent of this age group. Behind this appalling statistic stands the social desperation that would drive a parent or caregiver to kill an innocent infant with the aid of opioids. There are no figures that indicate how many of these young victims have been born addicted to opioids themselves.
While the study found that the majority of pediatric deaths were among non-Hispanic white males, with each passing year non-Hispanic black children accounted for a larger proportion of fatalities. While white children saw a threefold increase in deaths, black children had a nearly fourfold increase.
A similar trend has been seen for female children, among whom death rates increased more than threefold compared with a twofold increase among males. These trends mirror those seen in the adult population, where deaths due to opioids have been rising at a faster rate than among blacks and women than among white men.
In line with the opioid crisis affecting the US adult population, the devastating toll of opioid deaths among children casts a grim light on 21st century America. While the opioid crisis spares no segment of society, the most profoundly affected are workers and the poor and the communities where they live. At the root of this crisis lies a society characterized by growing social inequality, corporate greed and profound government indifference.
In 2017, the Trump administration declared the opioid epidemic a “public health emergency,” but then allocated no new funding to the states to address it. In September, congressional Democrats and Republicans approved compromise legislation that purports to address the opioid crisis, but the bill is primarily focused on law enforcement. It allocates as little as $8 billion over five years, or roughly $1.6 billion per year—a pittance given the dimensions of the epidemic.
A health emergency on the scale of the drug epidemic requires an emergency, socialist response. The giant pharmaceutical companies, who are responsible for the scourge of opioid addiction and deaths, must be transformed into publicly owned utilities. The health insurance industry, which dedicates its resources to denying coverage and treatments instead of curing the ill, must be abolished and replaced with universal, socialized medicine.
Numbers of opioid overdose deaths have soared since OxyContin hit the market in 1996, from just 3,442 in 1999 to 17,029 in 2017, official figures show
HOW IS OXYCONTIN IMPLICATED IN THE US OPIOID CRISIS?
OxyContin is a prescription painkiller produced and sold by Purdue Pharma.
The drug is strong, addictive and was linked to thousands of overdose deaths in 2017.
Since OxyContin, a time-released opioid, was introduced in 1996, addiction and overdoses have surged.
In both 2017 and 2018, opioids were involved in more than 47,000 deaths, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1999, by comparison, there were fewer than 4,000 opioid overdose deaths.
Purdue's drugs are just a slice of the opioids prescribed, but critics assign a lot of the blame to the company because it developed both the drug and an aggressive marketing strategy.
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.
The company is also required to cooperate with the ongoing federal investigation and potential other prosecutions.
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.
'Millions of American families impacted by the opioid epidemic are looking to you and your Department for justice.
'Justice for the sleepless nights spent worrying about sons and daughters trapped in the grip of substance use disorder, justice for the jobs lost and the lives ruined, and justice for the lives of loved ones lost to overdoses,' 38 Democratic members of Congress wrote.
'If the only practical consequence of your Department´s investigation is that a handful of billionaires are made slightly less rich, we fear that the American people will lose faith in the ability of the Department to provide accountability and equal justice under the law.'
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 drugmaker.
The company - but not the family - declared bankruptcy as a way to work out that plan, which could be worth $10 billion over time.
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.
With the terms of the Justice Department deal, the federal government gives a strong endorsement to the idea of a version of Purdue continuing as a 'public benefit corporation.'
If that plan does not end of being the heart of the reorganization through bankruptcy court, the US could make Purdue pay it more, potentially unraveling any other settlement arrangement.
The state governments that oppose the settlements are pushing in bankruptcy court for documents that would spell out how much Sackler family members made from the sale of OxyContin over the years.
Officials, who were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press about the deal ahead of the DOJ press conference.
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.
It's not the first time Purdue has admitted wrongdoing.
The company and three executives pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges in 2007 and paid more than $630 million in a settlement.
But after that, the nation's addiction crisis only deepened.
As the maker of the best-known prescription opioid, Purdue is the highest-profile player in the opioid crisis, but it's far from the only one.
Trials against other drugmakers and distributors that were scheduled for this year have been pushed back due to the coronavirus.
WHO ARE THE SACKLERS?
Purdue Pharma, which is run by some members of the wealthy Sackler family, has made tens of billions on opioid sales. Here is a breakdown of who the Sacklers are, including those who have and haven't been involved in Purdue Pharma:
ARTHUR SACKLER
Arthur, a doctor and psychiatrist, founded a research laboratory in 1938, but Arthur's real genius was in marketing and he leveraged it to sell a number of medications, including the anti-anxiety drug, Valium.
He and his younger brothers Mortimer and Raymond owned a small pharma company called Purdue Frederick that they purchased in 1952. That company produced betadine and earwax.
Arthur remained a relatively silent partner in the old Purdue and died in 1987 before it became the company we know it as today.
He never saw any of Purdue's OxyContin profits.
He donated the funds to open a number of medical education programs, libraries and museums.
Arthur was inducted into the Medical Marketing Hall of Fame upon his death in 1987.
After his death in 1987, his brothers bought Arthur's portion of the company.
One of his four children, daughter Elizabeth, has largely taken over his philanthropy work.
Arthur and his heirs have had no involvement in Purdue Pharma or with OxyContin.
MORTIMER SACKLER
Mortimer was an American physician and psychiatrist.
He and his brothers, the older Arthur and the younger Raymond published prolific medical research before buying a number of pharmaceutical companies, including, in 1952, Purdue Frederick.
After Arthur's death Mortimer and Raymond bought out his descendants' share of Purdue Frederick, and in 1991 they created the company that would become a pain management giant we now know, Purdue Pharma.
Mortimer became a lavish arts patron, known for equally extravagant donations and parties, beginning in the 1970s.
He died in 2010.
RAYMOND SACKLER
Raymond was a doctor like his older brothers, and the three were partners in all things until each of their deaths.
Together with Mortimer, Raymond found success with their opioid painkiller, OxyContin, which became the Purdue Pharma's signature drug.
Raymond was milder and more private than his brother, Mortimer.
Raymond had two children, Richard and Jonathan, before his death last year.
ILENE SACKLER
Mortimer's eldest daughter with his first wife.
She was listed as a director of Purdue's sister company, UK-based Napp Pharamaceutical Holdings, as of December 2016.
She lives in an apartment in an iconic Upper West Side which she owns.
Its total value is estimated to be more than $122million.
KATHE SACKLER
Kathe is one of the directors of Napp, a UK-based company which also sold OxyContin.
She owns two suburban properties in Connecticut which are separated by another owned by someone else and she lives in an Upper East Side townhouse with her wife, Susan Shack Sackler.
The house was owned by both Raymond and Mortimer. Their children share it.
Kathe and Ilene had a brother, Robert, is deceased.
JONATHAN AND RICHARD SACKLER
They are Raymond and Beverly's two sons.
Jonathan and his wife live in Greenwich, Connecticut, in a property next to his mother's. Richard 's former family home is not far away in neighboring Stamford.
They have a cancer research center named after them at Yale and have both held positions at Purdue.
RICHARD SACKLER
Richard Sackler followed in his father's footsteps, getting his medical degree at New York University School of Medicine.
He came to Purdue after medical school, leading the research and development that ultimately produced the extended release form of OxyContin that would elevate the family's fortune to previously unfathomable.
He became president of Purdue in 1991, pioneering marketing campaigns that enticed droves of medical professionals to buy Purdue's opioid.
Richard became co-chairman in 2003, by which point $1.6 billion in OxyContin had been sold.
His marketing schemes sparked suspicion, and in 2015, Richard was deposed before his company paid out a $24 million settlement.
The company appealed in 2017, but the case has not moved forward.
In addition to his arts philanthropy, Richard's foundations have donated to controversial causes, including anti-Muslim groups.
ELIZABETH SACKLER
Arthur's daughter has publicly and persistently attempted to distance herself from branch of her family that has profited from OxyContin.
Elizabeth is a licensed psychiatrist and well-known philanthropist.
She is the founder of an eponymous Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum in New York.
She has previously expressed disgrace for her uncles' business.
Elizabeth has previously told DailyMail.com: 'I, nor my siblings, nor my children have ever owned or benefited from Purdue Pharma or OxyContin or oxycodone.
'It's another branch of the family.'
BEVERLY AND THERESA SACKLER
Theresa, 69, owns a $45million Upper East Side apartment building but lives mostly in the UK on a 10-acre estate in the Berkshire countryside.
She is known in the UK as Dame Theresa Sackler, a title she was awarded for her sustained philanthropy and support of the arts.
Theresa is more visible than her sister-in-law.
Beverly, 94, is Raymond's widow. She lives on a Greenwich, Connecticut waterfront estate which has an estimated land and property value of almost $50million. She also owns a 17-floor Fifth Avenue building in Manhattan.
When her husband was still alive, they donated the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Institute for Biological, Physical and Engineering Sciences at Yale. It now employs 50 people across 20 departments.
MORTIMER DAVID ALFONS SACKLER
Mortimer the only son of founding brother Mortimer, Mortimer II's mother is Gertraud Wimmer, Mortimer's second wife.
Mortimer David owns a luxury condo building in Boston and lives in New York City with his 42-year-old wife Jacqueline.
The couple are a regular fixture on the Manhattan social circuit.
DAVID AND JOSS SACKLER
David is intensely private but his wife, Joss, is not.
She runs the members-only women's social club, LBV.
Among its events are group workouts at the model haven gym Dog Pound and talks such as 'how to have the money talk with your kids.'
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