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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 16 January 2019
Filing: OxyContin maker forecast 'blizzard of prescriptions'

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER ments at the heart of the A memo among family
and GEOFF MULVIHILL Massachusetts allegations members in 2008 warned
Associated Press are also part of the evi- of a "dangerous concen-
BOSTON (AP) — A mem- dence exchanged in those tration of risk" for the family,
ber of the family that owns cases. While the Massachu- the complaint says. Years
OxyContin maker Purdue setts filing describes their earlier, Richard Sackler
Pharma told people at the contents, the documents wrote in an email that the
prescription opioid pain- themselves have not been company would have to
killer's launch party in the made public, at the com- "hammer on the abusers
1990s that it would be "fol- pany's request. in every way possible," de-
lowed by a blizzard of pre- According to the filing, scribing them as "the cul-
scriptions that will bury the Richard Sackler, then se- prits and the problem."
competition," according to nior vice president respon- Joanne Peterson, who runs
court documents filed Tues- sible for sales, told the audi- a Massachusetts-based
day. ence at the launch party to support network for the
The details were made imagine a series of natural family members of people
public in a case brought disasters: an earthquake, addicted to drugs, said In this Aug. 17, 2018 file photo, family and friends who have lost
by Massachusetts Attorney volcanic eruption, hurri- Sackler's comments show loved ones to OxyContin and opioid overdoses protest outside
General Maura Healey that cane and blizzard. a "blatant disregard for hu- Purdue Pharma headquarters in Stamford, Conn.
accuses Purdue Pharma, "The launch of OxyContin man life." Associated Press
its executives and mem- Tablets will be followed by "He certainly hammered
bers of the Sackler family a blizzard of prescriptions them six feet under," Peter- The company also stresses trying to solve a complex
of deceiving patients and that will bury the competi- son said. "I've been to more that its drug is approved public health crisis, the
doctors about the risks of tion. The prescription bliz- funerals than I can count in by federal regulators and complaint distorts critical
opioids and pushing pre- zard will be so deep, dense, the last 15 years." prescribed by doctors; that facts and cynically con-
scribers to keep patients on and white," he said, ac- Purdue Pharma accused it accounts for a small por- flates prescription opioid
the drug longer. The docu- cording to the documents. the attorney general's of- tion of opioids sold in the medications with illegal
ments provide information "Over the next twenty fice of cherry-picking from U.S.; and that illicit drugs heroin and fentanyl," Pur-
about former Purdue Phar- years, the Sacklers made millions of emails and doc- including heroin and street due Pharma said.
ma President Richard Sack- Richard's boast come true," uments to create "biased fentanyl are causing most Messages seeking com-
ler's role in overseeing sales lawyers in the attorney gen- and inaccurate charac- overdose deaths. ment were left with a
of OxyContin that hasn't eral's office wrote. "They terizations" of the compa- "In a rush to vilify a single spokeswoman for the Sack-
been public before. created a manmade di- ny and its executives. The manufacturer whose medi- ler family.
The drug and the closely saster. Their blizzard of dan- company said in a state- cines represent less than Massachusetts is the first
held Connecticut com- gerous prescriptions buried ment said it will "aggres- two percent of opioid pain state to personally name
pany that sells it are at the children and parents and sively defend against these prescriptions rather than the company's executives
center of a lawsuit in Mas- grandparents across Mas- misleading allegations." doing the hard work of in a complaint.q
sachusetts and hundreds sachusetts, and the burials
of others across the coun- continue," they wrote.
try in which government The complaint says the
entities are trying to find Sackler family, which in-
the drug industry respon- cludes major donors to
sible for an opioid crisis that museums including the
killed 72,000 Americans in Smithsonian Institution, New
2017. The Massachusetts York's Metropolitan Mu-
litigation is separate from seum of Art and the Tate
some 1,500 federal lawsuits Modern in London, was
filed by governments be- long aware its drug was
ing overseen by a judge in dangerous and addictive
Cleveland. but pushed more sales any-
But the company docu- way.