Page 6 - aruba-today-20190202

A6 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 2 February 2019
Family made billions on opioid as crisis raged, filing says

seems like something we market for Narcan con-
should be doing," the em- firmed that they saw the
ployee wrote in an email. opioid epidemic as a mon-
The executive rejected the ey-making opportunity and
employee's suggestion, that the Sacklers under-
and the secret list of the stood — in private, when
suspected illegal prescrib- no one was watching —
ers, known as "Region Zero," how Purdue's opioids put
continued to be kept, law- patients at risk," attorneys
yers say in the complaint. for Massachusetts wrote.
The lawsuit, filed in state Purdue said the lawsuit is
court, also details tactics taking pieces of company
that the state says Purdue documents out of context.
and the Sacklers used to "Massachusetts seeks to
keep patients on the drugs publicly vilify Purdue, its ex-
longer and get more pa- ecutives, employees and
tients taking higher doses directors while unfairly un-
— even as that made them dermining the important
more prone to addiction. work we have taken to ad-
Meanwhile, the Sacklers dress the opioid addiction
paid themselves more than crisis," the company said in
$4 billion from 2007 through an email.
last year, according to the The company said it was
In this Aug. 17, 2018 file photo, family and friends who have lost loved ones to OxyContin and lawsuit. doing due diligence on
opioid overdoses protest outside Purdue Pharma headquarters in Stamford, Conn. Richard Sackler, who buying rights to the anti-
Associated Press served as Purdue presi- addiction drug, which was
dent for several years, told already on the market. Pur-
By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER family also sought to profit ily, in an effort to hold them management in a 2008 due never went into the
and GEOFF MULVIHILL off the drug abuse crisis its accountable for the toll of email that they should suboxone or naloxone busi-
Associated Press company helped create the state's drug crisis. Mas- "measure our performance ness.
BOSTON (AP) — The fam- by exploring selling drugs sachusetts' is the first state by Rx's by strength, giving The suit is one of more
ily behind OxyContin raked used to treat addiction case to personally name higher measures to higher than 1,000 by state and lo-
in billions of dollars as it and reverse overdoses, members of the Sackler strengths." cal governments pending
pushed to keep patients state lawyers contend in clan, whose name is em- Years later, the state says against Purdue. A federal
on the powerful painkiller previously secret parts of blazoned on walls at some in the suit, consulting firm judge in Cleveland over-
longer despite evidence their lawsuit against Purdue of the world's great muse- McKinsey & Co. advised seeing lawsuits filed in fed-
that the drug was helping Pharma. ums and universities. Purdue that it could in- eral court is pushing for a
to fuel the nation's deadly Attorney General Maura Purdue had fought to keep crease opioid prescriptions settlement aimed at stem-
opioid crisis, Massachusetts Healey is suing Connecti- the new allegations se- by sending sales reps doz- ming the crisis.
authorities allege in newly cut-based Purdue Pharma, cret, but three courts ruled ens of times per year to visit Massachusetts lawyers say
public court documents. along with some company against the company. Its prolific prescribers. while the company was
While aggressively market- executives and members lawyers said after the whol- The Sackler family was secretly considering ways
ing OxyContin, the Sackler of the wealthy Sackler fam- ly unredacted complaint given a report in 2012 that to profit off trying to cure
was released late Thursday found savings cards to help addictions, it was while
that Massachusetts is try- pay for OxyContin led to 60 publicly deflecting blame
ing to "single out Purdue, percent more patients us- for the crisis. For instance,
blame it for the entire opi- ing the drug for more than Richard Sackler said in an
oid crisis, and try the case in three months. An internal email at one point that the
the court of public opinion company report from that company had to "have to
rather than the justice sys- year found that every dol- hammer on the abusers,"
tem." lar invested in the savings calling them "the problem"
Health officials say nearly cards brought in more than and "reckless criminals."
48,000 overdose deaths in $4 in additional sales. Jonathan Novak, a Dallas
the U.S. in 2017 involved In 2014 and 2015, Purdue lawyer who is represent-
some type of opioid, in- considered selling subox- ing several governments,
cluding illicit drugs. one, a drug used to treat including the state of Utah
Massachusetts accuses addiction, the lawsuit says. and the city of Albuquer-
Purdue of keeping track of "It is an attractive market," que, in lawsuits against the
doctors who were poten- an internal memo read, ac- drug industry, said the Mas-
tially overprescribing Oxy- cording to the suit. sachusetts lawsuit could
Contin, but failing to report The company later ex- provide a roadmap of
them to authorities. In 2012, plored selling naloxone — documents for other plain-
one Purdue employee told known by its brand name tiffs. Novak said the state's
an executive that the com- Narcan — which reverses approach is important to
pany should tell insurance overdoses, the state's law- the telling of the opioid cri-
companies the names of yers contend. A presenta- sis story.
the doctors suspected of tion made to the board "These are the people who
illegal prescribing, calling it in 2016 said that Narcan invented the drug," he said.
the "right and ethical thing could bring in $24 million "These are people who
to do." in sales to Purdue through blame patients who got
"If it reduces abuse and 2025, the complaint says. addicted and call them
diversion of opioids then it "Purdue's analysis of the criminals."q