Sacklers Lay Out Strategy For Defending Opioid-Related Lawsuits, Billionaire Family Owns Purdue Pharma

'Sacklers lay out strategy for defending opioid-related lawsuits,' Wash. Post, Oct.14, '24. Ed. Billionaire family, Purdue Pharma owners signal they intend to fight lawsuits against them by challenging the use of public nuisance laws.💊
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The billionaire family that owns Purdue Pharma is signaling they intend to fight lawsuits against them by challenging the use of public nuisance laws, a legal strategy that has already led to billions of dollars in settlements between drug companies and communities ravaged by the opioid crisis. Attorneys for Sackler family members disclosed their lines of defense as part of a court filing Monday in the long-running bankruptcy saga of Purdue Pharma.

Creditors are also seeking to recover billions of dollars they claim the Sacklers withdrew from the co. in the years before the bankruptcy to evade future claims, an allegation the family denies.

The Connecticut company declared bankruptcy in 2019 while facing a flood of lawsuits that allege it helped fuel the U.S. opioid crisis by aggressively promoting the blockbuster painkiller OxyContin while downplaying the risk of addiction. After the Supreme Ct. last summer upended a controversial bankruptcy plan, the Sacklers have been engaged in court-ordered mediation with Purdue and creditors that include states, local municipalities and opioid victims, among others. If a new settlement deal is not struck, lawsuits against the Sacklers may proceed and offer high-profile tests of the novel strategy of going after opioid cos. using public nuisance laws.

State, local and tribal governments and others have filed thousands of public nuisance lawsuits targeting the opioid industry, arguing it unleashed the flood of pain pills over years, wreaking havoc on communities and stretching thin public safety and health resources. Drug manufacturers, distributors and pharmacy chains have agreed to more than $50 billion in settlements with states and communities to settle such claims, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys.

Such claims against Purdue “have never been, and cannot be, established,” attorneys for the family of Raymond Sackler, a company co-founder, argue in their filing. It pointed to a handful of court rulings around the country that found the laws do not apply to the misuse of opioids prescribed lawfully by doctors.. Lawsuits against the Sacklers, some of whom sat on the Purdue board, allege co. sales representatives ramped up marketing to doctors after the company pleaded guilty in 2007 to misleading regulators about the dangers of its blockbuster drug OxyContin...

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