Sep 17, 2019 04:33 AM
More than 200,000 people have died of prescription opioid overdoses since 1999. Another 200,000 have died from overdoses attributed to heroin and illegally obtained fentanyl.
By 2007, the company and three top executives — none of them Sackler family members — pleaded guilty to federal charges of misleading regulators, doctors and patients about the highly addictive nature of the drug. The company paid more than $600 million in fines and other payments.
Yet, Purdue Pharma, under the family’s tight control, continued to aggressively market OxyContin and kept fueling the growing epidemic of narcotic addiction, according to a raft of litigation filed against the company. Lawsuits also are pending against generic oxycodone manufacturers, distributors and retail pharmacy chains.
As sales continued into the billions of dollars, the family board members who controlled the company began transferring big chunks of money out of the firm beginning in 2008, according to multiple state lawsuits.
For more of the story:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/finance-c...?ocid=News
As we know, many patients are prescribed opioid drugs after surgeries, and for chronic pain. Many take the prescribed dosages, and don't have any long term effects, or addictions. But, it would seem that Purdue took advantage of people's misery and pain, and greatly contributed to the addiction crisis. This not only seems greedy in a most egregious way, but after reading this story, criminal activity had been going on behind the scenes.
What should happen here, do you think?
As a side question, I've often wondered how all of these pharma lawsuits are being handled, considering that one needs to obtain a prescription from his/her doctor, in order to receive opioid drugs. Shouldn't doctors be held partially responsible (maybe they are?) when they clearly see that their patients are spiraling out of control, addicted to the drugs they've been prescribing?
By 2007, the company and three top executives — none of them Sackler family members — pleaded guilty to federal charges of misleading regulators, doctors and patients about the highly addictive nature of the drug. The company paid more than $600 million in fines and other payments.
Yet, Purdue Pharma, under the family’s tight control, continued to aggressively market OxyContin and kept fueling the growing epidemic of narcotic addiction, according to a raft of litigation filed against the company. Lawsuits also are pending against generic oxycodone manufacturers, distributors and retail pharmacy chains.
As sales continued into the billions of dollars, the family board members who controlled the company began transferring big chunks of money out of the firm beginning in 2008, according to multiple state lawsuits.
For more of the story:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/finance-c...?ocid=News
As we know, many patients are prescribed opioid drugs after surgeries, and for chronic pain. Many take the prescribed dosages, and don't have any long term effects, or addictions. But, it would seem that Purdue took advantage of people's misery and pain, and greatly contributed to the addiction crisis. This not only seems greedy in a most egregious way, but after reading this story, criminal activity had been going on behind the scenes.
What should happen here, do you think?
As a side question, I've often wondered how all of these pharma lawsuits are being handled, considering that one needs to obtain a prescription from his/her doctor, in order to receive opioid drugs. Shouldn't doctors be held partially responsible (maybe they are?) when they clearly see that their patients are spiraling out of control, addicted to the drugs they've been prescribing?