Releasing years of anguish and anger, victims of opioid abuse and those who have lost loved ones to an addiction crisis dating back more than two decades have taken their emotions out on the family members they blame for feeding the deadly epidemic.
Thursday’s unusual hearing, held virtually in the United States Bankruptcy Court, gave them what they have wanted for years: the opportunity to confront members of the billionaire Sackler family who own the maker of OxyContin Purdue Pharma and tell them about the lasting pain that addiction and overdoses have wrought on their lives.
“When you created OxyContin, you created so many losses for so many people. … I am outraged that they have not recognized the crisis they have created,” said Kay Scarpone, addressing the three members of the Sackler family present. She lost her son Joseph Scarpone, a former US Marine, to addiction a month before his 26th birthday.
A surge in opioid prescriptions began in the 1990s with a shift in health care standards that focused on pain control. Between 1999 and 2019, more than 500,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Richard Sackler, former president and chairman of the board of Purdue Pharma, who said the company and his family are not responsible for the opioid crisis, and a son of Raymond Sackler, one of three brothers who bought the company in the 1950s, they only appeared on audio. which became Purdue Pharma. In attendance by video were Theresa Sackler, wife of the late Mortimer D Sackler, another of the brothers; and David Sackler, son of Richard Sackler.
Theresa’s and David’s neutral expressions didn’t change as Scarpone spoke.
She was among about two dozen people whose lives and families have been shattered by opioid abuse who are testifying in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. They speak about the pain of losing children after years of trying to get them the proper treatment, about her own journeys through addiction, and about caring for babies who are born abstinent and screaming in pain.
The forum is an unconventional hearing for the White Plains, New York, courtroom of Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain, who on Wednesday gave tentative approval to the key elements of a plan to settle thousands of lawsuits against the company.
“The nature of today’s proceedings is unique and important,” Drain said to open the hearing. “The past and current impact of OxyContin on individual people has always been of critical importance in this case.”
The hearing will last two hours. Drain said members of the Sackler family and others will not have an opportunity to respond to statements from the group of victims selected to speak for attorneys for creditors in the case. Some of the victims address the Sacklers from a New York law firm; others will be in their homes in communities across the United States.
The hearing may be the closest thing to a trial for members of the Sackler family, who victims say helped spark and prolong the epidemic through the marketing of their painkiller OxyContin.
“While the families have acted lawfully on all counts, they sincerely regret that OxyContin, a prescription drug that continues to help people with chronic pain, has unexpectedly become part of an opioid crisis that has caused pain and loss. to too many families and communities. ”, the Sackler family said in a statement last week.
The settlement agreement is estimated to be worth at least $10 billion over time. It calls on members of the Sackler family to contribute $5.5-6 billion over 17 years to fight the opioid crisis. That’s an increase of more than $1 billion from an earlier version that was thrown out by another judge on appeal. Most of the money would be used to combat the crisis, but $750 million would go directly to the victims or their survivors.
The umbrella agreement, which still requires action from multiple courts to take effect, provides more than $150 million for Native American tribes and more than $100 million for medical monitoring and payments for children born with opioid withdrawal.
Because the deal was settled through a mediator, the terms went beyond money. The plan also calls for family members to relinquish ownership of the company so it can become a new entity with its profits dedicated to stopping the epidemic. In return, members of the Sackler family would get protection from civil opioid lawsuits.
The family also agreed not to oppose any effort to remove the Sackler name from the cultural and educational institutions they have supported and to release a larger cache of company documents.
Purdue Pharmacy has pled guilty twice to criminal charges, but no member of the Sackler family has been charged with any crime. There is no indication that such charges will be filed, although last month seven US senators asked the Justice Department to consider the charges.
Other drug manufacturers, distributors, marketers, and pharmacies involved in the opioid industry have faced similar lawsuits from state and local governments, native american tribes and other entities.
Last month, drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and wholesalers AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson announced they were finalizing agreements with a combined value of 26,000 million dollars. As in the proposed Purdue Pharma deal, most of that money is required to be used to combat the crisis.