On May 30, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that members of the Sackler family were linked to the disgraced drugmaker Purdue Pharma – and whose name is long ornate major museums around the world – can pay $6 billion in exchange for personal protection against current and future civil lawsuits centered on the company’s aggressive marketing of the powerful opioid OxyContin. The ruling, which offers family members the kind of protection typically afforded to companies filing for bankruptcy, rather than individuals, does not protect them from future criminal charges related to the highly addictive painkiller.
Members of the Sackler family who owned Purdue had for years sought personal immunity from the woes of the Stamford, Connecticut-based company. Purdue filed for bankruptcy in 2019 under the weight of thousands of lawsuits from individuals, states and tribes related to its practice of bribing doctors who prescribed OxyContin while downplaying its addictive qualities. A 2021 bankruptcy decision allowed family members to shell out $4.5 million in exchange for protection from civil lawsuits; this decision was reversed in federal court a few weeks later. The judge in that proceeding noted that members of the Sackler family withdrew more than $10 billion between 2008 and 2018, at the height of the opioid crisis, during which more than half a million Americans are dead. In 2019, most of these funds were held in offshore accounts and therefore inaccessible to US authorities.
This latest move aims to put funds into the hands of victims and their families; contrary to the initial decision of 2021, it hasn’t met with huge resistance from those involved. Judge Eunice C. Lee, who wrote the opinion of the three-judge panel, noted that the bankruptcy code, in some cases, allows liability protection for business owners who have not filed application for personal bankruptcy protection.
No member of the Sackler family has been involved with Purdue since 2018. Under the settlement, the company will be restructured into Knoa Pharma. The new entity will be overseen by a public board and will continue to manufacture OxyContin and other drugs; among these will be drugs aimed at reversing and treating addiction. Profits from the business will go to drug treatment centers and restitution.
