Purdue Pharma
Purdue Pharma is a pharmaceutical company founded in 1892, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. It gained significant attention for developing and aggressively marketing opioid medications, notably OxyContin, which became widely prescribed for chronic pain. However, the company faced serious allegations for misleading the public about the addictive nature of its products, contributing significantly to the opioid epidemic in the United States from the 1990s onward. Purdue's marketing practices came under scrutiny, leading to numerous lawsuits from various states, culminating in a guilty plea in 2007 for misleading the public about OxyContin's addiction risks. In 2019, the company filed for bankruptcy amid ongoing litigation and proposed a settlement plan that involved restructuring to benefit the public and the Sackler family relinquishing ownership. Despite reaching some settlements, many states continued to pursue individual lawsuits, seeking accountability for the consequences of the opioid crisis. As of the early 2020s, Purdue Pharma's legacy remains complex, marked by its role in developing pain management solutions while simultaneously being implicated in a public health crisis.
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Purdue Pharma
Company information
- Date founded: 1892
- Industry: Pharmaceuticals
- Corporate headquarters: Stamford, Connecticut
- Type: Private
Overview
Purdue Pharma is a pharmaceutical company that can trace its roots back to the late nineteenth century. However, Purdue Pharma would become noteworthy in American culture as a company that helped develop several prominent pain relief medications based on opioids and then marketed those medications aggressively to doctors. In doing so, it intentionally misled the public about the addictive nature of the medications.
Though the company was phenomenally successful, quickly profiting billions of dollars throughout the 1990s and into the twenty-first century, it came at a heavy cost to the public. Many experts believe that the overprescription of medications developed by Purdue Pharma played a significant role in the opioid epidemic in the United States from the 1990s to about the 2010s, as the drugs were commonly abused. For this reason, many states filed lawsuits against the company, its board members, and the Sackler family, owners of the drug company. In 2019, Purdue Pharma was forced to file for bankruptcy.
Some states settled with Purdue Pharma, accepting an agreement that involved the company paying billions of dollars in damages and reorganizing it into a trust that was designed to benefit the public. However, other states felt that if they settled so, the board members who helped promote the drugs would not be suitably punished. These states refused the settlement and, in 2021, continued pursuing individual lawsuits against Purdue Pharma. In 2022, some settlements were reached, such as the one in New Hampshire in which Purdue Pharma’s owners, were forced to pay billions of dollars.
History
Purdue Pharma can trace its history back to 1892, when the Purdue Frederick Company was founded by the medical doctors George Frederick Bingham and John Purdue Gray in Manhattan, New York. The company quickly became successful and continued operating throughout the early twentieth century. The Purdue Frederick Company went on to develop many commonly used medicines, such as laxatives and earwax remover.
The company was moved to Yonkers, New York after it was purchased in 1952 by Raymond and Mortimer Sackler. The two brothers were both medical doctors and saw potential in the small business. They expanded their practice, opening offices in New Jersey and Connecticut. Under the Sacklers, the Purdue Frederick Company moved away from common medical compounds and began specializing in the production of medications specifically designed to reduce intense pain in patients. It began manufacturing chemical compounds that were still used in medicine in the twenty-first century, including hydromorphone, fentanyl, codeine, hydrocodone, and oxycodone. Several of these drugs were sold under the names OxyContin, Ryzolt, and MS Contin.
The company reorganized in 1991, incorporating as Purdue Pharma, L.P. Under this new name, it continued to specialize in the production and sale of pain medications. The company noted that pain was one of the most significant negative parts of the human experience, and it had decades of practice in the production of pain-relieving medications. Its breakthrough drug, OxyContin, was marketed as a reliable treatment for chronic pain. The drug released oxycodone gradually over a twelve-hour period. Purdue marketed the drug to doctors, claiming that this would reduce the possibility of users abusing the drug. However, it would later be revealed that this claim was false and that Purdue Pharma was aware that many users were abusing the medication.
In 2004, Purdue Pharma, L.P. was sued by the West Virginia attorney general. The state alleged that the effects of the drug wore off before the advertised twelve-hour period, which tempted the patient to take more of the addicting drug, leading to a growing epidemic of painkiller abuse. The plaintiff argued that Purdue was aware of this, and the drug was most effective for eight hours but chose to continue to market the drug as a twelve-hour dose. The case was settled before reaching trial.
In 2007, Purdue Pharma, L.P. pled guilty to misleading the public about OxyContin. It acknowledged that the risk of addiction to the drug wears far higher than it had originally presented. Three of the company’s executives were charged with felonies for misleading the public, and the company agreed to pay six hundred million dollars in damages. More states also continued to sue Purdue for deceptive marketing practices in regard to the addictive nature of its products. Soon after, the company began working on the development of a new drug designed to treat addiction by curbing cravings.
By 2019, both Purdue and the Sackler family were facing more than ten billion dollars in lawsuits. They worked toward a settlement that would involve the Sackler family giving up ownership of the company, Purdue Pharma filing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the restructuring of the company as a public beneficiary, and the free distribution of the company’s addiction-treatment drug. Many states were willing to accept this settlement. However, others wanted to hold the Sackler family personally responsible and opted to reject the settlement and continue pursuing individual lawsuits. In total, Purdue paid $2 billion in criminal forfeiture, $2.8 billion in damages, and a $3.54 billion criminal fine in the settlement. In 2021, the settlement was finalized in bankruptcy court. However, in 2024, the US Supreme Court blocked the settlement over the inclusion of a clause that protected the Sackler family from future civil lawsuits from victims of the opioid epidemic.
Impact
By the 2020s, Purdue Pharma, L.P. had a mixed legacy. The company played an important role in the development of several effective opioid-based painkillers. However, these opioid-based drugs were extremely addictive, and the company intentionally misled the public about the dangers surrounding its products.
Purdue aggressively marketed its drugs to healthcare providers, sometimes providing illegal kickbacks for the use of its drugs, vastly increasing their use throughout the United States. This made Purdue billions in profits but played a significant role in the opioid epidemic that took place throughout the United States. The drugs were commonly abused, and many people who suffered from opioid addictions, including heroin addictions, first became addicted to prescription Oxycodone.
Bibliography
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Herzberg, David. “OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma May Settle Legal Claims With a New ‘Public Trust’ That Would Still be Dedicated to Profit.” The Conversation, 21 Oct. 2020, theconversation.com/oxycontin-maker-purdue-pharma-may-settle-legal-claims-with-a-new-public-trust-that-would-still-be-dedicated-to-profit-148604. Accessed 4 Aug. 2021.
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“Opioid Manufacturer Purdue Pharma Pleads Guilty to Fraud and Kickback Conspiracies.” United States Department of Justice, 2020, www.justice.gov/opa/pr/opioid-manufacturer-purdue-pharma-pleads-guilty-fraud-and-kickback-conspiracies. Accessed 4 Aug. 2021.
“Origins of an Epidemic: Purdue Pharma Knew Its Opioids Were Widely Abused.” New York Times, 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/health/purdue-opioids-oxycontin.html/ Accessed 4 Aug. 2021.
“The Promotion and Marketing of OxyContin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy.” Am J Public Health, 2009, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2622774/. Accessed 4 Aug. 2021.
“Purdue Pharma L.P. Regorganizes into New Company – “Knoa Pharma.”” American Pharmaceutical Review, 7 Sept. 2021, www.americanpharmaceuticalreview.com/1315-News/579029-Purdue-Pharma-L-P-Regorganizes-into-New-Company-Knoa-Pharma. Accessed 8 May 2023.
“Tracing the US Opioid Crisis to Its Roots. Nature, 2019, www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02686-2. Accessed 4 Aug. 2021.
VanSickle, Abbie. "Supreme Court Jeopardizes Opioid Deal, Rejecting Protections for Sacklers." The New York Times, 27 June 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/06/27/us/supreme-court-opioid-settlement.html. Accessed 28 June 2024.