Consider This from NPR - How A Bankruptcy Deal Could Offer Clean Slate For Opioid Billionaires

Episode Date: August 30, 2021

A federal bankruptcy judge says he'll rule Wednesday in the case of Purdue Pharma, makers of OxyContin. The company is owned by the Sackler family, who are at the center of a national reckoning over the deadly opioid epidemic.NPR addiction correspondent Brian Mann has been covering the story of Purdue Pharma for years, and explains how the Sacklers may emerge from Purdue's bankruptcy proceedings with their personal fortunes in tact. Find more of Brian's reporting here or follow him on Twitter @BrianMannADK.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org Keola Kekueva lives in Honolulu, and late last year he sent a letter Aloha of the Honorable Judge Drain, under my claim number to a federal judge in New York. I had an awesome job. I was in love. It was beautiful and I was a beautiful person. The letter describes Keola's life before and after his opioid addiction.

It's one of dozens of letters that Judge Robert Drane allowed to be submitted and entered into the public record in the bankruptcy trial of Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin. It ended up into needles and accidental overdose, suicide attempts. I mean, it opened up this dark, horrible world that I didn't know existed. Purdue's closely watched bankruptcy trial is now in its final days. Under a settlement being finalized, the company would contribute billions of dollars to treatment and health care for people addicted to opioids. There's a catch. As part of the deal, members of the Sackler family who own Purdue Pharma want immunity from opioid-related lawsuits. They lied and said that

it's not addicting. The Sacklers deny any wrongdoing, but many of the people whose lives have been ravaged by OxyContin say that's not good enough. I lost count over 15 years on how many funerals I've attended, and then I had to plan one myself for my niece. Joanne Peterson from Massachusetts sent in a letter as well. She says she became an opioid addiction activist after her niece and her son both became addicted to OxyContin.

Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family need to be held accountable. Millions of families are most longing for justice, and we bury people as they live lavish lifestyles. Consider this. The opioid epidemic has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Because of that, one of the largest opioid manufacturers is now bankrupt, Consider this. The opioid epidemic has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Because of that, one of the largest opioid manufacturers is now bankrupt, while the family that ran it would like to slip quietly out the back door. From NPR, I'm Audie Cornish. It's Monday, August 30th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies.

Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today, or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. Maddie Safai here, host of Shortwave, the daily science podcast from NPR. Listen for new discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines, all in about 10 minutes every weekday. It's a great addition to your daily listening, whether you're a science nerd or, you know, just a little science curious. Subscribe now to Shortwave from NPR. It's Consider This from NPR. Judge Robert Drain says he'll rule Wednesday on the fate of Purdue Pharma and its owners, members of the Sackler family. And he's signaled that he's likely to

approve the reorganization plan for the makers of OxyContin, meaning the company is expected to go bankrupt while the Sacklers will still be worth billions. NPR addiction correspondent Brian Mann has been following the Purdue Pharma story for years, and he spoke about all this with NPR addiction correspondent Brian Mann has been following the Purdue Pharma story for years, and he spoke about all this with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly. I want to start with the Sacklers. Who is this family? How did their privately-owned company wind up at the center of the nation's opioid crisis? Yeah, until the 1990s, this was a company no one had ever heard of. Members of the Sackler family ran this fairly boring little drug firm, not a huge player. But then they introduced this product, an opioid painkiller they described as revolutionary. In their marketing, they portrayed

OxyContin as a safer pain pill, an opioid medication that wouldn't be as addictive or as readily abused. The rate of addiction amongst pain patients who are treated by doctors is much less than 1%. Here's one Purdue Pharma promotional video that was aimed at doctors. They do not have serious medical side effects. And so these drugs, which I repeat, are our best, strongest pain medications, should be used much more than they are for patients in pain. And the thing is, Mary Louise, the medical community bought it. A whole generation of doctors started prescribing opioids like crazy. Some rural towns were flooded with these pain pills. Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers earned billions of dollars.

But it turns out none of those assurances about safety were true. Opioids, of course, are incredibly addictive. OxyContin became one of the most widely abused pain pills in the country. After it was introduced, the U.S. saw a dramatic surge in addiction and overdoses and deaths. Well, and when did someone notice, someone in a position to do something about it and try to stop this? Yeah, this is a brutally painful part of this story. Early on, government regulators did start seeing this really troubling link between Purdue Pharma

and OxyContin and this growing opioid crisis. As early as 2007, the company admitted criminal wrongdoing and Purdue Pharma paid the Justice Department more than $630 million in fines. But after intense backroom negotiations, the DOJ agreed to keep most of the details of Purdue Pharma's activities secret. That was part of the deal. And what we now know, because of the company's later plea deal with the Justice Department, we know criminal schemes at the company never stopped. This hard sell of opioids never slowed down. In fact, they pushed even harder. And last year, Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty again to criminal charges. Okay, so Purdue Pharma, the company, pleaded guilty repeatedly to crimes.

But what about the Sacklers, the family? Have they ever faced criminal charges? The short answer is no. They've never been charged. They've never acknowledged any wrongdoing. In fact, while the opioid crisis exploded, the Sacklers were for a long time able to kind of distance themselves from their own private company. And instead, they emerged as one of the country's leading philanthropic dynasties. They donated a ton of money. The Sackler name started appearing on university buildings and art galleries. But when people slowly learned about the Sackler's behind-the-scenes role at the company, they began asking questions.

What did they know? How involved were they in making decisions? And last year, former Purdue Pharma board member Kathy Sackler testified about this before Congress. She was asked if she felt any remorse. Is there anything that I could have done differently knowing what I knew then, not what I know now? And I have to say, I can't, there's nothing that I can find that I would have done differently. But critics reject this argument that the Sacklers make, that they were kind of passive players and didn't know the terrible dangers of their product. In fact, we've seen company emails and memos made public in the court record over the last couple of years, suggesting people inside Purdue Pharma knew early on OxyContin

was causing a lot of addiction and overdoses, really hurting people. And these same memos show some members of the family kept pushing the company's sales team to sell more and more pills. Yeah. So that brings us up to now. The company, Purdue Pharma, is in bankruptcy because of this avalanche of opioid lawsuits. I know that bankruptcy trial is wrapping up this week. As part of that process, the Sackler family is fighting for legal immunity for themselves and their remaining empire. What would that look like? This has been interesting to watch, and it's really controversial. Attorneys for Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers have crafted an exit strategy for the family that would give them really broad immunity from future lawsuits relating to Purdue Pharma and the opioid crisis,

immunity from lawsuits from all these people harmed by OxyContin addiction. Put simply, Mary Louise, if this deal is finalized by Judge Robert Drain as expected, the Sacklers can never be held liable for any part of this public health disaster. Well, and that's the part that's so hard to get your head around, because the Sacklers are not bankrupt. I've seen estimates, some estimates that they're worth more than $10 billion still. So how can a bankruptcy court give them that kind of legal protection? Yeah, in a story that has a lot of twists and a lot of twists that make people really angry, this is one of the most controversial parts. It turns out, after Purdue Pharma reached that first settlement with the Justice Department

way back in 2007, the Sackler family started doing something interesting. They started pulling a lot of their money earned from opioid sales out of the company, billions and billions of dollars. And a lot of it was placed in personal trusts scattered all over the world, often in legally untouchable offshore havens like the Jersey Islands. So as part of this bankruptcy deal, the Sacklers have offered to contribute some of that wealth back, about $4.3 billion. It's money that would go to help ease the opioid crisis, paying for addiction treatment programs and health care. But their offer comes with a threat.

They say they'll only pay that money if they're given these broad releases from liability. They would be protected from lawsuits. So would their remaining companies and hundreds of their associates. And once again, the Sacklers will go forward admitting no wrongdoing, and they'll remain one of the wealthiest families in the world. Well, and the court, Judge Drain, they're on board with this? It looks like it's a done deal. During the trial, Judge Drain has suggested over and over that this may be the best outcome anyone can hope for. It's important to say not everyone agrees. The U.S. Justice Department has urged him to reject this settlement. So have state attorneys general for nine states.

But most legal experts I talk to, Mary Louise, say they think the Sacklers have played this perfectly and they're likely to get what they want. And what about not legal experts, but the real people, the very, very many real people who've been affected? What do victims say and families of people who overdosed, who died? You know, in all my years of reporting, I've never really heard outrage and dismay like I do when I talk to people about this. And let me just bring on one person, Nan Golden. She's an artist who became addicted to OxyContin herself. It really damaged her life. Now she's an opioid activist. She says the fact that the Sacklers are likely to walk away with a clean legal slate is devastating. I think the liability releases is one of the most egregious parts of this settlement.

I've never seen any such abuse of justice. It's shocking. It's really shocking. People aren't just angry, they're shattered emotionally by what the opioid crisis has done to them and their families and their communities, and by what they see as a complete failure by the legal system to hold the Sacklers accountable. What about criminal charges? Cops arrest drug dealers all the time in this country. People go to prison just for selling a handful of Oxycontin pills on the street. Is there any chance any member of the Sackler family will ever face that kind of accountability? It's really unlikely.

First, it's important to say, again, the Sacklers who served on Purdue Pharma's board, they say they did nothing illegal or unethical. I've also spoken with a bunch of state attorneys general about this, and there seems to be no appetite for bringing criminal charges against the family. What legal experts tell me is that it's just very difficult to prove criminal wrongdoing by people working for corporations like Purdue Pharma. And remember, at the end of the day, Mary Louise, it wasn't just Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers who flooded America with opioid medications. A bunch of the country's biggest corporations jumped into this business. We're talking CVS, Johnson & Johnson, Walmart. They all face a wave of lawsuits stemming from this opioid crisis.

But most of the people who led those companies, they'll never be charged with any personal wrongdoing. That's what legal experts tell me. Most of them will walk away with big paychecks and big bonuses. Brian Mann is NPR's addiction correspondent, and you can follow more of his coverage of the Purdue farmer bankruptcy proceedings this week. We'll have links to that in our episode notes. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Audie Cornish. Support for NPR and the following message come from Carnegie Corporation of New York,

working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace. More information at carnegie.org.