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Victims of the opioid crisis confront the owner of Purdue Pharma

Their advocacy drove Purdue Pharma into bankruptcy and forced the family that had controlled the company for generations to give up ownership and provide billions of dollars to the community to fight drug addiction. opium.

But what victims of drug abuse and those who have lost loved ones in America’s long battle with addiction want most is the opportunity to confront members of their family. The Sackler family, whom they blame for dealing with a crisis that has claimed the lives of some 500,000 people in the past. two decades.

On Thursday, some of them will finally get their chance.

In a virtual but certainly emotional hearing, about 20 people whose lives and families have been blanketed by opioid abuse will make statements in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court with several members of the U.S. Bank of the Sackler family listened. They can talk about the pain of losing a child after years of trying to fully treat them, about their own journey to overcoming addiction, and about caring for children born into substance abuse and screaming. painful.

The forum was a unique hearing for the White Plains, New York, courtroom of Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain, who on Wednesday gave tentative approval to key elements of the plan. settle thousands of lawsuits against the company.

Arik Preis, an attorney representing Purdue’s creditors, told the judge on Wednesday: “No one can underestimate what the historic session (Thursday) will be like.”

The settlement is estimated to be worth at least $10 billion over time. It called on members of the Sackler family to contribute $5.5 billion to $6 billion over 17 years to combat the opioid crisis. That’s an increase of more than $1 billion from the previous version that was dismissed by another judge. Most of the money will be used for efforts to combat the crisis, but $750 million will go directly to the victims or their survivors.

The master deal, which still needs multi-court actions to take effect, provides more than $150 million for Native American tribes and more than $100 million for medical monitoring and child payments. I was born after recovering from opioid addiction.

Since the deal was handled with a mediator, the terms went beyond the money. The plan also calls for family members to give up ownership of the company so it can become a new entity with profits dedicated to preventing the outbreak. In return, Sackler family members will be protected from opioid civil lawsuits.

The family also agreed not to oppose any attempt to remove Sackler’s name from the cultural and educational institutions it supported and to make public a larger stock of corporate documents.

The mediator, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman, also recommended a virtual hearing involving at least two members of the Sackler family.

The hearing will last two hours. Drain said members of the Sackler family and others will not be given the opportunity to respond to statements from the group of victims selected by attorneys to speak to creditors in the case. Some victims will speak to Sacklers from a New York law office; others will stay in their homes in communities across the United States

It has not yet been announced which Sacklers will attend the hearing or which victims will testify.

The hearing could be the closest to a trial of members of the Sackler family, who victims allege helped spark and prolong the epidemic through the marketing of their signature painkiller. OxyContin family. It’s a crisis that has grown worse in recent years, largely due to deaths from illicit forms of the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl.

This is not the first time family members have appeared at public venues dedicated to Purdue’s role in the opioid crisis. The two testified before a congressional subcommittee in 2020 and several as part of a virtual Purdue bankruptcy hearing last year.

Sackler family members have expressed regret over the crisis, but they have never issued a definitive apology. Last week, they released a statement that read: “While the families have acted legally in every way, they sincerely regret that OxyContin, a prescription drug, continues to help people with disabilities. Chronic pain has suddenly become part of an opioid crisis that has brought pain and loss to so many families and communities. “

Purdue Pharma began selling OxyContin, a pioneering extended-release prescription pain reliever, in 1996. At the same time, Purdue and other drug companies are funding efforts to get doctors and prescribers Other prescriptions think differently about opioids – suggesting they are used for a number of pain conditions. where potent drugs were previously considered off-limits.

Over the decades, there have been waves of fatal overdoses – first involving prescription drugs and then, as prescriptions became harder to obtain and some drugs became difficult to obtain. get high fast, from heroin. Recently, fentanyl and similar drugs have become the biggest killers.

Purdue has pleaded guilty twice, but no member of the Sackler family has been charged. There is no indication of any such allegations, although last month seven US senators asked the Justice Department to review the allegations.

Other drug manufacturers, distributors, marketers, and pharmacies involved with the opium industry have faced similar lawsuits from state and local governments, American tribes, and the United States. local and other organisations.

Last month, drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and wholesalers AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson announced they were finalizing payments totaling $26 billion. As in the proposed Purdue settlement, much of that money is required to be used to combat the crisis.

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