By Lenny Bernstein and Lenny Bernstein Reporter covering health and medicine Email Bio Follow Katie Zezima Katie Zezima National reporter covering vice Email Bio Follow March 26 at 10:01 AM Purdue Pharma and the state of Oklahoma have agreed to settle a lawsuit over the drugmaker’s role in the deadly opioid crisis, a milestone in the legal effort to force pharmaceutical companies to pay some of the costs of the epidemic, people familiar with the matter said.
Lawyers in the case and a spokesman for Purdue declined to comment ahead of the planned announcement Tuesday.Oklahoma contends that Purdue, Johnson & Johnson and Teva bear some responsibility for thousands of opioid deaths across the state, in addition to the health care, law enforcement and treatment costs of the state’s addiction crisis.
Purdue’s recent acknowledgment that it is considering bankruptcy as an option could influence strategy in those lawsuits; Oklahoma’s settlement ensures it will receive at least some compensation for its claims.Under the terms of the settlement, Purdue will contribute $102.5 million to establish the new addiction center, and members of the Sackler family, who own the company, will pay another $75 million in personal funds over five years, people familiar with the agreement said.
Authorities have argued that Purdue used deceptive marketing tactics and a sizable workforce of representatives to repeatedly visit physicians to sell them narcotics, assuring them that the drugs were rarely addictive. Many patients became addicted to the potent painkillers, and large amounts of the drug were diverted to the black market.
Three years ago, the CDC estimated the cost of the opioid epidemic at $78.5 billion for calendar year 2013. In 2017, the White House Council of Economic Advisers placed the price tag much higher, at $504 billion for 2015.
What about psychiatric drugs? They give these drugs to make people conform to our unequal, exploitative, capitalist environment and are destroying peoples lives.
You want to stop opioid addiction. Stop taking them.dumbassdrug
People have carried the brunt of all this damage and the money is going to “research?” What the hell you researching? How not to take a addicting pill? It’s bullshit and Oklahoma will squander the money and nobody will see a dime of it. The damage is done. Next up adderall!
Wow. $200 million for what Purdue has done is a slap on the wrist. Disgusting.
So definitely still worth doing all they did. Another win for rich corps.
as I said to NY Times post on this: the Sackler family is worth $14 BILLION ... (1 billion = 1000 million) ... $275 million is pocket change to these monsters (the cost of doing business) they should be in prison for murder
So West Virginia should revive 184,000,000,000,000 ?
Can’t trust any info WaPo provides! I’ll consult other more reliable info sources for the truth!
Only 200 million that is it!
Cost of doing business.
I had a kidney stone a year or so ago and was prescribed this stuff. It's beyond my comprehension how anyone could get addicted to it. It made me feel so awful that I chose to take Tylenol and otherwise just deal with the pain rather than take even one more dose.
What a joke it not the makers fault it’s a feel good move by pandering politically motivated wimps
That’s all?
So Why does research get all the $$ while the front lines treatment & homeless programs have beared all the burden and costs of this human debacle often without pay or adequate reimbursement? Smh
Start writing up crimes against Humanity
Also they have to apologize and really mean it and then sit in time out for 10 minutes.
THE FINES ONLY MAKES A SMALL DENT IN P R O F I T S.
Khashoggi
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