On June 27, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked Purdue Pharma’s $6 billion bankruptcy settlement that would have granted the Sackler family—who extracted over $10 billion from Purdue while the company fueled the opioid epidemic—broad immunity from all current and future civil lawsuits. The …
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On May 30, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon’s December 2021 ruling, holding that bankruptcy courts do have authority to approve non-consensual third-party releases. The divided 2-1 decision reinstated the Purdue Pharma …
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On December 16, 2021, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen McMahon overturned the controversial bankruptcy settlement that would have granted the Sackler family immunity from opioid-related lawsuits in exchange for $4.5 billion. Judge McMahon ruled that bankruptcy courts do not have the authority to …
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On September 1, 2021, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Drain approved a bankruptcy settlement granting the Sackler family “global peace” from civil liability for the opioid epidemic, despite vigorous opposition from the Department of Justice and nine state attorneys general. The ruling …
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On October 21, 2020, the Department of Justice announced a settlement totaling more than $8 billion with Purdue Pharma—touted as the largest penalties ever levied against a pharmaceutical manufacturer—yet the settlement allowed the Sackler family to keep the vast majority of billions extracted from …
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On September 15, 2019, Purdue Pharma filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after facing thousands of lawsuits from states, local governments, Native American tribes, and victims related to the opioid crisis. The bankruptcy filing was a strategic maneuver designed to shield the billionaire …
On April 5, 2010, the FDA approved Purdue Pharma’s reformulated OxyContin designed to make it more difficult to crush, snort, or inject—14 years after the original drug’s launch and three years after the company’s guilty plea to criminal misbranding. Purdue ceased shipping the old …
Between 2005 and 2024, the United States operated a two-tiered bankruptcy system that weaponized debt against students and working Americans while preserving bankruptcy as a strategic wealth-preservation tool for corporations and the wealthy—a defining example of 21st century American kleptocracy. …
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Purdue Pharma’s lucrative bonus system paid sales representatives an average of $71,500 in annual bonuses—more than their $55,000 base salary—with bonuses ranging from $15,000 to nearly $240,000. In 2001 alone, Purdue paid $40 million in sales incentive bonuses, systematically incentivizing …
The FDA approved Purdue Pharma’s OxyContin application, including a scientifically unsubstantiated claim that delayed absorption ‘is believed to reduce the abuse liability of a drug.’ This approval occurred without clinical trials to prove the safety claim and marked the beginning …
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