Family made billions on opioid as crisis raged, filing says
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Family and friends who have lost loved ones to OxyContin and opioid overdoses protested outside Purdue Pharma headquarters, in Aug. 2018, in Stamford, Conn. The attorney general’s office in Massachusetts is suing Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma, along with some company executives and members of the family that owns it in an effort to hold them accountable for the toll of the drug crisis in the state.
BOSTON >> Newly public court documents show the family behind OxyContin raked in billions as they pushed to keep patients on the powerful painkiller longer, even as evidence grew that the drug was helping fuel a national opioid crisis.
Details made public this week in a lawsuit filed by the state of Massachusetts against Purdue Pharma and the family that owns the company claim the Sackler family brought in more than $4 billion in a little more than a decade.
The state says the company used discounts to keep people taking its drugs longer despite their risks.
The allegations were made in a lawsuit filed last year. Purdue lost its fight this week to keep some of the allegations secret. The company says the state is taking documents out of context.
