OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma's criminal sentence could be the last step before company dissolves

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OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma could be dissolved and replaced by a company focused on the public good by the end of the week, as a massive legal settlement resolving thousands of lawsuits is set to take effect.

A federal judge on Tuesday is expected to deliver a criminal sentence to the company to resolve a U.S. Department of Justice probe — a last necessary step to clear the way for the settlement.

But some people who have been addicted to opioids or lost loved ones to the drugs are expected to try to persuade the judge to reject the negotiated sentence, arguing it doesn't provide them with real justice.

Here's a look at the situation.

Purdue reached a deal with the Justice Department in 2020 to resolve criminal and civil probes the company was facing.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based company admitted it did not have an effective program to keep its powerful prescription painkillers from being diverted to the black market, even though it told the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that it did.

It also admitted it paid doctors through a speakers program to prescribe the drugs and paid an electronic medical records company to send doctors information on patients that encouraged more opioid prescriptions.

Only the company was charged — not individuals.

The guilty plea and civil settlement with the federal government included $8.3 billion in forfeitures, fines and penalties. But the federal government agreed in a negotiated settlement to collect just $225 million in exchange for the company reaching a separate settlement of the thousands of lawsuits it faced from state, local and Native American tribal governments, along with other groups.

After years of legal twists and turns — and $1 billion and counting in legal and professional fees for the parties — the broader sentence was approved by a bankruptcy judge in November.

It can't take effect until the criminal sentence is given. U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo is scheduled to consider it Tuesday in a Newark, New Jersey, courtroom.

Arleo had previously scheduled the sentencing to be by video conference only last week.

Some victims of the opioid crisis, which has been linked to more than 900,000 deaths in the U.S. since 1999, were scheduled to give impact statements.

The judge delayed the hearing after a group of a few dozen people — some of whom have been addicted to opioids and others who lost loved ones — protested outside the courthouse. She said she wanted to give them a voice and that she would delay the sentencing by a week — and give people the option of attending in person.

More than 54,000 people with personal injury claims voted to accept the lawsuits settlement; around 200 said no.

The opponents have been vocal and persistent.

Michele Wagner, whose son died of an overdose, said outside the courthouse last week that she wanted to see members of the Sackler family who own Purdue criminally charged. “Justice to me looks like more than just money,” she said.

Kara Trainor, who is in recovery from an addiction that began with an OxyContin prescription in 2002 and served on a committee involved in the settlement talks, wants the sentence approved because she believes that it can lead to closure.

“For me to be the best version of myself in my own recovery, I had to start healing and gravitate away from the anger I felt,” she said. “The anger itself was poisonous to me. It was destroying my mental health.”

Purdue says that if the judge issues the criminal sentence Tuesday, the settlement could take effect as soon as Friday.

The settlement calls for members of the Sackler family who own the company to contribute up to $7 billion over 15 years. Most of the money is to go to government entities to use to fight the opioid crisis.

It’s among the largest in a series of settlements by drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies in recent years — and the only major one that includes payments for some individual victims or their survivors.

Payments to individual victims are expected to range from about $8,000 to about $16,000.

Overall, the settlements are worth more than $50 billion, and most of the money is to be used to address the overdose epidemic.

Under the Purdue deal, members of the Sackler family would be shielded from lawsuits over opioids from those who agree to the payments. Family members received payments from the company totaling about $10.7 billion from 2008 through 2018, but said nearly half that amount was used to pay taxes on behalf of the business.

As part of the settlement, Purdue itself would cease to exist and be replaced by a new company, Knoa Pharma, with a board appointed by the states and an aim of combating the opioid crisis. Millions of internal Purdue documents are to be made public.

Members of the Sackler family also have agreed not to object if their names are taken off museums and other institutions they've supported.

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Associated Press video journalist Emily Wang contributed to this article.