Judge Postpones Purdue Pharma Sentencing to Allow Opioid Victims' In-Person Attendance

Purdue Pharma Sentencing Delayed to Allow Victims to Attend in Person

A judge has delayed the criminal sentencing of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma to allow victims to attend the court proceeding in person. U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo was originally planning to hand down the sentence on Tuesday during a court proceeding conducted only by videoconferencing. However, she changed her mind after seeing some victims of the opioid crisis protesting outside her courthouse in Newark, New Jersey.

The delay is expected to give victims a chance to voice their concerns and make their presence known in the courtroom. When the sentencing does take place, Judge Arleo is expected to order the company to forfeit $225 million to the Justice Department, clearing the way for the company to finalize a settlement of nearly all of the thousands of lawsuits it faces over its role in the opioid crisis.

The penalty was agreed to in a 2020 pact to resolve federal civil and criminal probes that Purdue Pharma was facing. As part of the settlement, the company will pay up to $7 billion to state, local, and Native American tribal governments, some individual victims, and others.

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Purdue Pharma's Plea Deal

Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to three federal criminal charges in November 2020. The Stamford, Connecticut-based company admitted that 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.

The company also admitted that 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.

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Settlement Details

The broader 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. The settlement is considered one of the largest in a series of settlements by drugmakers, wholesalers, and pharmacies in recent years.

Under the Purdue deal, members of the Sackler family would be shielded from lawsuits over opioids from those who agree to the payments. Purdue itself would cease to exist and be replaced by a new company, Knoa Pharma, which would operate for the public benefit and have a board appointed by the states.

Criticism of the Settlement

Some victims and their family members have been pushing back for years, asserting that the settlement and the guilty plea stop short of justice for victims of a crisis that has been linked to 900,000 deaths in the U.S. since 1999. Susan Ousterman, whose son died from an opioid overdose, organized others who lost loved ones to deliver victim impact statements to the court ahead of the sentencing.

She said the aim was to persuade the judge to reject the plea deal and for the U.S. Justice Department to pursue criminal charges against individuals, including Sackler family members. Ousterman noted that some governments have not yet used the funds they're received and others have used it in ways not closely linked to fighting the drug crisis.