7 Things RIers Need to Know About Purdue Pharma Filing for Bankruptcy

RI Not Signing On

Last week, RI Attorney General Peter Neronha announced that he would not sign on to the draft multi-state settlement agreement with Purdue Pharma.

"Far too many lives have been lost or devastated in Rhode Island as a result of the opioid crisis. We have not agreed to the proposed settlement framework with Purdue Pharma. Before we could responsibly reach any agreement, we would need much more information about the financial holdings of Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers to be confident that this resolution adequately compensates Rhode Island and, equally as important, holds the company and its owners accountable for the enormous destruction they have caused.

We are committed to continuing to aggressively pursue our claims against Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers. Today we filed a complaint against additional members of the Sackler family for the role that they played in the distribution of these highly addictive opioids in Rhode Island."

RI Is Home to Major Oxycodone Plant

As GoLocal wrote in September of 2018, Rhode Island is one of a number of states suing Purdue Pharma, the inventor of Oxycontin, for what Attorney Generals are alleging in the lawsuit was intentionally running false marketing campaigns and helping to push the misuse of the killer drug.

And, little known to most, Rhode Island is home to one of the world's largest oxycodone manufacturing plants -- and the company's marketing functions.

Bloomberg has reported the ownership relationship between Purdue Pharma and RI-based Rhodes Technologies and its related marketing company. Rhodes is a subsidiary to Purdue, the company owned by the infamous Sackler family -- the billionaire family whose patriarch invented oxycontin and is now facing criticism and legal actions across the country for pushing the drug -- often described as "heroin in a pill."

Sacklers Claim They Are Being Treated Unfairly

For decades, the Sackler cultivated an image as global philanthropists, donating millions to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Yale, Harvard and Columbia universities and scores of other institutions globally.

“In the New York philanthropic and arts circles in which some Sacklers moved, ‘it’s a topic of some gossip around town that there are ruptures in the family and that they are people struggling to deal with this wave of bad news and throngs of litigation,’ said Euan Rellie, an investment banker who knows some of the Sacklers socially, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Purdue has sold more than $35 billion of OxyContin since the drug's introduction.

Many of the Sacklers complain about their treatment.

David Sackler spoke to Vanity Fair.

“He runs a family investment office and served on Purdue’s board of directors from 2012 to August 2018, thinks it is time for at least one Sackler to share his version of events with the public. ‘I’m poking my head over the parapet,’” reports Vanity Fair.

“When I ask him why he wants to talk, he cites what he calls the ‘vitriolic hyperbole’ and ‘endless castigation’ of his family. “I have three young kids,” he says. ‘My four-year-old came home from nursery school and asked, ‘Why are my friends telling me that our family’s work is killing people?’”

PHOTO: Jonathan Sackler, Sacred Heart University

Hundreds of Deaths, But Slight Decline

"In 2017, there were 277 overdose deaths involving opioids in Rhode Island—an age-adjusted rate of 26.9 deaths per 100,000 persons, compared to the average national rate of 14.6 deaths per 100,000 persons. The greatest increase was seen in cases related to synthetic opioids other than methadone (mainly fentanyl). Deaths involving fentanyl rose from 12 deaths in 2012 to 201 deaths in 2017.

Heroin or prescription opioid-involved overdose deaths declined in the same period from 30 to 14 deaths and from 214 to 569 deaths, respectively. The highest number of deaths in 2017 involved prescription opioids with 646 deaths," reported the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"Only Option" -- Implications to Rhode Island

The Financial Times reports that Steve Miller, the turnaround specialist who is now the chairman of Purdue Pharma’s board, said the bankruptcy and settlement offer was “the best and only way to resolve the unmanageable litigation rapidly depleting the company’s assets and which threatens to ultimately destroy the entire value of Purdue.” 

“Whatever else people might wish for is not on the table to be decided. Now, there is a stark choice,” Miller said. “We are hopeful of gaining the support of the rest of the states. The alternatives are to allow all the resources available to be devoted to communities in need or spend it all on litigation.” 

The implications are that states not signed on to the agreement may have a longer timeframe due to more protracted litigation.

Follow the Money to Sacklers

The Sackler family is ranked by Forbes as one of the most wealthy families in the United States. 

As part of some of the lawsuits against Purdue Pharma, some states have named a number of the Sacklers personally.

In RI's suit, only one Sacker is named personally.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

A Friday filing by the New York attorney general’s office alleged that it had uncovered about $1 billion in wire transfers by the Sacklers and corporate entities, including through Swiss bank accounts.

With the company’s coffers depleting, negotiations with plaintiffs’ lawyers in recent months have focused on how much money the Sacklers would contribute to settlements from their personal fortune. Estimates of their wealth have varied, but court filings show that more than $4 billion was paid out from Purdue to members of the Sackler family between 2008 and 2016.

Decrease in Prescriptions of Opioid Pain Reliever Prescriptions

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, "In 2017, Rhode Island providers wrote 51.2 opioid prescriptions for every 100 persons, compared to the average U.S. rate of 58.7 prescriptions. This is the lowest rate in the state since 2006 when data became available (CDC). The age-adjusted rate of deaths involving opioid prescriptions increased overall in the last decade. In the past year, however, there was a slight decrease from 10.5 to 8.8 deaths per 100,000 persons."