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Two members of the billionaire Sackler family that owns Purdue Pharma, the US pharmaceutical manufacturer of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, refused to apologize for their role in the opioids crisis that has killed almost half a million Americans, during a hearing in Washington on Thursday.
Kathe Sackler and David Sackler, former board members of Purdue, both said sorry for the pain endured by individuals suffering from addiction and those who lost loved ones to overdoses, but they avoided admitting any personal culpability. It was the first time members of the family faced such public scrutiny in person for its alleged role in the opioid epidemic.
The Democrat Jim Cooper of Tennessee, a member of the House of Representatives oversight committee questioning the two at the online hearing, said that watching the pair testify made his “blood boil”.
“I’m not sure I know of any family in America that is more evil than yours,” Cooper said.
Purdue Pharma last month pleaded guilty in federal court to three criminal charges related to conspiring to mislead regulators and paying illegal kickbacks to doctors and others aimed at pushing higher sales of the addictive narcotic. The drug’s active ingredient oxycodone derives from opium poppies.
The company also pleaded guilty and was fined in a 2007 criminal case, admitting misbranding the drug as safe when it was not, but escaped heavy consequences.
No individual Sacklers have been charged with crimes but six family members, including Kathe and David, and their company, have been sued by cities, counties and states across the US, accused of orchestrating and knowingly pushing deceptive practices to boost sales of OxyContin while misleading prescribers and the public about the risks of addiction and death.
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The House committee hearing is part of a congressional investigation into “the role of Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family in the opioid epidemic”.
The Republican congressman James Comer of Kentucky, a state that has suffered high levels of addiction and death from the over-prescription of opioids in the last 25 years, said he found the actions of Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family in promoting OxyContin “sickening’”.
“The company knew it was addictive, that it was creating all kinds of havoc in America and yet you continued marketing this product,” he said.
In his opening remarks, David Sackler, who is in his late 30s and sat on the board of Purdue from 2012 to 2018, said he wanted to express his family’s “deep sadness” about the opioid crisis.
“OxyContin is a medicine that was intended to help people… far too many lives have been destroyed by addiction and abuse of opioids, including OxyContin,” Sackler conceded.
But after joining the board of Purdue, where family members held the majority of the seats, Sackler said he “relied on Purdue’s management to keep on top of the medical science and ensure the company was complying with all laws and regulations”.
He concluded: “We are truly sorry to everyone who has lost a family member or suffered from the scourge of addiction.”
The company knew it was addictive, that it was creating all kinds of havoc in America and yet you continued marketing this product
Congressman James Comer
Kathe Sackler, who is in her early 70s, opened by saying her “heart breaks for parents who have lost their children” to overdoses, adding: “I’m so terribly sorry for your pain and loss.”
Kathe Sackler, a former vice-president of Purdue Pharma who sat on the board of directors from 1990 to 2018, said she “acted honestly and in good faith”.
She said: “It distresses me greatly and angers me greatly that the medication that was developed to help people and relieve severe pain has become associated with so much human suffering.”
The committee chair and New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney asked Kathe Sackler directly: “Will you apologize to the American people for the role you played in the opioid crisis?”
Sackler said she “would be happy to apologize to the American people for all the pain, suffering and tragedies” while adding that she was angry “that some people at Purdue broke the law”.
Maloney pressed Sackler again, saying she had never apologized for her role in the crisis. Sackler responded that when she looked back at her time at Purdue “there is nothing I could have done differently”.
Maloney asked David Sackler the same question.
He said: “To the American people I am deeply and profoundly sorry that OxyContin has played a role in any addiction and death… I believe I conducted myself legally and ethically.”
The congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Democrat of Massachusetts, called the Sacklers “criminals”.
The committee member Peter Welch, Democrat of Vermont, said that the leading members of the Sackler family that own Purdue collectively earned a fortune of around $12bn from sales of OxyContin and asked Kathe Sackler if there was “any reason why every single dollar” should not be returned to the US government “for distribution to the victims of Purdue Pharma” – comparing the haul to the $12bn he said the government was seeking in assets from the captured Mexican drug kingpin known as El Chapo, who has been sentenced to life in prison.
Sackler did not give a clear answer.
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Welch noted that “no one from the Sackler family is in jail and many of us think that is not right”.
Purdue Pharma is in bankruptcy proceedings and settlement negotiations, which Comer characterized as a ploy for the company and its owners to avoid justice.
Parents who lost children to addiction and overdoses after they had been prescribed OxyContin testified to their suffering, as did art photographer and activist Nan Goldin, who said the drug almost destroyed her career and led a campaign to shame institutions named for the Sacklers’ philanthropy generated from sales of OxyContin to reject the family name and money.
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