The court’s quick scheduling of the case may indicate its awareness of the opioid problem. However, legal experts believe that the court’s ruling will not extensively address the public health crisis. Instead, they predict that the court will focus narrowly on the liability shield, which is a controversial bankruptcy tactic that is gaining popularity.
Adam Zimmerman, a mass tort law professor at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law, stated, “I’m sure, though, that even if the opioid crisis doesn’t show up anywhere in the opinion, the court has to be bearing in mind that cities, states, and individuals have been desperately waiting for these funds. They need to know the answer to this question so they can figure out what to do next.”
While many pharmaceutical companies have faced lawsuits for their involvement in the opioid epidemic, the Sacklers and Purdue are particularly significant in the complex, decades-old crisis. OxyContin, their flagship drug, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1995 and revolutionized the market for prescription painkillers. The medical community, recognizing pain as a “fifth vital sign,” saw long-acting OxyContin as a remarkable medication.
Purdue gained notoriety for its extravagant sales conferences, where company-trained pain medicine physicians falsely claimed that the risk of addiction to OxyContin was extremely low. By 2007, Purdue and three top executives had paid fines of $634.5 million and pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges for misleading regulators, doctors, and patients regarding the drug’s potential for abuse.
Despite the hefty fines, Purdue continued to aggressively market OxyContin. Over time, attention shifted to the Sackler family, some of whom served on Purdue’s board and made significant charitable donations to medical schools and museums. In return, these institutions named buildings after the Sacklers. However, as the family’s controversial story gained media attention through books, TV series, and documentaries, many institutions removed the Sackler name from their properties and distanced themselves from Purdue’s owners.