Purdue Pharma L.P.

Purdue Pharma L.P. was a privately held pharmaceutical company controlled by members of the Sackler family. In 1996 it launched OxyContin, an extended-release formulation of the opioid oxycodone, marketing it to physicians as carrying a lower risk of addiction than other narcotic painkillers — a claim that later proved central to the company’s legal exposure as opioid prescribing, misuse, and overdose deaths rose sharply across the United States in the following two decades.

Role in Documented Cases

Purdue Pharma and its OxyContin marketing are the subject of this archive’s file on the Purdue Pharma / Opioid Crisis. In 2007, the company’s affiliate, the Purdue Frederick Company, along with three senior executives, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of misbranding OxyContin by falsely representing it as less prone to abuse and addiction than competing opioids, resulting in more than $600 million in fines and payments. Despite the plea, OxyContin sales and prescriptions continued to grow in subsequent years, and Purdue’s marketing practices — including incentive structures for sales representatives calling on high-prescribing physicians — remained the focus of thousands of later lawsuits brought by states, local governments, tribes, and individuals amid the broader U.S. opioid overdose crisis.

Accountability

Facing an estimated 2,600 or more lawsuits, Purdue Pharma filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019. As part of proposed settlement negotiations, members of the Sackler family agreed to contribute billions of dollars toward opioid-abatement programs while explicitly not admitting personal criminal wrongdoing. In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P. that the bankruptcy plan’s provision shielding the Sacklers from civil lawsuits by non-consenting claimants exceeded the authority of the bankruptcy code, sending the settlement back for renegotiation. As of this writing, no member of the Sackler family has faced personal criminal charges in connection with OxyContin’s marketing.

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