NEW YORK (JTA) – The Sackler family, the Jewish billionaires whose marketing of the painkiller drug OxyContin fueled the United States’ ongoing opioid epidemic, will receive full immunity from all civil legal claims in exchange for spending up to $6 billion on addiction treatment and prevention programs.
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The decision to grant immunity by a federal appeals court panel Tuesday effectively ends the thousands of civil lawsuits that have been filed against Purdue Pharma, the Sacklers’ company, over opioid deaths.
But it clears the way for the company to declare bankruptcy, a move considered essential to a plan to pay out billions of dollars to help states and communities address the opioid crisis. Of the up to $6 billion allocated under the deal, about $750 million will go to people who became addicted to OxyContin and to family members of people who died from overdoses.
The ruling reverses a lower court’s 2021 ruling that bankruptcy proceedings were an improper tool for shielding wealthy private citizens from legal repercussions. It does not grant members of the Sackler family immunity against possible future criminal charges.
Purdue founders Arthur, Mortimer and Raymond Sackler were the sons of Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn who attended medical school in Scotland because American schools wouldn’t admit Jews at the time. Mortimer and Raymond introduced OxyContin in 1996, after Arthur had left the company; the family then made billions by aggressively marketing the drug for more than two decades, even amid signs it was driving users into opiate addiction.
The three brothers have all died, but other members of the family have retained control of Purdue Pharma and their wealth, estimated at about $11 billion two years ago.
The Sackler name had been a regular presence in philanthropic circles until the opioid lawsuits began building up in 2019, at which point many cultural institutions began refusing the family’s donations and removing their name from buildings. The Jewish artist and activist Nan Goldin spearheaded a grassroots movement opposing the family for years.
One notable beneficiary of the Sacklers, Tel Aviv University, has resisted pressure to drop the Sackler name from its medical school — though the American-facing wing of its medical school quietly removed the Sackler name from its marketing materials last year.
Thank you for mentioning the religion of the family in the headline as it is a very important detail to this story (not).
I am sure that anyone who benefitted from the strong pain control oxycodone offers, feels terrible that the Sacklers are being destroyed by ppl who abused their drug . The Sacklers did a service for society. Only patients who were in need of strong pain relief should ever have taken oxycodone. We live in a meshugene velt where good people are turned into rogues because bad ppl have no self control!
They should not have been granted immunity. The way that Oxy was marketed included false advertising about how much a patient needed to take. Because it did not provide enough relief, people were driven to addiction and died. All this to avoid losing their patent. Shame on Purdue and anyone involved in making or carrying out their deadly decisions. They knew this would happen, they knew it was happening, and they didn’t stop.
This is one evil family
most of those against the Sacklers know nothing about the addiction crisis. 99% of addictions in the last 10 years are caused by non prescription Fentanyl which originates in China and is brought in from Mexico.
When there is blame it should go to those involved with this Fentanyl and the addicts themselves!
They didn’t pay off the fda enough to not be liable? I don’t know if they are innocent or not, but the vaccine manufacturers are continually murdering many.more people are they are not only getting off scot free, their products are being mandated.
I cannot imagine why they are being granted immunity. Better they should be tried. If justice requires it, they could be pardoned if convicted. Apparently if you are rich enough you can avoid the court.