Opioid Settlement Loans

How Did We Get Here?

A lot has been written about Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family, Oxycontin, and the progression of the opioid epidemic over the last two decades.

Not least among them is an insightful 3-part series by Drugwatch about Big Pharma’s ‘prescription addiction’. Also noteworthy is this guide to opioid litigation.

The crisis is by no means in the rear-view mirror yet, and yet it has become clear how it started, the conditions that facilitated it, and how and why it was allowed to go on for so long.

Like all record-breaking pharmaceutical catastrophes in the last 75+ years, the opioid epidemic was the entirely predictable result of unbridled greed.

It was conceived in the minds of criminals who had no compunction whatsoever about trading the lives and misery of, literally, tens of millions of people in exchange for tens of billions of dollars in profits.

It was allowed to persist because of manipulation and gross failures within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

It was fueled by a “trough mentality”; unconscionable levels of greed and apathy that started with Purdue Pharma, Oxycontin’s manufacturer, and was turbocharged by McKinsey & Company, the world’s most prestigious management-consulting firm.

Huge pharmaceutical companies like Johnson & Johnson, distributors, and big pharmacy chains like Walgreens, CVS, Walmart and Rite-Aid fed the epidemic by willfully ignoring obvious warning signs.

Where Is It All Heading?

After creating enough death and destruction, big pharmaceuticals always get caught.

When they do, they go through the motions of making amends, throw as little money at the problem as possible, and discuss takeaways for how to prevent the next disaster.

Cost estimates for remediating the opioid epidemic are currently around $483 billion.

Indiana filed suit and so did other states. McKinsey, the consulting firm that guided Purdue’s marketing efforts, bought themselves a $600 million lifeboat when they settled with 47 state’s Attorney’s General.

The Sackler’s despised the idea of thousands of individual settlements and tried to block allegations from becoming public, and pushed for a global settlement.

Thousands of lawsuits were consolidated into a multidistrict litigation (MDL) and Judge Dan Aaron Polster of the Northern District of Ohio was tapped to oversee the mammoth litigation and things started heading for trial.

In an apparent first, drug company executives actually went on trial and settlement discussions began.

The Sackler family withdrew over $12 billion from Purdue over 13 years. When the hammer fell, the Sacklers transferred $1.36 billion offshore to Swiss bank accounts.

Then they ran for the exits by declaring bankruptcy, even as billions of dollars languished in offshore banks. The move effectively shielded the Sackler’s personal wealth from the Purdue bankruptcy filing.

The Sackler’s negotiated a sweetheart deal that infuriated virtually everyone because they escaped personal and criminal responsibility.

Recently, however, a judge overturned the settlement because it protected the family.